The Savukoski excavation, week three. By Teemu Väisänen

Report by BA Teemu Väisänen. I have shortened the orignal tex a bit but you can read the full story in his blog https://tvarchaeology.blogspot.com/

“If the third week in Savukoski had to be summarized using only one word, it definitely would be "documentation". After two weeks of preparations and initial work with the first excavation layers of each trench, the excavations sped up and it was time to carefully document each layer that we had uncovered. 

It was also time to dig into the potential trapping pit of Malmio 2 using a bit heavier machinery than archaeologists are traditionally known for!

As each archaeological site gets destroyed as it's being excavated, it's vital to pay attention to exact documentation. When drawing an archaeological plan, different soil types, stones and other features are drawn and named. As our excavation trenches were dug into prime examples of podzol, the typical soil of Finnish boreal forests, the natural soil sequences have been (fairly unsurprising) and don't include much variation when drawing.

Trenches are also photographed from a few different angles. While the past archaeologists often climbed on trees or hazardous ladders in order to get an ideal shot, here we have it easy with two drones, which can be used to get aerial photos that can be even given exact coordinates for computer processing. All drawings are scanned and re-drawn on the computer, in order to make clearer and polished visualizations of the trenches. When the time comes, I will share a few as an example of how such plans ultimately look like.