Conflicts Within

As the last type of archaeological heritage, I decided to jump a bit further towards the present and concentrate on something a bit closer to our time - archaeology of modern conflicts. As the sites older than one hundred years are protected by the Antiquities Act, the conflicts preceding and following the Finnish independence already fall under it. While there has been a lot of interest towards the Civil War recently, I'm now concentrating on remains just a bit older than it.

Karhumaantie trench in Ruosniemi.

During the World War I, Finland was still under the Russian Empire. At the time, Russia was afraid of a German landing in Finland, so a formidable operation was launched to prepare fortifications around the major cities and roads within the Grand Duchy of Finland. In Satakunta, these were concentrated mainly around the cities of Rauma and Pori. While many trenches were already known around the region at the start of my work, I took it as my task to pinpoint a few more.

The first site I concentrated on was in Ruosniemi, which was said to have multiple trenches from the period. As there was no knowledge of the exact location of these trenches, I decided to use GIS to assist me in locating them.

Geographic information system (GIS) is a system designed to analyze geographic data, which I have shortly covered already within my posts about tar kilns and cairn. While maps and hillshade model at Kansalaisen karttapaikka might often be enough for surveying a certain area, software such as ArcGIS and QGIS have further functions to use and are very useful both in finding new sites and storing or visualizing information after the discoveries.

With Ruosniemi, I soon noticed that Kansalaisen karttapaikka was not enough to get started. As hillshade model is done by creating shadows from a single source of light, it sometimes doesn't reveal all features - for example when they are covered by the shadow itself. This is when Principal Component Analysis (PCA) comes into the play. PCA summarizes the information from hillshaded images from multiple directions, showcasing certain features in a much clearer way. It also makes the model look a bit more colorful!

PCA and ordinary hillshade models with the trenches circled.

While the trenches were somewhat visible on the ordinary hillshade model as well, they really did stand out when observing the PCA model. After locating the site on the map, it was easy to follow the coordinates during a field inspection. When approaching the site, the trenches did clearly stand out among the trees and bushes. They were partially filled with vegetation and fallen trees, but remained in otherwise decent condition for structures that have been abandoned for one hundred years. After photographing and measuring the sites, they were added to the archaeological database to wait for further research.

In case you've discovered trenches or other constructions from the WWI that aren't recorded into the archaeological database, follow these introductions to report them to the Finnish Heritage Agency.