3D scanning of neolithic clay figurines

As part of the work around the upcoming "Archaeology Night" at Heureka the Finnish Science  Centre (4.12.2014) this day was dedicated to 3D scanning of three of the stone-age figurines found on the neolithic dwelling site of Jokiniemi  (Vantaa S. Finland).

The mobile equipment and staff came from Versoteq but the printing will be done at Heureka.

The idea is to give the visitors a "hands on experience" of the figurines as well as a chance to see and rotate the figurines in 3D on screen.

3D scanning in progress.

With the good lighting in the room I managed to take a few more pictures of the figurines myself :)

"Tuima"

"Pappa"

Fingerprints from the neolithic on "Poika".

A true diamond in exhibition design

I have always had high hopes for archaeologist (PhD) Anna Wessman (Wickholm), in her younger years she worked with me on several excavations in S. Finland.Still... I have to admit I felt "fatherly" anxieties when I stepped into her world of exhibitions today.

Glims museum entrance

The theme of the exhibition is about the world of metal detecting and archaeology and is the first of it´s kind in Finland. The entrance suggested this would be another one of those exhibitions in an old house (not suitable for exhibitions). The happy sight of her welcoming us today will never leave me, Congratulations Anna and the staff of Espoo City Museum.

"Come on in" 

Hands on detecting

Clear presentations...

and lots of interesting finds :)

http://www.espoonkaupunginmuseo.fi/fi-FI/Talomuseo_Glims

Courtcase. Illegal diving and recovery of items from an 18th century shipwreck in Finland

Well preserved cannon on the ships gundeck (picture copyright Badewanne)

And this one goes to court... It will be very interesting to see what the courts decision will be as this is the first case of it´s kind in Finland.

Four very experienced divers (ages 30-40 yrs) stand accused of stealing artifacts from a  18th century shipwreck located outside of Porvoo S Finland. The divers have worked as guides and arranged legal diving tours.

The 40 meter long wreck wreck lies at a depth of around 60 meters. The ship has had two gun decks and is in a remarkable state of preservation

The police (who previously were doing nothing) were tipped off by another diver and a reporter who is making a documentary about the looting of shipwrecks in the Baltic Sea region. The accused divers claim that they are innocent.

(Source Helsingin Sanomat)

http://www.hs.fi/kotimaa/a1413868553264

NEW “NAZI WAR DIGGERS” ALLEGATIONS... Introducing "The Pipeline" !

http://thepipeline.info/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Facebook-Dainis-Dilba-ammunition-24-October-2013.jpg

Interesting new Archaeology website here with some quite scary although by no means unexpected "breaking" news about the recently pulled National Geographic TV-series "Nazi War Diggers". Allegations.

Mixed "finds".

"REPRESENTATIONS OF SHIPWRECKS AND MARITIME TECHNOLOGIES" Interesting seminar at the University of Helsinki next week

The seminar is free of charge and open to all with an interest in Maritime Archaeology.

Place: Porthania (Yliopistonkatu 3, Helsinki)
Time: 10.00-18.00

The programme looks very interesting indeed!!!

- Mars (1564) - shipwreck and battlefield (professor Johan Rönnby, Södertörn University)

- Presenting a 16th Century Ship in a new 21 st Century Museum: The Mary Rose (Head of interpretation Christopher Dobbs, Mary Rose Trust, UK)

- The art of emptying a dry dock-the use of 3D to enchance understanding of 1700s technology (Tom Ohlsson, Senior Curator, The Karlskrona Dockyard Historical Society)

- In Situ Representations? Diver Trails and the Iona II Paddle Steamer (Victoria Cooper, Project Manager, Wessex Archaeology, UK)

- A Rembrandt lying on the Balticum Seabed: The Dutch Ghost Ship (Drs B.A Tilburg, Ministry of Education and Culure and Science, The Netherlands)

Wise words about metal detecting by Suzie Thomas

She calls this "scribbling", I call it genious. Read it here!

http://theconversation.com/discovering-a-viking-hoard-a-day-in-the-life-of-a-metal-detectorist-32972

Totally amazing Viking hoard unearthed in Scotland

Although the info of this find still is rather limited this one certainly seems to be of great importance. A true "closed find"  with some 100 items!!!  WOW!

Video here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e4tAqmAWCA#t=45

Golden pin

Large silver ally Carolingian lidded vessel with textile remnants.

9th or 10th century Christian cross!

Read more about the find here

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-29582866

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2790197/metal-detectorist-finds-britain-s-biggest-haul-viking-treasure-hundreds-artefacts-including-ancient-silver-cross.html

Planned community archaeology in S Finland 2015 (JFArchaeology)

Field course "Metal Detecting and Archaeological Surveying"

8-.9.5.2015 in Karis (Raseborg, SW Finland) in association with Karis Musei- och Hembygdsförening and Sällskapet Natura.

Archaeological excavation and field course "Graves and Grave Cult in the Neolithic"

22-28.5.2015 in Karis (Raseborg, SW Finland) in association with Karis-Billnäs Gymnasium, Ekenäs Gymnasium, Karis Musei- och hembygdsförening and Sällskapet Natura.

Trial excavation "WW2 1941-1944 Conflict Archaeology"

Late may 2015. One week of WW2 conflict archaeology of the German transito camp, the site of  a "Lotta Svärd" cantine and an Ukrainan  pisoner of war camp with Hankoniemen lukio and Hangö Gymnasium.


Archaeological excavation "Vantaa Jokiniemi 2015" 

22.6-12.7.2015 Community archaeology excavation of a magnificient central neolithic dwelling site in the larger Helsinki region. Organized by HEUREKA the Finnish Science Centre participation is limited to 25 persons/day. Registration is to start shortly, more info here soon.


Trial excavation and documentation project "Kimito Telegrafberget 1854" 

July 2015. Site of an optical telegraph station from the Crimean war in association with the Museum of Sagalund and Hembygdsforskarna i Kimitobygden". Possibly also an archaeological excavation in Västanfjärd.


More to come soon :)

Another schoolvisit to SYK

This time for approx one hundred 6th graders (11-12 year olds) in the schools marvelous auditorium. What a lovely crowd! Some ten of the children had access to a metal detector, not quite as many knew one or more archaeologists but every single one had visited HEUREKA the Finnish Science Centre which proves how important this institution is for schoolchildren.

SYK was built in 1972 (architects Kaija and Heikki Siren) 

The auditorium has excellent acoustics!

I was quite surprised about the many really good and poignant questions after my lecture too! Thank You so much for making me feel so welcome today. I´m looking forward to seeing at least some of you guys at some of my excavations next summer!

Very nice visit to Jokiniemi with reporter Anne Hietanen from FST5 (Kollektivet)

Just when You thought the archaeology season of 2014 had definitely come to an end here in Finland I received a telephone call from the TV show "Kollektivet" who wanted to make a small but "a little different story about archaeology and the archaeologist "as soon as possible".

Kollektivet (Anna on the far left)

http://svenska.yle.fi/program/kollektivet

Very good reporter and very good cameraman, the result of our endeavours will be aired soon here on Finnish national television (probably already next friday). Some great new ideas came up today so I really hope we will be able to work together in the future too!

Preliminary results of the hyperspectral analysis of three of the Jokiniemi figurines

Below is a link to SPECIM:s preliminary report of the results from the clay-idol scanning.

http://www.specim.fi/index.php/about-us/news/243-hyperspectral-imaging-shines-light-on-the-early-finns-life-in-the-stone-age

The surfaces of the figurines found in july-august 2014 showed no traces of blood or seal blubber. The figurines were made of the same clay that can be found approx 10 m:s from were they were found. It´s possible that the fats have dissolved in the acidic soil  of the site.

Clay composition of figurines

Blood/seal blubber on figurines.

The analysis of the "naturalistic clay figurine" (in the diagram called "clay from elsewhere") found years earlier but reported after the 2014 excavation showed very different results than the other two!! More about the continued analysis of this unique figurine very soon!

Turku coin hoard display from Turku castle

Enjoy :)

Jokiniemi clay figurine hyper spectral analysis in Oulu tomorrow!

My lovely flat smells of seal blubber and my own (oven dried) blood :). No worries though,  I´m only preparing the comparison samples for tomorrow when we will  use hyper spectral analysis to look for residues of different organic materials on the neolithic  zoo- and anthropomorphic clay figurines from Jokiniemi. I will be  bringing the clay figurines to Oulu myself so fly safe "Norwegian" :D

From top to bottom part of the comparison samples for tomorrow (blood, seal oil and seal blubber)

As my home already smells like a stone age hut I lit a crude imitation of  a seal blubber lamp. This was a huge revelation in itself. Let´s see if we can share this experiencefor the public at HEUREKA on "Archaeology Night" 4.12.2014. The play of the flickering flame on the "face" of the figurine is totally spellbinding.

Let there be light!

11th century coin hoard found near Turku SW Finland

Not a very large amount of coins by European standards, 26 silver coins in all. The mostly western and anglosaxon coins  date to the 11th centure and is said to include coins of Ethelred II and Otto Adelheid as well as one Scandinavian imitation of western coins..

Ethelred II coin similar to the one found in the hoard

The hoard was found by a geology student and amateur metal detectorist Emil Nygård at a depth of 10-20 cm:s The finds stretched over an area 7m:s in length along a forest path that may have it´s origin in medieval times. This is the 16th coin hoard found in the larger Turku region although the previous one was made quite along time ago (in 1949).

Otto Adelheid coin similar to the one found in the Turku hoard.

The coins will be on display in the castle  of Turku on sunday the 21.9. before being sent to the National Museum in Helsinki for further studies.

More about this nice find in Finnish in Kaponieeri:s blog:

http://kaponieeri.blogspot.fi/2014/09/melkein-30-hopearahaa.html

Jeremy Freeston "Medieval Dead" series episode filmed in Finland.

The "Janakkala Swordsman" will be included in the TV series "Medieval Dead". This is great news, I think the find deserves all the attention it can get!

Today the find of an 11th century silver coin hoard was reported to have been found in SW Finland. More about this interesting find here tomorrow.

Neolithic clay figurine site inspection

Good news!!! The area were the anthropomorphic clay figurine was found in 1989  looks almost "undisturbed" (at least since 1989) and we recovered quite a substantial amount of  surface finds (mainly neolithic pottery) during our short visit.

Satomäki 

With the large community housing looming overhead and a busy street (Tikkurilantie) to the south I find these kind of stone-age town sites especially intriguing. It´s amazing that sites like this exist after decades of extensive town planning and building.

 Tikkurilantie

I will return to the site to take more pictures (also of the decadence) of the site but also in order to document what the forest surrounding the stone age site might actually have looked like ca 3800 BC. 

If You look very carefully You may still get a feel of  the forest although in a heavily constructed area...

The stone age in 2014

Below are some pics from our visit to the site today, A beach some 5500 years ago (24 m.asl. today) And no... sorry we didn´t see any trolls today ;)

Neolithic clay figurine site, first inspection this thursday (18.9)

Next Thursday we will visit and document  the exact site where this amazing anthropomorphic clay figurine was found in 1989. Here are a few more detailed pictures of the "Shaman" himself.

Sovjet bunker uncovered. The archaeology of the cold war in S Finland.

Warning! Do not attempt these kind of excavations without proper safety measures!

Today was an interesting day indeed when I visited a bunker site from the so called "Porkkala Parenthesis" 1944-1956 in Siuntio S Finland. The landowner had decided to uncover the roof a  huge Soviet bunker (ca 25 x 20 m in diameter and approx 4-7 m:s deep).

Near the bunker entrance.

The "Porkkala Parenthesis" was a period when the Soviet Union de facto occupied an area very close to Helsinki the capital of Finland. Nikita Chrusjtjov in an act of "goodwill towards the West" returned the area to Finland in 1956. At the time of the "Parenthesis" some 50 000 Soviet troops were assigned to the area.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2pzvXa8IfU

For general safety reasons it was agreed on not to venture outside the limits of the roof of the bunker. Also the inside was off limits for the students of Ekenäs Gymnasium who watched the event from a safe distance with their teacher Sture Lindholm. On the roof the project unearthed a large round anti-aircraft battery position. Below some are pictures from today.

The bunker "mound" before removing of the topsoil which covered the entire concrete roof.

The team assembles to discuss security issues.

7 m deep shaft on the western perimeter of the bunker.

Air shaft.

The pupils and the landowner watch with interest from the far.

"Finds"

The sharp angle of the bunker roof in the northern perimeter.

Airshaft holes in the bunker roof.

A peek into the bunker after the entrance has been cleared.

Interior of the bunker as seen from the entrance.

Same as above

The conrete foundation for a large anti-aircraft piece on the roof of the bunker.

Peace in 2014. The bunker is situated in the middle of the picture (to the left of the two larger trees).