Channels of lake Kamennoe: on the issue of peasant hydraulic structures in Karelia

There are a large number of unexplored structures in Karelia related to peasant economic activities. These are mills, storage facilities, barns, hunting traps, paddocks, and roads located outside the boundaries of historical villages. In the paper, we will consider the objects of the Karelian rural water transport infrastructure group - channels. In the absence of good roads in the White Sea Karelia, waterways were the only convenient way to travel between villages throughout the year.The first field study of the channels was carried out by an archaeological expedition of the National Museum of the Republic of Karelia in 2015 on Lake Kamennoe (Kiitehenjarvi) in the Kostomuksha Nature Reserve. Two channels were examined near the village of Shappovaara on the western shore of the lake and the village of Luzhmaguba near the beginning of the Kamennaya River. The first channel (90 m long) was photographed by Finnish photographer K.I. Inha in 1894. There were two wooden crosses and two karsikkos near it and boats passed through it, the second channel (306 m) was probably used for transporting logs during the rafting period. The estimated dating of both structures is the second half of the XIX century. The closest analogies are located on the territory of Finland.