Made by History

After excavating one of the earliest Stone Age dwelling sites in Finland for eight weeks, it was finally time to pack up and take the research into laboratories. However, it was also a great time to sum up, what had happened over these past weeks and what we had managed to discover so far. With this idea in mind, I held a public lecture about our research at the municipal hall of Savukoski and now I'll share some of the same insights here. The last test pits were dug through snow. Photo: Jussi-Pekka Hiltunen As mentioned earlier, our excavations were conducted at multiple sites in Sokli area around lake Loitsana in the northeastern part of the municipality Savukoski. The area is fascinating in the sense that there lies major waterways connecting the region to the Russian side and thus it's has always been ideal for the movement of population over various periods. It had also never seen any previous archaeological research besides field surveys. The location of o

While our excavations at Savukoski are proceeding at their own pace and our apartment is getting filled with finds, these weekends between the workdays have also been fairly fruitful. As I'm always eager to discover new things and explore my surroundings, I haven't been able to stay still, and instead I've spent my free days roaming in the nature documenting archaeological and historical sites. WWII fighting positions on top of a hill. My interest in documenting local heritage sites awoke already on the very first day, when I took a walk around our neighborhood in Savukoski and noticed that there were a plenty of WWII fortifications that we're not yet added into the online database of Finnish heritage sites. While walking among the collapsed dugouts and trenches, I took out my camera and started to document everything I saw from collapsed dugouts to trenches filled with trash. As I continued my expeditions deeper into the surrounding forests, I soon realiz

While each excavation week at Savukoski has been interesting, this one surely trumped them all. It was finally time for me and my colleague to continue with Malmio 1, the second oldest Mesolithic dwelling site known to Lapland. And after days of hard work, the results we're even more exciting than we had anticipated and surely brought a smile on all of our faces! Our picturesque excavation site in Savukoski. As I mentioned in the past, Malmio 1 is the oldest site that we're currently excavating. It has been dated to 8,070 BC, making it the second oldest known archaeological site in Lapland and one of the oldest such sites in the whole country. However, during the first excavation week we already realized that the site had been partially destroyed by earlier land use and a lot of ground had been piled on top of the potential cultural layers. Due to the importance of the site, we were not ready to give up easily though, so me and my colleague we're given a task to