Day 1/8. Excavating the Jäkärlä (Jäkärlä Culture) stone-age dwelling site in Turku SW. Finland

Since its discovery in the early 20th Century the stone-age dwelling site in Jäkärlä has been considered one of the most interesting stone-age dwelling site in Southern Finland and almost all of the early Finnish archeologists have excavated here (Cedehvarf, Tallgren, Europaeus, Pälsi, Norman etc.). Although the site has been inhabited over thousands of years it is best known for its finds from the so called Jäkärlä Culture ca 4300 - 3900 BC.

Picture from the excavation in 1908. Photo A-M. Tallgren.

For the upcoming 8 days we will continue excavating the site in the footseps of the previous researchers. The excavation area on the northern edge of Karhunojantie, a gravel road at an elevation of approximately 39 meters above present day sea level. 

During the Jäkärlä culture the dwelling site was situated on a sandy shore on a large island with open sea views to the SW.

                        The research area marked with an orange dot. Map by Teemu Väisänen                         

This years excavation area only measures some 30 square meters but we will continue excavating the site for several more years 5 cm layers at the time

This years excavaton area before excavation and after removal of the topsoil.

Todays surface finds were still quite modest consisting of quartz and poryfrite flakes but as last year we expect to find much more when we reach the second and third excavation layers. Below some pictures from the sunny first day of the 2022 excavation of this wonderful site.

STOP PRESS! Extremely rare, early bronze-age "Scandinavian style" axehead (1700-1000 BC) found in S. Karelia Finland.

On the 3rd of May 2022 experienced metal detectorist Mika Pinomäki ventured on a well planned detecting trip in an area that he knew from before. Upon arrival to the search area he found out that the landowner had deep-plowed a cultivated area. This activity had left a few interesting items only some 5 cm:s below the ground surface. The items in the clayish soil were easily within the range of Pinomäkis metal detector. 

To his amazement Pinomäki found a remarkably well preserved Scandinavian bronze-age axehead some 8-10 cm:s in length in the topsoil of the newly plowed field. 

The first pictures of the newly found and uncleaned bronze-age axehead. Pictures by Mika Pinomäki.

Pinomäki immediately reported his unique find to senior archaeologists. The find was inspected by Archaeology professor Mika Lavento from the University of Helsinki and Pinomäki was allowed to make his find public. The axehead is the first bronze-age find in the larger S. Karelia region.

The amazig early bronze-age Scandinavian axehead photographed before it was sent to the Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto). Photo Mika Pinomäki

If anyone of my Scandinavian fellow archaeologists have more information about this type of axeheads please send me a message to jfarchaeology@gmail.com . 

Congrats to Mika Pinomäki for a job well done :)

Day 3/5. Excavating the Kolsarby (Kiukais Culture) dwelling site in Kirkkonummi SW. Finland

What a wonderful day at the excavation. We managed to excavate almost the entire layer two and found several Kiukais culture potsherds and another large whetstone in the eastern part of the excavation area. 

Classic "Kiukais Culture" rimsherd with groove ornamentation under the rim.

The soil of is littered with stones and pebbles, not the most typical soil type for a stone-age dwelling site in southern Finland where the sites usually are sittuated on areas with fine sand.

Stones and pebbles litter the 2nd level of the excavation area.

Due to the soil type finds are very hard to observe during excavation which makes sieving very important indeed. Many of the potsherds and especially burnt bone fragments were found during sieving.

Possible future archaeologists during sieving.

Day 1-2/5. Excavating the Kolsarby (Kiukais Culture) dwelling site in Kirkkonummi SW. Finland

Yesterday we started the third excavation season of this small late neolithic dwelling site. According to the finds from the previous excavation the site was inhabited at least during the so called Kiukais Culture (ca 2300-1500 BC) and possibly also the Corded Ware Culture (ca 3200-2300 BC). The site is a bit different than regular stone-age sites in the area as it wasn´t situated on a sea shore during its occupation.

      
Pictures from the first two excavation days.

The area was first discovered in 2000 when quartz flakes were found in roots of trees that had fallen due to strong winds but for some reason the area wasn´t registered as a stone age dwelling site at the time. It was only after a new road had been built right through it (destroying the center of the site) that it was registered as a heritage site.

A large fragment of a whetstone was foud where it was left by the inhabitants thousands of years ago.

The finds are not plentiful but give a detailed picture of life on the site around 4000 years ago. It seems that the place was not inhabited all year round but used as a base camp during seal hunting trips to the outer archipelago. Pottery is scarce and only consists of fragments of small portable clay wessels. Many of the potsherds show textile imprints.

Potsherds with textile imprints from small clay vessels .

Quite substantial amounts of quartz flkes, artefacts of quartz and slate along with a large fragment of a whetstone (photo above) bear witness to the work related activities on the site.

Base fragment of a slate chisel.

Day 12/13. Excavating the Kittiskoski E multiperiod dwelling site in Lohja SW. Finland

After two weeks of excavting with schoolchildren today was back to traditional Community Archaeology with the Hiiden Opisto archaeology field school. The dig continued were we left off two weeks ago. As we are now excavating the bottom half of the find layer the finds are both plentiful and well preserved.

Comb Ceramic potsherds and a small slate chisel from todays excavtion of The Kittiskoski E site.

The find layer is greyish brown coloured as a result of stone-age activities on the site over a period of thousands of years. Darker areas show were pits have been dug through the cultural layer. Tomorrow we will excavate two of these pits one of which is exteremely rich in finds.

The main excavation area photographed in level 3.

Plotting each of the finds with a tachymeter kept Janne and Tanja busy throughout the day. Probably tomorrow will be no different :)

Finds, finds, finds...

Day 9/13. Excavating the Kittiskoski E multiperiod dwelling site in Lohja SW. Finland

Today the weather cleared making it possible for the third group of students from Källahagens skola to participate in the excavation. The students were divided into three smaller groups as during the previous days with some 7 students excavating at the same time.

The excavation has proceeded to the top of the  second excavation layer which usually means that the finds become more plentiful and also bigger in size (especially the potsherds). As the third group of students started their excavation work we informed them of the need to be extremely careful when excavating as plenty of well preserved stone-age finds might turn up. 

Early Typical Comb Ceramic rimsherd from todays excavation.

This proved to be the case as one of the student named Kalle found the oldest and best preserved rimsherd of the 2022 excavation. The potsherd dates to the early stage of the Typical Comb Ceramic Culture (ca 3800-3700 BC).

The Comb Ceramic pots were made with a simple with coiling technique (drawing by Tom Björklund).

Sadly just as things started to get really interesting it seems tomorrow will bring more rain which forces us to spend the day in the classroom once again. We hope to be back excavating again on Friday.

Back to Vävarsbacka II - A photographic flashback

Today was a rainy day so sadly no excavating. Instead I visitited a local school and told the students about my work in a lecture "Archaeology from the Stone-Age to the second World War". 

After the lecture I got a few wonderful pictures from the recent excavation of the stone-age dwelling site Vävarsbacka II in Porvoo. Happy times <3

All photos by Jemina Rajamäki 

Day 7/13. Excavating the Kittiskoski E multiperiod dwelling site in Lohja SW. Finland

The weather was beautiful today at Kittiskoski when the first group of 13 year old Swedish speaking students from Källhagens skola dug into the stone-age find layers of the site. Everybody had their share of the finds and the day was a very carefree and happy one.

Ornate Typical Comb Cermic rimsherd (ca 3500 BC).

The students, teachers and archaeologists all enjoyed the sunny and warm weather which sadly will end tomorrw according to the meteorologist when a low with continuous rain will arrive in S, Finland from the south. This will force us to take "the show" indoors at least for tomorrow as the wet soil would be very difficult to excavate properly by the students.

21 students participated in the excavation today.

In order to check tha no finds go unnoticed archaeologist MA Janne Soisalo and archaeology student Katja Hippeläinen have been sieving all of the soil excavated by the students. This work too would turn very difficult during wet weather conditions.

MA Janne Soisalo instructing a student and sieving the excavated soil together with archaeology student Katja Hippeläinen.

Thumbs up that we can continue excavating again on Wednesday 👍