Reburial ceremony of 7 Soviet soldiers

Today we attended the reburial ceremony of 7 KIA Soviet soldiers that our team found and excavated between 2018 and 2019.  The ceremony was attended by approximately 50+ people and we were welcomed by the Russian ambassador H.E. Mr Pavel Kuznetsov and Deputy Military, Naval and Air Force Attaché Colonel Ivan Gorbachev. Several representatives  from the Embassy of the Russian Federation , the Embassy of Kazakhstan and Belorus attended the impressive and at the same time solemn procession.

The first speaches were held by Governor Pavel Kuznetsov and Mr Pertti Suominen (Sotavainajien muiston vaalimiyhdistys ry) after which I had the opportunity to voice a few words on the benefits of scientific repatriation of war dead and the growing general interest in conflict archaeology in Finland.

When the official ceremony had ended  Ms Zhanna Sartbayeva, the Governor of Kazakhstan initiated a personal and very pleasing discussion with me about the benefits of scientific repatriation of war dead. Ms Sartbayeva showed a very honest appreciation of our work which I of course appreciated very much.

In the afternoon our excavation team gathered at the Hanko Front Museum where I gave a lecture about upcoming battlefield archaeology work in the Hanko and Raseborg archipelago in 2021.

In 1940 and/or 1941 seven very young Soviet soldiers arrived in Hanko S. Finland only to die a year later in the defense of "Gangut" the Soviet naval base in Hanko. When their comerades were evacuated in the late months of 1941 their graves were left without attendance for 78 years. Today they were finally reunited with the other fallen Soviet soldiers of the Hanko front.

For these seven young men the war is finally over. Seven red roses adore their 78 year long (temporary) reconstructed resting place in 2020.

War dead, battlegrounds and more...

02.09.2020 Wednesday (day three).Today we visited one of several scenes of the ferocious battles that raged in the Hanko archipelago in the summer and autumn of 1941. The main reason for our fieldtrip was to gain as much information about the island in question before the large scale battlefield archaeology fieldwork scheduled on the group of islands in 2021.

First off was the site of a grave marker with the text "39 Soviet seamen, died in 1941". The cross could mark a grave somewhere in the vicinity or it could be a cross raised in memory of the fallen. I will return to this mystery in upcoming blog posts.

Next we visited the areas of intense battle on the island all of which will be carefully documented and mapped next spring. This was both exciting and very tragic at the same time as traces of the battle could be observed everywhere despite the 79 years that had passed since the battle took place. It was quite shocking to think about the horrors that took place in this beautiful setting.

The third assignement was to try to locate the traces of an aircraft crash site from 1941. Areas of debris was documented and plotted on a map. We will see what can be done here in 2021 in co-operation with the Finnish Aviation Museum.

The Hanko 1941 team would like to thank the landowner for his co-operation in documenting the WW2 remains. A big thanks to the crew from the Finnish Television (MTV 3) for the professional interviews and filming of our hard work today.

Seven days of excavating the WW2 battlefields of the Hanko front

31.8.2020 Monday (day one). After introductionary lections at the Hanko Front Museum our small but efficient team of nine opened up a couple of trial excavation areas in close proximity of the frontline trenches, shelters and other constructions in the area around the museum.

BA Jaakko Ervasti supervising the trial excavation near one of the WW2 shelters in the area. Photo Jan Fast.

 The main goal is to make preparations for the large scale excavations in 2021 and of course the conflict archaeology excavation day with local schools on September 19th 2019.

BA Fanny Fagerholm (Hanko 1941 team member) supervising the trial excavation. Photo Jan Fast.

As many interesting and also tragic events occurred in this particular area we wish to concentrate on the areas providing the most infomation and finds that illustrate the events that took place here in the summer, autumn and winter of 1941.

Hanko 1941 team members opening up a fresh trial excavation area. Photo Jan Fast.

The task is not an easy one as much has happened here since the war and the undisturbed spots are hard to find and often buried deep underneath the topsoil.

Trial excavation area prior to excavation. Photo Jan Fast

It is during times like these I feel very grateful indeed to have two very skilled archaeology students in my team. BA Fanny Fagerholm from the University of Uppsala and BA Jaakko Ervasti from the University of Oulu.

9mm sub machine gun bullet. Photo Jan Fast

 

Check out the latest news fom the Hanko front!

Daily updates with pictures of finds from the scientific WW2 Battlefield Archaeology excavations in Hanko here!

https://www.hanko1941.com/

WW2 Battlefield Archaeology in Hanko 13 - 24.7.2020. Daily updates!

This years scientific battlefield archaeology research of the lesser known 1941 Hanko front (S. Finland) will concentrate on the first early months of  "Operation Barbarossa" where Finnish troops and soldiers from twelve (!) different nationalities fought against Soviet forces on the Hanko peninsula, in the southernmost part of Finland.

Then...

So far we have only been starting out but tomorrow we will finally dig in to the very rare time capsules of this battle that include burnt down frontline shelters and tunnels dug by Finnish troops under the main roads in the area.

... and now.

Finds are of course plentiful but this season we are mostly trying to find those real hotspots where individual soldiers war experiences can be verified by archaeological finds.

Tomorrow we will start excavating one such site, a small 2x2 m. burnt down shelter from the autumn in 1941. As it now seems a complete array of finds left behind by the four soldiers who left the shelter in September 1941 expecting to return in a couple of hours are still buried (79 years later) underneath the charred remains.

A WW2 conflict archaeology closed find in Hanko S. Finland.

Rain

Rain is a real nuisance during archaeological fieldwork. Because of the very fine soil (mostly composed of sand and silt) at the Jokiniemi site and the continuous rain we were forced to cancel  todays excavation.

A rainy day.

But no worries we will still be able to spread the word about this amazing site. Instead of helping out at the dig archaeologist MA Teemu Väisänen speaks about excavation finds at Science Centre Heureka today. During the presentation visitors will be able to ask questions about the finds and archaeology in general.

Teemu Väisänen giving his presentation @ Heureka 11.7.2020.

Tomorrow we will finish this years excavation, carefully fill in the excavation areas and restore the general research area to its "pre excavation" state. 

After this me and Teemu will travel to Hanko for two intense weeks of WW2 Battlefield Archaeology of the Hanko Front (1941). More about that excavation here in the weeks to come.

Back to Jokiniemi - The excavations of the find site of the astounding neolithic clay figurine "Tuima" July 8th-12th 2020

Helsinki Summer University and Heureka joined forces this summer to try to find out the age of the realistic anthropomorphic clay figurine (photo below) that was found by a local on the neolithic dwelling site in Vantaa Jokiniemi in the late 1980´s.

An article about the anthropomorphic clay figurines from Jokiniemi was published by me in TIEDE magazine in March 2015. 

The mission to find out more about the amazing figure is very exiting. For the first time it is now possible to conduct scientific archaeological excavations of the actual find site. The age and the find context has intigued me for years and years.

Digging the neolithic. Photo Jan Fast 9.7.2020.

Since last Wednesday a team of some 40 amateur archaeologists have carried out archaeological excavations of the find site under the supervision of three experienced professional archaeologists. The finds have been plentiful and date to the time period around 3700-3300 BC.

Potsherds representing the middle and late comb ceramic culture found in association with the figurine. Photo Jan Fast 9.7.2020.

During that time period the hunter gatherer populations around the shores of the Baltic Sea not only traded with amber and other commodities, but also cultural influences were transmitted as part of the socio-economic interactions in the region.

Older typical comb ceramic ware. The oldest pottery on the find site dating to around 3700 BC. Photo Jan Fast 9.7.2020.

It is therefore no wonder that the nearest similar figurines to those found i Vantaa S. Finland are found on neolithic dwelling sites in present day Latvia. The sea connected the people living along its shorelines.

The excavations in Jokiniemi continue until Sunday. For daily updates please visit our Facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/Jokiniemi2020/

Last day of the Kläppkärr excavation

Yeaterday we finished the excavation and filled up the 40 square meter excavation area. The wonderful stone-age finds continued to the last minutes of the dig.

Because of the severe heat the filling up of the excavation area proved a bit more harder than usual but thanks to all the wonderful people in the team the job went smoothly.

All of the thousands of excavation finds are now beeing cleaned and sorted. Radiocarbon datings are expected sometime next spring. The macrofossile samples will hopefully be analyzed in 2021.  

As for us it´s now time for a short break before the next community archaeology excavation in Vantaa Jokiniemi (S. Finland, larger Helsinki region) on July 8th. 

Day 5/6 of the Espoo Kläppkärr excavation

The excavation nears its end but beautiful pottery finds keeps turning up in layer three (40 cm below ground surface). Today some of the Early Comb Ceramic potsherds showed very intricate decoration indeed!

Ve recovered a couple of large Early Comb Ceramic potsherds in a sterile manner in order to secure representative radiocarbon dates and samples from the crust that has stuck to the inside the vessels.

The large potsherds were wrapped in tin foil and then packed into plastic bags. Photo Jan Fast.

We also encountered in what seems to be a small waste deposit pit from the Corded Ware Culture. Soil samples of this as well as a refuse pit with finds of large early comb ceramic potsherds were collected too.

Tomorrow it´s time to fill in the excavation areas and say goodbye to this wonderful site but  I´m sure nice finds will pop up until the ast minute of the dig :)

Two more beat up stone tools were recovered today. Photo Jan Fast.

Day 4/6 of the Espoo Kläppkärr excavation.

This day was Hot ("Hot like California") to quote Finnish rock band Reckless love ;)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LV8wPokZNig . 

Also first time in my over 30 year long career as an archaeologist to have a birthday cake presented to me at the excavation along with the classic HBD song sung by the excavation team :)

After the tasty and very summery cake we continued the excavation. This 4th day produced interesting early comb ceramic finds including an intact slender chisel.

 

As is often the case with excavations of stone age dwelling sites, the potsherds increase in size when digging the deeper layers. This was true today too and some very nice early comb ceramic potsherds stated to surface in the southernmost part of the excavation area in layer three.

The finds of burnt bone continue to few and far between, Atm we are up to only approximately 30 bone fragments which is a very small amount indeed. Luckily a couple of the fragments are from joints and can possibly be identified by an osteologist at some stage.

Tomorrow we will probably finish of the deepest excavation layers over the whole excavation area. Let´s see what we find!