Wonderful "Kurala" iron age reproductions

I´m staying in my parents house for a couple of nights and while cleaning up the basement I found a couple of very well made iron age reproductions that I wanted to share with you. I suspect that they are part of a group made for Heureka the Finnish Science Centre for the "Iron Age" exhibition. Especially the clay pot is awesome (apparently made by archaeologist Kristiina Korkeakoski -Väisänen). The spearhead (a 60 cm long "ango") is forged by a very talented blacksmith from Turku but I can´t remember his name. Both items are made in Kurala Turku Finland in 1990-1991. Early examples of experimental archaeology in Finland.

SVT4 Sveriges Historia (2011) "Stenåldern 13000 f. Kr - 1800 f.Kr."

Neat Swedish documentary about the "History of Sweden" (2011) the first part is about the stone-age. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMJG5H3wfug

bronze age

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBqYiD03Zlg

and... viking age

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ftu8odgdjc

Great meeting

in the new great facilities of the National Board of Antiquities yesterday.

The archaeologists work in the building to the right (Sturenkatu 4), the Kulttuuritalo concert hall is to the left.

Wonderful new office spaces compared to the old ones at Nervanderinkatu  in a newly renovated house by Finnish architect Alvar Aalto (1958). Lots of nice features  in the form of original lamps and even  furniture in the entrance hall to the archaeologists working spaces! In the concert venue which belongs to the building complex many famous rock  stars have performed over the years, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin only to name a few.

Jimi rocks Kulttuuritalo 22.5.1967.

From Simo I got a lot of very good info on new measuring and documentation methods and different applications for mapping and maps in general. SPARTAN, CARMIN, TATUK GIS, MS IMAGE COMPOSITE ED and many many more. A wonderful day altogether that gave both of us many new ideas on cooperation in the future. I´m going to start learning these new apps immediately to see what they can do :)

Below are some great links to those of you that are interested in old maps, thanks for these links too Simo!

http://koti.kapsi.fi/timomeriluoto/

http://digi.narc.fi/digi/dosearch.ka?sartun=137171.KA

To the National Board of Antiquities tomorrow

... to meet my good friend archaeologist Simo Vanhatalo and learn some new stuff about documentation and making state of the art excavation reports :). Simo has always been very innovative in his approach towards adapting new computer technology to archaeology so I expect to learn a lot.

I also look forward to seeing the new working facilities of the archaeologists at the Kulttuuritalo in Helsinki. I will take my camera so stay tuned for pictures tomorrow. Below is a picture of the entrance and facade of the "old" National Board of Antiquities at Nervanderinkatu 13 (Helsinki) were I spent many years in the 1980´s and 90´s. The picture is kinda gloomy so Happy Halloween  with this one ;).

Last fieldtrip of the 2013 season

Made a last trip to the Långåmossarna excavation site today, mainly mapping (drawing a few extra profiles of the refuse pit we excavated in june) and planning for the 2014 season. A good day (partly cloudy +1 degrees Celsius, a little snow here and there). Thanks a lot for your help Juuso and Göran!

"Calocera viscosa"

Getting  the profiles ready for documentation

The heavy rainfall had caused erosion of the gravel pit and exposed 
a new  feature, a second refuse pit. (or pit hearth).

New finds by Sami Metsämaa/Metsähallitus from the Lemmenjoki national park area in Finnish Lapland

Excellent work once again by Sami ! Sadly the short video is only in Finnish.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85BqPiis4Xs

http://www.luontoon.fi/ajankohtaista/uutiset/Sivut/palasia3000vsaviastiasta.aspx

Interesting application

A couple of years ago all the known sites of archaeological interest in Finland were published on the web by the National Board of Antiquities in Finland.

http://kulttuuriymparisto.nba.fi/netsovellus/rekisteriportaali/mjreki/read/asp/r_default.aspx

Here´s an interesting link to an application of that same register which to my knowledge is made by Finnish amateur archaeologists. I got the address to this website I previously didn´t know about while lecturing about archaeology  in Salo a couple of weeks ago.

http://fba.evvk.com/geo/kultymp.html

Let´s hope that all the information given out serves the purpose of protection of sites and not the opposite as sadly has been the case with the published shipwreck sites in the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Finland... The protection of these fragile sites is now more than ever in the hands of all of us so let´s all act responsibly.

Planning

For the past month I´ve been doing much planning of my archaeological activities for the autumn of 2013 and spring/summer of 2014. There seems to be some interesting projects popping up so stay tuned for regular updates here and on FB on how things are progressing.

JAN  FAST  ARKEOLOGI

ERBJUDER