Jan Fast Archaeology : February 2014

Tuesday, 25 February 2014

Dog poo day

Today I made my first field trip of the 2014 season. Spring is here in the middle of what should be winter and it feels very good. Drops of snow here and there but damn, if things continue like this here in this otherwise "freezing country", I will be able to start serious fieldwork in just a couple of weeks time. The town center looked gloomy as always...

Karis Köpmansgatan, the Brasserie is in the second building to the left.

Still the day started out very good with a meeting with history teacher J-E Till and what I have to say was an outstanding very cheap lunch at the local Brasserie. Flounder fillets and potato mash with an excellent forest mushroom sauce. We decided on an excavation in mid May at Säterigatan along with an excursion to the prehistoric sites in the region with the students (aged around 17). The excavation will center on the parts of the dwelling site that are in immediate danger of being destroyed by roadworks.

The 4000 BC stone age dwelling site at Säterigatan today.

While taking the pic above I couldn´t help picking up what seemed to be a large comb ceramic potsherd only to find I had picked up a very smelly handful of dog poo :D. Early spring has it´s drawbacks.... Interestingly enough the early season showed off some very visible (recent) disturbances of the site. Later in spring or summer this one could very well have been classified as a possible hut foundation or -depression.

"Hut foundation" type of feature or more probably a recent disturbance at Säterigatan.

Monday, 24 February 2014

Tomorrow Karis-Billnäs Gymnasium

To meet up with my good friend and history teacher J-E Till and discuss practical issues in connection with the upcoming archaeological excavation by the students of his history class.

The rescue excavation will take place in may and it will be conducted either on the stone age dwelling site of Säterigatan (Ka II:1-Ka II:2) or Långåmossarna (Ka I:2).

Excavations in progress on Karis Säterigatan in 2001 (A. Wickholm / S. Wessman)

Why there´s a need for "The Archaeology of the Recent Past"

I think this documentary clearly illustrates the need for archaeology of the recent past. It also shows some interesting approaches as to how fieldwork can be done on town sites. It should also (of course) be clear to everyone that children can´t participate on regular WW2 battlefield archaeology digs because of security issues.

Enjoy :) !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buS8203B1Dg

Tuesday, 11 February 2014

Books from the personal library of Finnish archaeologist Matti Huurre for sale!

During the annual presentation of archaeological excavations in Finland in 2013 at the Finnish National Museum tomorrow (and the day after) many archaeology related books from the personal library of renowned Finnish archaeologist and writer Matti Huurre will be sold to the public by "Suomen Muinaismuistoyhdistys ry" and "Suomen Arkeologinen Seura!

Matti Huurre in 1990 (to the right)

If You are looking for goodies please be there in time and remember that we only accept payment in cash!

http://www.muinaismuistoyhdistys.fi/

http://www.sarks.fi/

The annual presentation of archaeological fieldwork in Finland 2013

will take place in the facilities of the National Museum in Helsinki on 12-13th of February 2014 from 9.30 - 16.30. The sessions are free of charge and open to the general public.

I will be attending the sessions and write some short summaries in English for the blog. I hope to get them posted during next weekend (at the latest).

Below is a link to the program (in Finnish):

http://www.nba.fi/fi/ajankohtaista/tapaamiset_ja_seminaarit

Monday, 10 February 2014

Archaeology lesson at Töölön Yhteiskoulun Lukio (TYK)

Just back from another great school visit this time to TYK were an audience of 30 made me feel very welcome. The lesson was a bit short as we only had 45 mins in all. Still we managed to cover quite an extensive area of studies in archaeology, archaeological excavations, osteology etc. etc.