Made by History

In Finland, there are certain sites that every archaeology student hears about during the very first lectures at the university – and surprisingly enough, many of them lie quite close to each other within the borders of Eura. While Eura has put a lot of effort into showcasing their ancient history and there's a plenty of information online to plan a day-trip, I still wanted to share a few prominent sites to get started with. In case you have time only for a few sites, you might want to go with these "big three"! The Kings's Grave – largest burial cairn in Finland. Kuninkaanhauta Kuninkaanhauta, literally the King’s Grave, is the largest burial cairn in Finland. It’s located right along the road, so everyone passing by is sure to notice this pile of stones rising up to 4,5 meters in height. It has never been researched from the inside but based on the location it has been dated to the early half of the Bronze Age 3500 years ago. If you have never seen cair...

There it finally is – the last excavation week at Tulliniemi. Not only is it the last week of this field season, but also the last week of the six years of field work related to Jan Fast's dissertation. Even though I wasn't there from the very beginning, it has still been almost three long years since I struck my trowel into this familiar soil for the first time. It has been quite a ride, but as my work here is complete, I can leave in good spirits and with many warm memories along the way. However, before we reach that moment, I still want to share a few memories from the week itself! German brass matchbox cover from our last trench. After two weeks of excavation on the northern coast of Tulliniemi, it was now time to move a bit inland. Our task was to excavate the site of a canteen run by Lotta Svärd in the easternmost area of the German camp. Reaching for the mystery box. The work had already started in the previous week when a small task force had opened a ...

When continuing with the less traveled paths of Satakunta, it's only natural to arrive at the outskirts of Huittinen, which also happened to be one of my favorite destinations over the past summer. Besides being the source of one of the most famous Mesolithic artefacts in Finland, the municipality has much more to offer than one might expect. Here, I will introduce a few of my favorites not only based on their historical importance, but also due to the atmosphere that surrounds them. The remains of the old chapel of Tamare. Räätikäsvuori Some remains of the walls. Satakunta might not be blessed with as many hillforts as some other provinces, but it still has two of them and, in my opinion, both of them are definitely worth a visit! Räätikäsvuori lies conveniently by the Turku-Tampere road, so it's a convenient place for a short hike. The path to the top leaves from the south-eastern side of the hill and you can easily find it when following the road. On the o...

Excavations can sometimes have somewhat unexpected results and this week falls into that category. In my previous post, I wrote about a Soviet trench filled with later German waste and mentioned that we excavated all but the far end of it, as the layers of cans and bottles continued far deeper than elsewhere in the area. This week, it was my task to finish up with the site, while the new crew started with another site dozens of meters east. While I was planning on finishing with the work on the first day, I was soon surprised with a wooden construction that got revealed far beneath the topsoil. Soviet ammunition boxes from the bottom of the trench. I soon realized that instead of discovering discarded planks thrown into the dump, we had reached the original Soviet trench constructions. After systematically following the planks, I managed to slowly uncover one of the sides, eastern corner and a possible doorway in the west. It also became evident that the construction only i...

While Satakunta has many famous archaeological sites to offer, sometimes it's fun to diverge from the paved path and seek something entirely different. For me, one of the most memorable trips from this summer was a long drive through the northern parts of the province, where I was met by sites from various periods from the early Mesolithic to the Swedish era and even up to the World War II. As the distances in the north are as great as the gaps between the periods of various sites, I will only concentrate on Karvia, which alone has much to offer to any curious soul. Kyrönkankaan tie - a road that was first mentioned in 1556 and has seen many uses ever since. Pantti The impossible task of taking photos of dwelling sites. A great place to start your Karvia tour is from the very beginning of human habitation in the area. Pantti is a Stone Age dwelling site, which has not yet seen much research and the finds from the first survey include only quartz flakes and bone. Ho...

After finishing up with my "grand tour" around Satakunta, it was again time to return to the WWII German transition camp in Cape Tulliniemi, Hanko. While the site was already familiar to me from a few field seasons in the past, this time the season was a bit more special, as it was the last excavations at Tulliniemi for the time being. After these three weeks, the work will be finally moved indoors for archaeologist Jan Fast to use in his dissertation. But there's still a plenty of time to make more discoveries! Edelweiss pin of Gebirgsjäger. Outline of the filled Soviet trench. The focus of the first week was on a trash dump on the northern coast of Tulliniemi, where you can still see many remains of the battlements dug by Soviets in 1941. Some trenches were later used by Germans as trash dumps, and one of such sites was chosen for our excavation. While we have excavated numerous trash dumps before, this one was interesting especially as an archaeologi...