Vantaalla sijaitsee yksi Uudenmaan hienoimmista ja
runsaslöytöisimmistä kivikautisista asuinpaikoista. Aikaisemmissa kaivauksissa
alueelta on löytynyt useita ainutlaatuisia ihmiskasvoisia 5500 vuotta vanhoja
savi-idoleita.
Today both archaeologist Janne Soisalo and the finder had an opportunity to visit the newly found stone-age dwelling site in Leppävaara Espoo (S. Finland). During the early comb ceramic period the dwelling site was situated on a small level cape close to the seashore. Due to the land uplift the area were the finds where located is now approximately 25-30 m:s above sea level. The area was also suitable for habitation during the corded ware culture.
Sadly the site has been badly damaged by a ski track but we remain cautiously optimistic that at least the uppermost part of it might still contain some information about when people used the site.
In the midst of the November darkness a bright ray of light in the form of a discovery of a previously unknown stone-age dwelling site in Leppävaara Espoo part of the larger Helsinki region!
Leppävaara is a suburb in Espoo or actually more like the second centre of the town. It´s quite amazing that despite the very large scale construction work in the area signs of the 6000 year old stone age settlements in the area are still to be found in 2020.
The previously unknown stone age site was found by "Jemppa" Rajamäki. A very gifted amateur archaeologist who has participated in community archaeology excavations with me and MA Janne Soisalo for a couple of years already.
Jemppa knows what she´s doing so she just photographed the quarts flake finds in situ and immediately reported them to us. JFArchaeology will make a trial excavation of the new site with financial support from the local community in 2021. Stay tuned for more pictures tomorrow.
Christmas came early in 2020!
Now it´s official, the registration to the 2021 excavation of the Jokiniemi neolithic dwelling site starts in just a little under one months time!
Because of the special nature of the site the number of participants has been limited to 20 persons/week! Please read more about the excavation by clicking on the link below!
If you have questions in English or Swedish please email us at jfarchaeology@gmail.com.
https://kesayliopistopalvelut.fi/helsinginseutu/course.php?l=fi&t=2136
Act fast and don´t miss out on this exciting neolithic stone age excavation only 15 km:s from Helsinki City Center next summer!! The maximum number of participants is limited to 20 participants/week!
The planning of next years community archaeology excavations are well under way and we are happy to announce the dates for the 2021 digs. Keep on checking out this site for regular updates and information about when and how to register!
Please send a letter of interest to jfarchaeology@gmail.com if you want more information of the 2021 excavation season in English, German or Swedish.
Stay safe and see you soon!
Jan Fast and Janne Soisalo
WW2 battlefield Archaeology - Toisen maailmansodan sota-arkeologiaa
Järj. Hangö Sommaruni ja Hangon Rintamamuseo yhteistyössä sotavainajien muiston vaalimisyhdistys ry:n ja Venäjän suurlähetystön kanssa. Osassa tutkimuksia projektirahoitus.
- Hanko 1941 projekti huhtikuu 2021
Sotavainajaprojekti. Tutkimusryhmä, ei ilmoittautumista!
- Hanko 1941 projekti 5.5. - 9.5.2021 (la-to)
Kenraali Kabanovin korsun kaivaus. Ilmoittautuminen on alkanut.
Järj. Hangö Sommaruni
https://hangosommaruni.fi/studieprogram/22-kurser/ovriga-kurser/arkeologi/66-konfliktarkeologi
- Hanko 1941 projekti 10.5. - 13.5.2021 (ma-to)
Sotavainajaprojekti. Tutkimusryhmä, ei ilmoittautumista!
- Hanko 1941 projekti 19.7-23.7.2020 (ma-pe)
Hangon maarintama. Ilmoittautuminen on alkanut.
Järj. Hangö Sommaruni
https://hangosommaruni.fi/studieprogram/22-kurser/ovriga-kurser/arkeologi/66-konfliktarkeologi
- Hanko 1941 projekti 26.7-30.7.2020 (ma-pe)
Hangon maarintama. Ilmoittautuminen on alkanut.
Järj. Hangö Sommaruni
https://hangosommaruni.fi/studieprogram/22-kurser/ovriga-kurser/arkeologi/66-konfliktarkeologi
Historical Archaeology - Historiallisen ajan arkeologiaa
Projektirahoitus.
Taideprojekti/Pedagoginen koululaiskaivaus yhteistyössä
Vuoreksen koulun kanssa.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1162157773969283
Archaeology of the Stone Age - Kivikauden arkeologiaa
- Leppävaara, Monikko 20. - 23.5.2021 (to-su)
Ilmoittautuminen ei vielä alkanut.
Järj. Leppävaara seura
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1045122789289308
- Raasepori, Malmkulla 27. - 30.5.2021 (to-su)
Ilmoittautuminen ei vielä alkanut.
Järj. Karis
Hembygdsförening ja Sällskapet Natura.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/471340030090292
- Porvoo, Vävarsbacka 2. - 6.6.2021 (ke-su)
Ilmoittautuminen alkaa 7.1.2021!
Järj. Borgå Medborgarinstitut.
https://www.opistopalvelut.fi/porvoo/course.php?l=fi&h=da796dcc49ab9fc5ac26db17e02a9e33&t=10260
https://www.facebook.com/groups/181135582548602
- Kirkkonummi, Kolsarby 9.6. - 13.6.2021 (ke-su)
HUOM! Ilmoittautuminen käynnissä muutamia paikkoja vielä jäljellä!
Järj.
Kyrkslätts Medborgarinstitut.
https://opistopalvelut.fi/kirkkonummi/course.php?l=fi&t=8619
- Turku, Jäkärlä 16.6. - 20.6.2021 (to-su)
Kaivaus on loppuuvarattu mutta voit ilmoittautua varasijoille.
Järj. Åbo svenska arbetarinstitut.
https://opistopalvelut.fi/abo/course.php?l=sv&t=2948
https://opistopalvelut.fi/abo/course.php?l=sv&t=2947
- Espoo,
Kläppkärr 28.6 - 3.7.2021 (ma-la)
Kaivaus on loppuuvarattu mutta voit ilmoittautua varasijoille.
https://ilmonet.fi/course/EA210178
- Vantaa, Jokiniemi 7. - 11.7.2021 (ke-su)
Järj. Helsingin seudun kesäyliopisto.
https://kesayliopistopalvelut.fi/helsinginseutu/course.php?l=fi&t=2136
https://www.facebook.com/Jokiniemi2021
- Ahvenanmaa 26.7. - 30.7.2021 (ma-pe)
Suunnitteluvaiheessa.
Järj. Medis
https://www.mariehamn.ax/daghem-skola/medis/
- Kemiönsaari, Ölmosviken 9.8 – 17.8.2021
Ilmoittautuminen ei vielä alkanut.
Tutkimusrahoitus/Väitöskirjtutkimus.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/238168100362325
- Kouvola Ruskiasuo 21.8.-29.8.2020
Ilmoittautuminen ei vielä alkanut.
Järj. Kouvolan kansalaisopisto ja projektirahoitus.
Kouvolan kansalaisopiston harrastajille suunnattu kaivaus 21.-22.8.2021 ja
28.-29.8.2021
Koululaiskaivaus 23.8.-27.8.2021
https://www.facebook.com/groups/618469168576047
- Lohja Kittiskoski E
Ilmoittautuminen ei vielä alkanut.
Järj. Hiiden opisto ja projektirahoitus.
Hiiden opiston harrastajille suunnattu kaivaus 4. - 5.9.2021 ja 11.9. - 12.9.2021 (la-su)
Koululaiskaivaus 6.9. – 10.9.2021
Today an article was published in the local newspaper about the repatriation/reburial of the seven KIA Soviet soldiers discovered near the defensive positions of the 3rd battery of 204th air-defence and artillery division in Hanko Tvärminne. The article produced an interesting phone call from a local elderly man.
According to him the bodies of seven German soldiers drifted ashore in the archipelago SE of Hanko in the summer of 1941 or 1942. Six of the soldiers were buried on a larger island close to the mainland and the seventh one on a small skerry further out to sea.
A low depression in the ground marks the place of a war
grave on the Hanko Front.
The graves of the six soldiers were opened and the bodies moved from the temporary grave site in the summer of 1952 and transported to the nearby town of Ekenäs but the remains are said to have been buried in the churchyard in Pojo. According to the informant the seventh soldiers grave was for some reason left untouched and the soldiers mortal remains are still on the small skerry.
The story is one of several gathered and investigated in the course of the "Hanko 1941" project. Even though many of the stories can´t be verified as such, careful archive, cartographic and photographic studies can often offer more information that in due time forms the basis for scientific conflict archaeology fieldwork.
If you have any knowledge of war graves on the Hanko peninsula please contact us. Every soldier despite of Nationality deserves a name and a decent grave.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
