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!

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.

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

 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 :)

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/

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.

Editing in progress. Photo Carmela Walder Yle https://svenska.yle.fi/profiler/carmela-walder.

Read articles about the excavation here:

https://svenska.yle.fi/artikel/2018/06/12/tank-att-jag-ar-den-forsta-som-ror-i-krukbiten-pa-over-5-000-ar-arkeologiska

https://www.ostnyland.fi/artikel/ivriga-amatorer-graver-fram-stenaldern/

Hot day excavating Vävarsbacka II.

Phew this was a hot day. + 25 degrees C in the shade. Summer is short here in Finland so we didn´t complain :)

Large late comb ceramic rimsherd drying in the sun before beeing picked up from the ground.

Today we  excavated layers three and four. Many, many potsherds again, whetstones and a couple of interesting flint and quartz arrtefacts.

 Typical comb ceramic ware.

Late comb ceramic ware.

I would like to extend my deepest thanks to all the wonderful people who participated in this first leg of the Vävarsbacka excavation!

Excavating Porvoo, Vävarsbacka II, exciting day two!

Fantastic day with very interesting pottery finds  includung corded ware pottery, asbestos ware and Sipilänhaka pottery!

Today we excavated layer two.

The finds of corded ware potsherds was very exiting, The potsherds included finds of both the cord imprint style as well as the fishbone ornament.

Corded ware potsherd with cord imprint.

The other finds included hundreds of potsherds, four stone artefacts a couple of whetstones and burnt seal bones.

Ka III pottery.

 Slate artefact.ll excavation area 

 Ka  II pottery.

Flint artefact.

The total amount of pottery from the top two excavation levels from the small excavation area now amounts to some 5 kg:s in all!

Sonja with her finds.

Excavating Porvoo, Vävarsbacka II, many finds already on day one!

This was the first day of the much anticipated dig of the neolithic dwelling site Vävarsbacka II in Porvoo. Excellent weather (again) and the excavation got off to a really good start!

Lot´s of pottery and this was only day one!

Because of the good weather and the very good excavation team we managed to excavate the uppermost two levels in one day. The cultural layer was intensely greyish brown in colour.

 Excavating layer one.

The hundreds of finds were from many different time periods and included atleast Typical Comb ware (Ka II:1 and Ka II:2, Late comb ware (Ka III:1) and one piece of asbestos tempered ware.

Typical comb ceramic ware.

Fragment of clay idol?

Late comb ceramic ware.

Asbestos tempered ware with repair hole.

???

The exvation continues tomorrow when we will dig into layer II. Lots and lots of finds are expected so stay tuned!

Layer two ready to be excavated tomorrow :)

View the virtual stone-age excavation in Porvoo on FB

The Vävarsbacka dig kicks off tomorrow. Please visit us on on  Facebook for frequent updates, pictures of the finds, drone videos etc!

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

The start of the stone-age excavation in Porvoo is only a couple of days away!

During the past two days we have been preoccupied with the final preparations for the community archaeology excavation in Porvoo (Vävarsbacka II). At the moment everything seems set to go!

My colleague, archaeologist Janne Soisalo (left) inspecting the site with the landowner.

In all some 30 people will be participating in the excavations. The participants will be excavating in two separate groups so the average amount of participants will be around 15 people/day. The main emphasis of the excavation is to excavate the edge of the gravel pit in order to prevent further deterioration of the site by erosion.

The edge of the gravel pit at Vävarsbacka is eroding and revealing more and more stone-age finds.

During our visits to the site it has become obvious that this will be a very exciting excavation indeed. We will probably be confronted with stone age finds immediately at the start of the dig, probably already in the first ten minutes of day one. The adventure is about to begin, follow us here for frequent updates.

Protected cultural heritage sites in Porvoo and surrounding areas.

Exploring WW2 Hanko for the "Hanko 1941" project

We´re about to start a new WW2 conflict archaeology project that centers around the war between Finland and the Soviet Union on the Hanko front 22. June to 2.12.1941.

Finnish troops at the Hanko front in 1941. Photo SA-kuva.

The project started today when we surveyed potential areas of interest and visited the Hanko Front Museum in Lappvik https://www.rintamamuseo.fi/eng/ as well as the Russian war cemetery in Täktom.

 

WW2 Russian War Cemetery in Hanko, Täktom. Photo Teemu Väisänen.

Massive Russian dugouts in Hanko, Lappohja. Photo Teemu Väisänen.

Swedish volunteers "Svenska Frivilligbataljonen" dugout in the frontline. Photo Teemu Väisänen.

The Hanko Front Museum. Photo Lasse Nyman.