Excavating the Airfield – Research of Feldluftpark Pori Continues

 After the educational excavation organized for the students of PSYL, our team was joined by a group of participants through Pori adult education centre. With their kind assistance, we were able to continue excavating the Luftwaffe Airfield and to finish the first field season of Feldluftpark Pori research project. While the finds are currently going through some cleaning and cataloging, a few words can be shared of the excavation itself.

Even if the weather was not always favorable, the work continued!

With this new group, we continued the trench that had already been started with the high school students earlier – that being the unknown German barracks building at the very outskirts of the base. We also opened up a larger test trench over a German trash pit, with hopes of getting a larger sample of wartime German belongings.

As the main excavation trench was already almost finished, it didn't take long for us to finish the job. One of the main goals for us was to empty the "Porin Matti" stove that still lied in the trench. While we had hoped to discover something peculiar, such as partially burnt newspaper articles, the stove was filled with only tiles, construction materials and dirt. However, the tiles were interesting as well, as many of them had Arabia stamps on them, as well as a single stamp that still remains unclear.

Cork of a Blendax toothpaste tube was also hiding under the stove.

The trash pit on the other hand was more fruitful, as it contained a plenty of ceramic with peculiar stamps. Along with usual Arabia stamps, there was a plenty of Soviet ceramic with multiple different kinds of stamps. This raises an interesting questions, as it's not clear on why would such ceramic be found from a Luftwaffe airfield. Were they already in Pori before war and for some reason handed to Germans along with more typical Arabia ceramic? Or were they brought in by the Germans themselves during the war? Or did the German and Soviet belongings end up in the same trash pit, when the buildings were cleaned after the war?

Along with typical archaeological excavation, we did some metal detecting in the area to map out other potential excavation sites. However, as the research area was in the very outskirts of the airfield, it seems like the soldiers just threw their empty toothpaste tubes and other trash into the woods, instead of systematically digging larger trash pits. In order to not let potentially interesting items be lost to so called nighthawking, we followed such lone signals by digging up a plenty of small items thrown into the woods.

A bit bigger caliber for a change, as these .50 were used for aircraft machine guns.

The finds were many and varied, as we gathered a plenty of items from shells to bottles, along with more peculiar items such as a Junghangs wall clock, canteen cup and mess kit. After all the work was over, the finds were taken to Satakunta Museum to be cleaned and cataloged. Some of them will be soon showcased in an exhibition planned by the students themselves, with a grand opening being as close as September 25th.

The work on the field will most likely continue next year, as there are plenty of other places to research within Feldluftpark Pori - as well as other wartime sites in Satakunta. Meanwhile, it's time for us to get a closer look into the finds at the museum, as well as to continue the archival work related to the wartime history of Satakunta.

This piece of Soviet ceramic was made in 1934-40, but how did it end up in Pori?