Going nuts!

Accuiring good representative samples for radio carbon (or C14) dating of stone age dwelling sites is difficult. Many times the same sites have been used during several prehistoric periods and it´s rare to find sites that have been occupied only for a very short period of time. 

Malmkulla in Raseborg S. Finland is one such place. The finds show it has been occupied exclusively during the younger phase of the early comb ceramic period approximately 6000 years ago.

The finds from the excavations here are plentiful including, frgments of clay figurines, pottery and lithic artefacts. Until recently no finds of hearths and other features or items containing organic material or charcoal for C 14 samples to exactly date the finds  have been found.

This changed yesterday when archaeologist MA Janne Soisalo looked through the finds from the 2019 excavations. An attentive participant had collected small bits of coal and included with these were fragments of charred hazel nuts.

A sample of these will be sent for dating to Uppsala University in Sweden and we hope to know the exact date of the short term settlement of the site next autumn.