"Durchgangslager Hangö 1942-1944" midterm report. The archaeology of civilian and military encounters in Hanko 1942-1944.

Since the beginning of the scientific research project in 2014 I have been conducting interviews with locals in Hanko, S. Finland, who remember, or interacted with German soldiers or the WW2German transition  camp on Cape Tulliniemi 1942-1944.

As a result of the tens of interviews I have been able to locate and draw up a map of the encounters (with the according histories) between German soldiers and civilians in Hanko 1942-1944.

The map will hopefully be accompanied by archaeological finds as we venture on archaeological digs in the areas of encounter in 2017.

Still testing the limits of archaeology in rediscovering  local WW2 history in Hanko, S. Finland :)

Thursday. A few of todays cleaned WW2 finds from Hanko!

Today I was preoccupied with arranging the uncleaned WW2 finds from Hanko, S. Finland. I managed to do some cleaning too, mostly brittle uniform fragments and lots and lots of broken bottle glass.

DRK Schwester with recovering "Heer "soldiers. 
Similar scenes were played out in "Deutsches Lager Hanko".

Among the finds from the beach area were a few nice WW2 Norvegian and French items, a silent testimony to the German soldiers war trail before Finland. Below are a few picture of a couple of todays cleaned finds :)

German "OSMARIN" tooth brush.

 Aluminium soap box "Seife".

Soviet bottle (1940).

Halfway through the cleaning process!

Time for a celebration? Today I realized that I´m half way through the cleaning and sorting process. Lot´s of WW2 finds still in their plastic bags but many finds already in their cardboard boxes!

Boxed small finds. Still need to fill in the LEICA Zeno coordinates.

Paper tags for the finds from the "Entlausungsdorf" area.

It´s amazing how every day a find or two, that escaped me during the excavations, turns up. I have had lot´s of help in identifying the odd finds from my colleagues and friends over the Internet! Below are a few of todays tidbits.

 "Viking" shoe polish.

 German medical tubes,

Soviet bakelite ashtray with "Mosplastmass" marking..

More beautiful finds from "Deutsches Lager Hanko"

As the cleaning of the excavation finds continue, more and more interesting details emerge. Below are a few of todays several hundred cleaned finds.

 Paper items.

 Schnapps glass.

"Sebalds Haartinktur" bottle.

Ornate drinking glass.

Wehrmacht beer bottle.

German food ration can.

Flashlight battery with text Warszawa!

Enamel bottle cap LAB.

Some 400 finds cleaned and boxed today!

Another great day at "The Office" were I managed to clean a rather astonishing amount of finds today. I´m currently in the process of sorting the finds from the dump site in the westernmost area of the German WW2 Transition Camp. Below are a few pictures of todays endeavours.

 DAIMON flashlight battery with Morse code "Morsetafel".

 KASTEL ink bottle.

 Boxed bottles.

 Lid from iron container.

 Lemonade bottle with part of its paper wrapping still in place.

Charred uniform cloth.

Cleaning tens of combs and more. Another effective day @ "The Office"

Below a few pictures from today, sadly the camera let me down before I managed to photograph all the finds. I will continue my efforts next moday and send a better set of pictures then!

Heer container and a few of todays combs.

Heer messkit lid and spoon/fork combination.

Glass bottle "GLORIA".

Upcoming events related to the conflict archeology of "Deutsches Lager Hanko"

Below you can  find a list of "Deutsches Lager Hanko 1942-1944" planned project presentations, seminars and excavations in 2017. More events including lectures in Hanko will be added  in the next few weeks! Please e-mail me at jfarchaeology@gmail.com for further details or if you wish to participate in the excavations in 2017!

6.4.2017 Project presentation (NBA) at the National Museum of Finland (Helsinki)

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

28-29.4.2017 The 8th International Conference on Artistic Research (Helsinki)

http://www.uniarts.fi/tapahtumat/ma-05092016-1437/saruniarts-helsinki-international-conference-artistic-research-2017

22.5-1.6.2017 Community archaeology excavations of "Deutsches Lager Hanko" with students from local schools.

26.6.-14.7.2017 Community archaeology excavations of "Deutsches Lager Hanko"

 with "Hangö Sommaruniversitet"

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

30.8-3.9.2017 Project presentation at EAA 2017 in Maastricht (Netherlands)

http://www.eaa2017maastricht.nl/

Cleaning the first bones from Deutsches Lager Hanko and more...

I´ve postponed the work with cleaning the osteological material for a couple of weeks now. Until today I have just been trying to get a good picture about how much material there is for an osteological analysis.

Cleaned unburnt bone fragments from the German transition camp.

Today I started cleaning finds from the large dump in the westernmost area of the camp. Very nice finds here too. I have a better camera now so I took a few pictures of a few items found during excavations in 2015.

 Luftwaffe visor cap eagle.

 German toothpaste tube.

 Bakelite container for the Gebirgsgeschütz 36.

 Lid from 1941.

 Container from 1939.

 Beer bottle caps.

Bottles and more bottles...