It was perhaps his Ostrobothnian upbringing that encouraged his interest in archaeology, as many ancient artifacts were being found by clergymen at the time.

Within the book, he supported Matthias Castrén's idea that Finns came from the Altai Mountains and the steppes of the Yenisey, and migrated west towards the Urals during the Bronze Age.

[2] Following this dissertation and a period of editing a five-part atlas of Finnish-related settlements, he became a professor of Nordic archaeology at the University of Helsinki in 1878.

He was a professor for seven and a half years and established an archaeology program at the university, with notable students including Axel Heikel and Hjalmar Appelgren-Kivalo.

During a leave of absence from the commission, he travelled to the Yenisey region and discovered rock carvings, which Aspelin thought belonged to Finns during the Bronze Age.