50 Days of Satakunta

For the past month and a half, I've been working for Satakunta Museum, which is already familiar to me from the last summer. While last year my work included sorting out the archaeological collections and visiting new sites reported by locals, this time my work was solely on the field, as I was to document known heritage sites all around the province. After hundreds of kilometers on the road and many days in the bushes, I'm finally done with the field work and can share the results with everyone interested.

The closest burial cairn from my house in Pori - less than 30 minutes on foot!

To offer a little background to my work, let's state that there's a new initiative by the National Heritage Agency to list the most prominent archaeological sites around the country. These sites could be considered as prime examples of their category (eg. cairns, dwelling sites or trapping pits). While this doesn't mean that the other archaeological sites would be of less value, it's these chosen ones that will be put on a pedestal. While it remains to be seen on how this actually influences the sites themselves, it can be hoped at least that they would get more funding for upkeep.

In order to list such sites, a lot of field work is needed, as many sites haven't been visited in years and their current condition is not known. And this is where I come in. My task for these weeks has been to visit potential sites around Satakunta and to make recommendations for sites that should be included into the national list for example based on their prime condition, rarity or research potential. I have also been tasked with documenting the sites themselves, as many of them don't have proper GPS coordinates and even less of the sites have photos available online.

The work has been fascinating and has offered a great look into the various sites around Satakunta. Now I've finally finished with the "grand tour" and written my reports of the sites. However, after gaining all that knowledge of the sites themselves, I've been thinking that there should be more that I could do with the information. And after talking with the locals around the province, I've come up with an idea.

Cup marks on a rock in Kokemäki.

There's a strong interest in history everywhere I've been, but often there's little knowledge on where to find information from. Usually municipalities list some heritage sites on their websites, but that's only the most prominent sites for tourists. There's also a database for all archaeological sites, but it's hard to say based on the descriptions that which ones are worth visiting. They also don't suggest places for parking, best routes to approach the sites from or offer similar sites to visit in the neighborhood.

So, in order to do my part in making our history more approachable, for the next weeks, I will be sharing some of the sites I've visited as a series of posts called "Around Satakunta". Over these weeks, I've noticed that one doesn't have to always travel far to see something fascinating and I hope that my short instructions and descriptions will encourage at least a few people to find their way into the sites that represent thousands years of our history.

Don't hesitate to contact me, if you have any further questions or ideas! You can also find my photos on Finna, where I'm hoping to share many of my shots over time.