Vantaa Sandåker revisited

Time sure flies... This was already the 11th excavation by yours truly on this awesome dwelling site from the neolithic stone-age. It was here in Vantaa Sandåker that I started my career in Community Archaeology while working at Heureka the Finnish Science Centre 1990-1997. The magnificient finds of detailed anthropomorphic and zoomorphic clay figurines from the excavations of the site has kept Vantaa Sandåker (Jokiniemi) in the limelight for decades.

Realistic anthropomorphic clay figurine from Vantaa, Sandåker. Photo Heureka/Harri Hietala 1990.

One might argue that I have not got very far from where I started. This years excavation area was located only tens of meters from the areas we excavated between 1990-1994.

Excavation areas on Vantaa Sandåker dwelling site over the years (1990-2024). Map by Marjo Karppanen.

During the last day of excavations in 2024 we managed to find remains of a possible hearth in the uppermost area of the dwelling site, some 25 meters above sea level. After we had secured funding for a five-day community archaeology excavation from Vantaan Aikuisopisto it was time to take a clooser look at the hearth and its surroundings between 16.5-20.5.2025. The plan now is to conduct yearly community archaeology excavations of the site.

Some 15-20 people participated in this years excavation and the work progressed very well indeed. Already on day two it was possible to document the uppermost layer of the hearth. It proved to be almost round in shape and constructed of two layers of stones which were heavily firecracked . The soil inside hearth was sooty and contained many large fragments of charcoal. These will this week be sent to the Tandem Laboratory at Uppsala University for C14 dating.

The reason for the excavation in 2025 was this hearth that we stumbled upon during the last day of excavations in 2024.

The finds found in the area surrounding the hearth were extremely few due to the fact that the find layer had been almost completely "plowed away" when the area was used as a market garden. All the finds like pottery, flintartefacts and flint flakes however pointed towards the early and and especially the middle phases of the Typical Comb Ceramic Period (ca 5 800-5 500 BP).

Potsherds and flint flakes showing signs of use  from the area around the hearth.

During the last two days of the excavation we were able to make some trial excavation pits in order to plan next years fieldwork. Sadly most of the area proved to be equally demolished by ploughing and artificial levelling of the slope to build a house garden. However in area some 40 meters from this years excavation area a small piece of the site seemed to have been spared. 

Trial excavations on the 4th day of the excavation.

The finds from two of the pits in this area were especially promising. We will continue excavations here in May 2026. Register to the excavation here https://ilmonet.fi/course/V260058

Finds from the trial excavation. A large flake of blood red flint and Typical- and Late Comb Ceramic potsherds