Blast from the Past II: Rings of Conflict

After the good experiences from the week before, I wanted to gain at least one more experience on the field before the incoming winter would ruin the possibilities for many months to come. Thus, after I heard that Jan would still have one more excavation before winter, I signed up without thinking twice. This time the excavation was in Hanko – a city that would become a very familiar place for the years to come.

My first ring find. Photo: Jan Fast
As I have explained before, the research of Cape Tulliniemi in Hanko is a part of the doctoral dissertation of archaeologist Jan Fast, who has researched there a large German WW2 transition camp for multiple years. It was my first visit to the area, so I was given a short excursion around the central area, including slowly decaying barracks that still remained somewhat standing after the war.

In Tulliniemi, we were joined by a group of archaeology and history enthusiasts, who were already very familiar with the area. With them, we opened up trenches at two trash dumps located with a metal detector earlier. While the site was different and soil was more organic than the lovely sand in the previous week, the work itself was the same. And as both pits were rich in finds, we had to be as careful as ever – especially as this time the trenches were full of sharp glass shards. However, as a modern site understandably has a broader variety of material remains, we also ended up discovering quite a few peculiar items from pieces of porcelain cups to a broken souvenir mirror from Helsinki.

Personally, my most memorable find from the weekend was a ring with the Finnish coat of arms. I can still clearly recall the moment I noticed the round mud-covered shape among the roots and immediately thought that it must be a ring. As soon as I got the find in my hand, I was delighted to see that my deduction was indeed correct! The find just made me wonder why it was left among all the rubbish. Could it be that the ring didn't seem so worthy to its carrier after the alliance with Finland was broken in September 1944. Or maybe it was replaced with another, more intimate ring, such as the one decorated with a heart, which we found just a bit later. We will never know, but at least we can always speculate!

As the weekend came to an end, it was time for me to return to my studies and leave the excavations for the time being. However, I could already tell that something had changed, as I found myself following archaeology lectures with more interest than ever before and even the lectures on different soil types were suddenly extremely fascinating. Even still, I couldn't help but to hope that the new field season would arrive soon!

What remains of the barracks.

Location: Hanko, Suomi

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