Ruskiasuo 5000 BC. The beauty of early comb ceramic potsherds

Finally, after 31 years of waiting we started  trial excavating this wonderful early comb ceramic site in Kouvola SE Finland. I have to admit I was a bit anxious last night as we hadn´t done any trial pits  before the arrival of our team of 20 prticipants. Luckily the firs early comb ceramic potsherds were found almost immediately... pheeww <3 .

The first early comb ceramic potsherds from the trial excavation.

Prior to the excavation we looked closely at maps of the area. Archaeologist Simo Vanhatalo was kind enough to email us a very exact map of the area surrounding the dwelling site which helped a lot! Archaeology student Teemu Väsisänen made a map that showed the surroundings at the time of the end of the settlement. It is easy to see why the site was chosen, well protected from the winds from the open sea to the south.

The settlement site ca 4800 BC marked with a red star. 

Once again our team deserves a big thanks. The excavation  got avery good start despite very warm weather, hoards of moskitoes and very tough roots (especially covering trial excavation area II). 

Excavating layer one of excavation area I.

During the day we managed to find a previous unknown settlement site in the vicinity of Ruskiasuo. Based on the surface finds this stone-age dwelling site is from approximately the same time period as the site we are currently excavating.

Potsherd from the newly found dwelling site situated north of the Ruskiasuo site.

We will continue our research tomorrow so please be back for more pictures of finds and impressions from this excavation <3