Jan Fast Archaeology

Monday, 25 June 2018

"Durchgangslager Hanko". The 2018 excavation. Day 1/15.

Finally. The first day of the 2018 excavation season of "Durchgangslager Hanko". We opened up two very different excavation areas. One near the "DRK Unterkunfte" and the other one close to the "Ukrainerlager" area of the camp.

Excavating the "DRK Unterkunfte" area.

The DRK dump sadly proved quite poor in WW2 finds but we will take a closer look at that area tomorrow and dig a bit deeper. The Ukrainerlager dump was rich in finds of many sorts!

Excavating the large dump of the "Ukrainerlager".

A harmonica!

A pipe by Fritz Büttner (Danzig)

Tomorrow we will open up a small excavation area in the "Finnenzelte" area of the "Ukrainerlager".

A German (?) ankle boot.

Thursday, 21 June 2018

The "Durchgangslager Hangö" 2018 excavation season starts on Monday!

I have been waiting a year for this excavation and now it´s finally just a few days away. The conflict archaeology dig in Hanko will be supervised by me and a very talented crew of archaeology students from the University of Helsinki and Umeå Universitet, each of them with a burning interest for WW2 conflict archaeology. Anu, Teemu, Fanny and Toni will present themselves and contribute to the blog in their own words during the dig.

German DRK propaganda card.

On week one (25.6-29.6) we will focus on excavations in the "Deutsches Rotes Kreutz" Schwestern area. Hopefully we can find traces of the daily life in the camp of these 31 female DRK members!

German patriotic matchbox cover.

Week two (2.7-6.7) will center on the area were German soldiers left the trains after the long journey from the Nordfront. Probably lot´s of personal items here (like the matchbox cover above).

Items found during previous excavations in the "Ukrainerlager" area in the exhibition @ Hanko Museum

On week three (9.7-13.7) we we will excavate the surroundings of the Ukrainian prisoner of war or "Hilfsfreiwillige" camp where we have located several interesting German dumps from 1942-1944!

Sunday, 17 June 2018

Vävarsbacka II, pictures from excavation day six

This was probably my best excavation during my 30-year + career as an archaeologist here in Finland.

Hope to see all of you guys again in 2019 when we will open up a new excavaion area near the center of this amazing neolithic dwelling site! Love Jan.

Grasping the Neolithic Stone Age. Photo Marie Pascal.

Vävarsbacka II, archaeology for all ages.

Digging the last minutes of 2018!

Saturday, 16 June 2018

Wow what a stone artefact!!

Today was the fourth day of excavating the Vävarsbacka site. One of the diggers presented me with a beautiful ornate stone artefact he had found in 1994 in Klaukkala. At the moment it seems probable that it dates back to the stone age!

Ornate stone artefact from Klaukkala. Found in 1994 and delivered to the excavation site today!

The excavation area surprised us with several very large comb ceramic potsherds, a flint artefact and hundreds of other finds.

Large comb ceramir rimsherd.

Small flint artefact.

Friday, 15 June 2018

Soon! WW2 Conflict Archaeology in Hanko, S. Finland 25.6.-13.7.2018

The dig starts Monday 25.6.2018. Please join us here for daily updates!! You are of course also invited to join us and excavate this remarkable site with your own hands.

https://hangosommaruni.fi/studieprogram/22-ovriga-kurser/arkeologi/66-konfliktarkeologi

Excavate a German WW2 military transit camp in Hanko S. Finland!

Finally back @ Vävarsbacka

Today we started the second leg of the Vävarsbacka II dig. New fresh team of volunteers, new excavation area, same old archaeologists ;)

Digging layer one of excavation area two.

As anticipated the first excavation layer proved very rich in finds. Todays treasures included pottery of a variety of different styles (and ages) fragments of stone artefacts, whetstones and burnt seal bones.

Early typical comb ceramic pottery 3900-3600 BC

Late typical comb ceramic pottery 3600-3400 BC

Late comb ceramic pottery 3600-3200 BC

Fragment of a stone axe

Smoke quartz artefact.

The new excavation team worked like a dream despite the heat, mosquitos, agressive horseflies and the dust. Below some portrait photos of the diggers :)

Thursday, 14 June 2018

Vävarsbacka II dig, part two, 15-17.6.2018

Tomorrow we will continue the exciting dig at the Vävarsbacka II site in Porvoo! Many more interesting finds coming up for sure. Follow our work here or join the virtual dig on Facebook!

The excavation site. Drone photo by Max Hartwall.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/181135582548602/

Wednesday, 13 June 2018

Report from the Vävarsbacka II dig tonight on YLE Fem!

Todays TV news on the YLE Fem channel will feature a report from the Vävarsbacka II excavation in Porvoo https://arenan.yle.fi/1-4273607. Please tune in and follow our work! The excavation continues from Friday 15th to Sunday 17th of June.