Tuesday 17 May 2022

Day 6/7. Excavating the Vävarsbacka II neolithic stone-age dwelling site in Porvoo S. Finland

Today we focused on the documentation of a few very interesting features of the excavation area. During the almost one thousand years of prehistoric occupation of the site the stone-age inhabitants have dug several pits of different sizes on the dwelling site. Before documentation these areas need to be carefully "cleaned" so that the different details of the pits show up nicely on photos.

Jemina R. tidying up the cross-section of the largest stone-age pits in the NE part of the excavation area.

The pits were probably dug for a wide variety of different reasons. Most of them can be classified as trash or refuse pits, while others look like having been used as hearths, possibly for burning pottery.

The dark soil inside an oval shaped pit 1,5 m in diameter, shows up clearly against the coarse gravel surrounding it.

In the dark sandy filling of the largest of the pits we found potsherds, burnt bone and quartz flakes. In both of the smaller pits we found a few small quartz artefacts along with the chisels found before. The purpose of these smaller pits remains a mystery.

The stone-age pits with darker soil inside of them stand out in contrast against the bottom (gravel) layer.




No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.