Blast from the Past V: Late Neolithic Kimitoön

The opportunity for the last major excavation of the 2017 field season came, when I heard that Jan Fast was organizing an archaeological field school at a new Stone Age site in Kimitoön. As I was eager to excavate previously uncharted lands, I immediately decided to offer my help and before I noticed, I was on my way to the Archipelago Sea in the Southwest Finland.

Extending the trench for new participants.

The excavation lasted only for an extended weekend, but the results were at least as magnificent as in Estonia. The site was very rich in finds and revealed big pieces of pottery from Kiukainen culture - the last phase of Stone Age in the Southwest Finland. I had not excavated the period before and for some reason it immediately seemed very fascinating to me - so fascinating, that after the excavation I asked if I could clean the finds at the university in order to spend a bit more time observing the pottery!

In between of all the digging and sieving, I also had some spare time to make a few test pits in order to map the extend of the site and based on these findings, we realized that there would be much to do for years to come! This statement was soon underlined by the fact that one of the participants found another batch of pottery, bone and quartz further along the former coastline. This time the finds came from a fallen tree, as its roots had revealed the remains of an old cultural layer.

While I have been busy with other work, the research of the site has continued for the past two summers. The results have remained as exciting, and even the excavations this very week have been very fruitful to the research of Late Stone Age. I look forward to returning to the site one day, but even without my input, the research continues!

If you're interested in taking part of excavations yourself, look up what Jan is doing this summer, as there are still a plenty of public excavations to sign up for!
Location: Kemiönsaari, Suomi

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