Keihäänkärjen löysin ja hävitin...

JK and AK telling the story of my life :)

... and great songs  for the upcoming field season too :)

Ein Märchen aus alten Zeiten...

Upcoming battlefield archaeology project.

A few years back I got hold of two unpublished
hand written diaries (with photos) from a member of the Finnish "Lotta Svärd" organisation. The very well written diaries give a very vivid account of the life and situation of the German and Finnish soldiers, the fighting and of the whole cultural complexity of war in Finnish Lapland during one month in 1944. The diary would be worth publicizing in its own right.

I have decided to go further and try to relocate the site, the German camp and the associated Lotta Svärd canteen in Kutsa (east of Salla) in Russia were the described events occurred. I am also planning an excavation of the site to "illustrate the diary" and a documentary movie "The road to Kutsa and back". Anyone interested in the project please contact me.

Very important thread if you are into battlefield archaeology

Check this link out and join the discussion on this excellent forum!


http://www.warrelics.eu/forum/battlefield-archaeology/what-is-relic-digging-and-why-we-do-it-180711/


Also check this one out! Battlefield archaeology and the work to save these sites for future generations is just starting. This short clip adresses some of the fundamental questions!

Busybusybusy and in a good mood

Today Matti Klinge tomorrow Charlotta Wolff and writing and writing and writing, sounds stressful but no it isn´t. I´m enjoying everything full time. Still... so many projects so little time. Another good thing is that I realized that my studies are almost over (at least for the moment) the fact is that I´m enjoying the atmosphere of the university so much that I´m sure I will continue my studies after 2013. I have a few very good topics and ideas about what these studies could be but more about that later. Archaeology and history is what I live and breathe at the moment and in the future :). Here´s a nice BBC documentary check it out if you haven´t seen it already (it´s from 2004). The BBC sure knows how to make good and catchy documentaries!

Friday on the archaeologists mind

After a rather hectic week of studies and writing it´s weekend again. Today the Finnish newspapers have been talking a lot about the recent 17th and 18th century excavations in the center of Helsinki. glazed red earthen ware found in the excavations there in 2005-2007. As I will be presenting the disposition for my article now on the upcoming Tuesday at the university it´s nice to hear the news about the recent finds :)
Below some pictures from the excavations (copyright Ilta-Sanomat magazine).

Riksantikvarieämbetet on Youtube

Very good links to excavations and work by RA via this. Enjoy!

Back to studies

My fathers birthday was a blast but now it´s back to the books and writing the articles one about the stone age anthropomorphic clay figurine from Vantaa and another one about the excavations at Herttoniemi manor. I´m trying to incorporate cultural history in the latter one, something about the archaeology food and glaced red earthenware of the mid 18th century based on the excavation finds from 2005-2007. Anyone with hints regarding to good litterature about this topic? :)

Picture of Herttoniemi Manor in which a ceramic factory was situated in the mid to late 18th century. The refuse was dumped on the backyard (this side) and proved to be a real treasure trove during the excavations.

Excavations at the leprosy hospital at Korpholmen in 2012

Interesting realistic documentation of the excavations of the leprosy hospital at Korpholmen in 2012 (more links on Youtube). Very small scale work but very important in it´s own right!  Below is a link to the excavation reports etc (in swedish).

http://kronobyhembygd.jimdo.com/korpholmens-hospital/

Studying, writing and cooking

It´s been an almost perfect day for studies and writing. I think the clue is to get to bed early and here especially my decision to quit Facebook has helped me a lot. Now it´s time for some weekend extravaganza including serious cooking at my fathers birthday party and after that just relaxing in good company. Have a nice weekend everyone and don´t forget to read a book or an article or two ;)

What we should learn from history

Never think of history as "the past"
Read more books and always remain curious.
History is were you are.

Alf-Gunnar Kranck excavation photos found

Got a telephone call yesterday from Gunilla Kranck the widow of the very active amateur archaeologist and photographer Alf-Gunnar Kranck. She told me that she had found a huge pile of photos that Alf-Gunnar took while participating in different excavations from 1987 until his death in the early 90´s.

This is extremely good news because very few pictures exist of the early amateur archaeologists at work in southern Finland and Vasa (western Finland) from those years. I will visit Gunilla and start sorting out the pictures beginning on the first of march.

Alf-Gunnar (seated in the middle) on his beloved Jurmo in 1982 in progress of raising the midsummer pole 

(picture by Timo Salonen).

"I arkeologens fotspår"

This is a short preliminary clip from the intro to my upcoming book about "Jan Fast archaeology" from the happy 80´s and back to the future :

"Arkeologi är mer än utgrävningar. För mig är arkeologi är synonymt med känslan av att vara nyförälskad, gång på gång. Sigmund Freud beskrev förälskelse som en form av sinnesstörning (“man är galen när man är förälskad”). Kanske han hade rätt också gällande ”arkeologien, den onyttigaste af alla wetenskaper”.

Att jobba i fält  är många gånger äventyrsfullt och spännande. Resultatet av de flesta mer vetenskapliga  expeditionerna arkiveras på Museiverket i Helsingfors i form av fynd och utgrävningsrapporter med tillhörande bild och kartbilagor.

Grävningsfynden rengörs, räknas, vägs, konserveras, katalogiseras och sorteras omsorgsfullt in i tiotusentals kantiga arkivlådor och många försvinner på nytt i arkivens oändliga hyllor. Istället för tung jord täcks de nu av fint arkivdamm.

Utgrävningsrapporterna är för det mesta torr och tråkig läsning. Detta är som sig skall. Dessa detaljerade beskrivningar om utgrävningarna är ju i första hand konsisa sakliga dokument som tjänar forskningen och skyddet av de ömtåliga fornlämningarna i fält. I utgrävningsrapporterna talas det sällan om hur det var på riktigt på utgrävningarna, ej heller om hur fynden såg dagsljuset eller i hur de i några fall tappades bort.

Oftast nämns inte heller andra personer än utgrävningsledare och eventuella viceutgrävningsledare eller assistenter vid namn. Eftersom en stor del av utgrävningarna görs utanför de ledande arkeologernas barndomsskogar och -stigar är de lokala amatörarkeologerna och -historikerna ofta mycket viktiga för fältarkeologerna. Många av dessa lokala förmågor är förutom skickliga guider och sakkännare, även fantastiska personligheter. I detta verk har jag velat berätta även om några av dem.

I likhet med alla minnen är även dessa minnesbilder högst personliga. Olika personer bär ofta på olika minnesbilder av samma episod. Denhär skriften innehåller berättelser från min barndom och från några av de utgrävningar och personer jag jobbat med mellan åren 1982 och 2009.  Du är inbjuden att delta."

Happy reading in the E-train

This morning I spent an hour or so strolling through all the beautiful issues of  Fennoscandia Archaeologica, Finskt Museum, Suomen Museo, Muinaistutkija and a few more which were given away for free at the annual meeting of the Finnish archaeologists yesterday. I even stacked a few of them in my EAA (European Association of Archaeologists) bag to read in the local train to Helsinki and felt deservedly (at least I think so) different from my fellow passengers staring into their mobile phones and pads.

Some of the articles were difficult, some were impossible to grasp but as is always the case with books, one can find the ones that really make a difference and so did I this morning with an article about excavating the immediate surroundings of prehistoric rock paintings in Finland. Gave me the thrill and the chills again :) I LOVE ARCHAEOLOGY <3

The Valkeisaari rock painting

Read this!

Antti Lahelma, Excavating art: A "ritual deposit" associated with the rock painting of Valkeisaari , eastern Finland.
Fennoscandia Archaeologica XIII (Helsinki 2006)

Varför arkeologi?

Great short clip (in Swedish) by a Swedish archaeologist I found a few days ago on Youtube! And yes I love "Gropkeramik" ;)

Focus on amateur archaeology

One more great day at the National Museum of Finland with many great discussions with colleagues and friends. The day ended with a meeting where amateur archaeologists met Päivi Maaranen from the National Board of Antiquities to discuss the changing role of amateur archaeology in Finland. I think the discussion was a very positive and productive one.

Päivi told me she will make a PM of the meeting.  Amateur archaeology will continue to play an active role in field archaeology in Finland in the future, nothing could make me more happy :)

Below is a nice link on how to and especially not to become an amateur archaeologist :)

http://www.archaeologyexpert.co.uk/archaeologyasahobby.html

Day one at the National Museum of Finland

Today I attended the annual meeting of the Finnish archaeologists at the National Museum. Lot´s of familiar faces but also some new ones. The day started off with the presentation of SALAVA and even though it´s been under work for a couple of years it still remains something of a mystery. The idea of getting some common rules (or maybe guidelines?) for Finnish archaeologists working in the field is of course something worth supporting. But I felt that the task of doing this may be a lot harder than previously thought or at least the goals must be set a couple of years forward.

After a nice light lunch with colleagues Simo Vanhatalo and Esa Suominen it was finally time for the presentation of excavation results from the 2012 field season. I was especially happy about three presentations.

Jenni Lucenius from Ålands museibyrå spoke about the recent archaeological field work at the Västra Jansmyra site in the Åland islands and the interesting situation which has arisen with new laws giving landowners a possibility argue that prehistoric remains found by archaeologists on their land are not archaeological sites!!! Here´s a link to an article about the dispute that goes to court later this spring:

Excavations in progress at Västra Jansmyra

http://www.nyan.aland.fi/ledaren/?news_id=58655

The pace built up with Sami Viljamaa and his survey work in northernmost Finland. Sami is  very experienced in moving in the northern wilderness and told us about his search for new archaeological remains which made him travel about 500+ kilometers on foot in 3 weeks, with a 30-40 kg backpack (he was dropped into the wilderness by helicopter!). 99 new sites were added to the map as aresearch of his amazing work :). Here´s a link:

Some stoneage finds from Sami´s survey in Northern Finland.

http://www.luontoon.fi/ajankohtaista/uutiset/Sivut/Lapinkasivarrestaloytyivanhanuolenkarki.aspx

Petri Halinen from the university of Helsinki spoke of the archaeological excavations at Brunaberget in Vantaa S. Finland. The site is a mesolithic dwelling site found in 1994 by my good friend amateur archaeologists Markus Jauhiainen and inspected by me and him one beautiful summers day that same year while we were excavating in Jokiniemi nearby. It was especially nice to hear that the site has yielded many finds and that it had been used for educational purposes by the University of Helsinki :).

Pic from the excavations at Brunaberget in 2011 (by courtesy of Vantaan Sanomat)

http://www.vantaansanomat.fi/artikkeli/56954-opiskelijat-kaivautuvat-vantaan-historiaan

After an interesting day the archaeologists headed for a couple of beers at Irish pub Molly Malone´s . Great tradition which I didn´t attend this year thus avoiding the also traditional hangover of day two of the presentations ;).

Very nice battlefield archaeology series

Battlefield and conflict archaeology are huge interests of mine :). Wishing you all a happy weekend with this one!

Monday on my mind

Just realized that it´s time for the annual meeting of Finnish archaeologists next week. The red hot topic is the SALAVA (Suomen Arkeologian LAatu VAatimukset) which should define the rules for private archaeological enterprises in Finland.

The change is significant (at least on paper). Until now in Finland the National Board of Antiquities has been the sole conductor of archaeological excavations in Finland. Now individual archaeologists are allowed to start their own businesses, conducting general fieldwork and excavations although still under supervision of the NBA. I sincerely hope that this will work and create more work opportunities for  for experienced archaeologists in Finland.

Stay tuned..

Rethinking archaeology

A few years back I was confronted with the feeling that "I have had enough", 25 years of fieldwork had taken it´s toll. The occasional and fun summer excavations with their share of publicity in the media  had turned into dark, destructive and boring "Digs".

Now finally after some mischief  My Archaeology is here again, again in my own words. Welcome once more to share my destiny and "the love for things forgotten"..

Love Jan

A few pics from the Senaatintori excavations in Helsinki

I took these two photos while visiting the excavation site in late october 2012. The conditions were harsh (rainy and very, very cold). A really well executed rescue excavation of the 18th century graveyard by the museum authorities of Helsinki. The skeletal remains were decently reburied after excavation.

Some links to more pics here:

https://www.google.fi/search?q=Senaatintorin+kaivaukset&hl=fi&tbo=u&tbm=isch&source=univ&sa=X&ei=Sb8SUbr7NYj1sgbA-IDYCg&ved=0CGAQsAQ&biw=1280&bih=709