Excavating the Mynt stone-age dwelling site in the footsteps of professor Carl Fredrik Meinander

The stone age dwelling site in Espoo Mynt was discovered by archaeologist Aarne Europaeus (1887-1971) in the early 1920´s. In 1957 archaeologist Carl Fredrik Meinander (1916-2004) made an extensive excavation of the site but sadly failed to write an excavation report. 

Carl Fredrik Meinander excavated the stone-age dwellling site in Espoo Mynt in 1957.

Now in 2025 we have tried to map his excavation area in order to put the thousands of finds in context. During the past days we also conducted small scale trial excavations on the site in order to find out if there is aanything left to excavate after the 1957 dig. The results have been surprisingly good and it now seems clear that at least 300 square meters of the site remain untouched. 

Work in progress during the 2025 excavation. 

The finds in 2025 that include potsherds from at least eight different Jäkärlä culture clay vessels, fragments of Jäkärlä culture stone-axes, whetstones and fishing sinkers can be attributed to the so called Jäkärlä culture ca 6300-5900 BP. The burnt bone fragments are surprisingly many and quite large in size and will be analysed in autumn. Charred fragments of nutshells of common hazel (Corylus Avellana) will be used to date the site.

  
Jäkärlä culture potsherds.

Stone artefacts.

Burnt bone.

The work in Mynt will continue in early June 2026 when a two-week long excavation will be arranged at the site. The excavation will be organized as a community archaeology field school by Esbo Arbis. It is already possible to register, no previous experience of archaeology is required.