Finishing up with Tulliniemi, week II

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 included the bottom parts and the top layers of planks were probably reused for another purpose.

Supporting beams still intact.

While the trench was mostly without any finds, there were still occasional German buttons and tobacco papers among all the shattered glass. The most peculiar finds were two ammunition boxes that lied on the bottom part of the construction with party decayed wooden parts.

As the trench constructions were far beneath the ground and the excavation area was fairly narrow, the site became a bit problematic as the dug soil started to dry. Every time someone walked past or I made a wrong move with the shovel, a section of the wall would collapse and the work started from the beginning. It also became evident that if we had wanted to excavate the whole construction, we'd had to open up many square meters more. As this was not possible with our resources, we had to document what we could and fill the trench yet again.

What we learned though, was the fact that the original Soviet trenches still lied far beneath the ground and it was still possible to uncover them, if there ever was a need to do closer research on the topic. However, as they have been covered with more than a meter and a half of soil and German trash, it's a time-consuming project.

While I was busy with the trench, our crew dug another smaller trash dump with similar finds from the earlier week. After I had finished with the trench, we also had some time to dig small test pits in a new area, where we're moving on next week in order to make discoveries regarding a canteen run by Lotta Svärd.

A section of the trench under work.