Archaeological Field School (formerly of NOCUSO fame)

City Center

2011-06-18T07:10:00.001-07:00

June 18, 2011:

On Saturday, we drove down to the city center to explore the public market and Stockmann. The market was incredible and there were plenty of things to see and buy. Mostly, we walk through the food and souvenir area. Afterwards, we went to Stockmann which was similar to a mall in the U.S. It was nice and very unique due to having varieties of products to buy. The things that they have are food, clothes, electronics, and etc.

Soil Profile

2011-06-18T07:08:00.001-07:00

June 17, 2011:

On Friday, we were done with most of our trenches. Joseph, Colin, Babar, and Riku were in the T111A, T111B, T111D, and T111E drawing soil profile of the walls. Meanwhile, Alesia was digging further down on T111C trench. Overall, the team finished up most of the soil profiles for the trenches and T111C trench continues to go further down.

Bottoming out

2011-06-16T09:02:00.000-07:00

It was a productive day on the site! Unfortunately, Jen and Saima did not join us today but Greg did despite the situation with his shoulder. Most of the manpower was directed towards the T111 sites due to the dire need to complete the trenches which was hastily accomplished. Babar and Colin working in T111B and Joseph in T111E stopped finding artifacts at the close of the day, so those trenches were completed. T111C on the other hand still has charcoal bits showing up. The trench has gone down 1 meter, so Alesia had to hang over the side of the trench to excavate. Dustin worked on the T211 series of trenches and found some quartz flakes. The pressure of the project ending is getting to everyone and the demand to complete the project on time was met by the hard work of everyone today!

Digging Deeper

2011-06-15T08:52:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday, the team once again began excavating the main group of units. Initially, few artifacts was found in the trenches, but as more layers were uncovered, finds began popping up all around unit T111C. In fact, so many quartz flakes and other artifacts were found that the team raced at breakneck speed to record all of the finds and take total station points as the workday drew to a close. Later that evening, the team enjoyed a small dinner on the rooftop sauna at the apartment complex cooked up by a friendly neighbor from Thailand that Dan had met earlier during the trip. The food was very spicy but delicious! Wednesday began with the team setting out for another day of working towards the last few levels of the trenches. After bidding Leyna and Dan farewell the night before as they departed for Israel this morning, the team began the new workday refreshed and eager to turn up new finds at the site. Jen, Babar, Saima, and Alesia worked the main set of units that the team had been excavating since day one, while Colin, Joseph, and Dustin worked a promising new set of units deeper within the woods. Greg unfortunately is still out with a pinched nerve in his shoulder, we all hope he feels better soon! The new set of units had already yielded a promising set of new finds earlier in the week, and the team managed to turn up many new quartz flakes as the workday wore on. Being Wednesday, it was of course Makkara day, once again being held on the beach in Kierikki. A few team members tried their hand at the archery range, and it seems that their skills have definitely improved since the last visit. After lunch, the team cleaned up the trenches and wrapped up the paperwork, and are eager to finish taking down the rest of the trenches and discovering any artifacts beneath.

Chilly Monday

2011-06-13T09:42:00.000-07:00

Monday June 13, 2011:

Today the weather was cold, windy, and partly cloudy. It was the perfect weather to excavate due to not being bothered by that many black flies and mosquitoes compared to previous days. As our group arrived at the site Joseph and Leyna had to set up the total station because Dustin, Dan, and Riku had to bring the van back to the University of Oulu to switch for another van. Leyna had taken notes on how to set up the total station the correct way from Dustin and Greg last Friday. It took Joseph and Leyna some time; however they mastered the art of total station 101 and got it running perfectly. Moreover, our group today was split up into two. Joseph, Colin, Alesia, Saima, Jen, Rebecca, and Riku were excavating the trenches from the past two weeks. Dustin, Dan, and Leyna were opening a new trench near last year's site, which is across the road from where the first group is excavating. Last year when they opened the trenches from the site, Dustin said that they found the remains of seal bones, charcoal and flakes. Dustin was certain we would find the same artifacts as last year's excavation. Meanwhile, the other group took up where they left off this past Friday, which was to dig down another 5cm. Alesia found some slag in her trench which is a partially vitreous by-product of smelting ore to separate the metal fraction from the unwanted fraction. This was great news because it shows how pre-historic humans were using the trenches that we are excavating in. Furthermore, Dustin team has found a variety of artifacts in their trenches. They found pieces of seal bones, charcoal, and quartz flake. They were very pleased with their findings and hope to find more interesting artifacts later on. Overall, today excavation was fun, different, and unique due to the different tasks that we all share with one another, which makes the time fly by quickly.

Artic Circle

2011-06-13T09:41:00.000-07:00

Sunday, June 12, 2011:

We began our quest to the Arctic Circle. We finally caught a break from the heat! On our way there we stopped at a museum called the Arktikum which has exhibits about the Saamis (the indigenous people of northern Finland), the history of Finland in general, and has a lot of information and exhibits about the arctic and aurora borealis. After spending a few hours observing the past we drove 5 minutes up the road to the Santa Claus Village. There we were able to look at many different shops and grab a bite to eat. There was a little bit of something for everyone and after a long day most of us fell asleep on the drive back.

Zoo time

2011-06-13T09:37:00.000-07:00

Saturday, June 11, 2011:

On Saturday we went to the zoo. Riku and his girlfriend as well as Babar and Saima were with us. The zoo had many interesting animals. Amongst them: owls, reindeer, polar bears, and wild boars. After looking through the zoo some people enjoyed the playground while others enjoyed the buffet.

Hot Friday!

2011-06-13T09:30:00.000-07:00

Friday, June 10, 2011:

Friday we continued our excavations and worked through the sweltering heat. We worked on the newly opened trench and the total station was sighted to our new site that we are continuing from last year. The site consists of a hearth with a wealth of seal bones and quartz flakes. Finds from there seem to be promising! We rewarded ourselves with lunch at the fish weir and then went to the beach! Saima joined us for the beach. We all enjoyed cooling off in the water and bonding as a group outside of our trenches.

Suggested viewing material

2011-06-09T11:25:00.000-07:00

Alisia found this video and Riku suggested we add it to the blog. Replace "Northern Ontario" with "Finland" and you get the idea. This also, along with Jen, qualifies as canadian content.

A Very Hot Day

2011-06-09T10:01:00.001-07:00

Today was a VERY hot day- about 85 degrees! Dustin, Dan, Greg, Babar, Saima and Joe went on survey while the rest of us stayed at the site to continue digging. We took about 10 water breaks just so we could stick our heads under the water pump right down the road! Lucky (and not so lucky) for us, Greg, Dustin and Dan hung a big blue tarp between two nearby trees yesterday. The tarp was great because it protected most of us in the trench from the sun, but not so great because the shade attracted the bugs!

Our morning was filled with some frustration over our Total Station (a device for measuring the location and height of things) which was giving us some problems, but after some calm and careful figuring we got everything working correctly. No major finds today, just a few samples of charcoal. We actually opened up a new square yesterday, but didn't have time to do more than remove the organic layer. Today we had plenty of time to work on the new square, and to our surprise we found MORE CHARCOAL! We are so confused as to what this means… How many fires were there and how were they arranged and tended? What were these fires used for?

We have made our plans for the upcoming weekend. We have decided to visit Rovaniemi (a quaint city near the arctic circle) on Saturday and to go to the beach after our day of digging tomorrow! Some of us are absolutely thrilled to jump into some cold water while at the beach, while others wonder why we want to spend more time in the sun and covered in sand…

Tomorrow is a whole new day! We all can't wait to see what's in store for us tomorrow once we get to the site- keep an eye out for updates!

Uncovering New Finds and a New Unit

2011-06-08T08:54:00.000-07:00

Wednesday started with a new day of excavation, with nearly the entire team joining in. Today Saima was the only one of the two Pakistani students to attend, and Greg and Dustin were at tthe site as well due to the fact that there was no survey today. The weather was beautiful but again fairly hot, even more so than yesterday. A passing breeze kept the bugs away at first, but by 10:30 the black flies returned in force. Fortuneatly, Riku picked up some bug spray that was specially designed this type of insect versus mosquitos, and it worked wonders. After taking down a few new layers, the team broke for lunch.

Today was the famous makarat Wednesday, and the team head out to the beach in Kieriki. The beach doubled as a stone age exhibit for the local Yli-Ii museum, which also had a mini archery range. Most of the team

stepped up to try their hand at using a bow and arrow, which is much more difficult than it looks! After lunch, the team returned to the dig site, and set up a tarp in order to provide shade for the excavation site, and the team was much more productive after it cooled down. Towards the end of the day, a new unit adjacent to units T111A and T111D was opened, and several large charcoal finds were recovered from unit T111C. Some pieces recovered from the southern part of T11C were especially large and intact, indicating that this fire pit must have been very large. In all, the team managed to work through the heat and flies and make substantial process on the excavation.

Survey: June 7 2011

2011-06-07T09:05:00.000-07:00

We set off at the crack of “dawn.” Dustin, Greg, Dan, Leyna, and Alesia made up the survey squad. We surveyed 4 or 5 potential sites with little luck. On our trek through the foliage on this 85 degree (Fahrenheit) day, we encountered fire anthills and poisonous snakes known as adders which were promptly poked and irritated for our own enjoyment. We surveyed the land for depressions or other spots that seemed to have human modification. Through one of the densest parts of the forest, we stumbled upon a structure similar to a giant’s church that had not been discovered yet. It was located on top of a hill and had many boulders in the walls; a typical trait of giant’s churches. There has been sufficient overgrowth, making the feature difficult to recognize without a keen eye. One rule that we learned today was that no matter how hot it is, how much you are moving, or even how much bug spray you lather yourself in, the tiny black flies will get you.

New Patterns Emerge

2011-06-07T08:53:00.000-07:00

Tuesday June 7 2011

Today was a rather bright day as the team arrived at the excavation site, and work began on digging a few more layers. Sima was feeling unwell and took the day off, however we were joined by Babar after his absence the previous day. As morning faded into afternoon, however, the team began to think of the impossible: it was nearly too hot to dig in Finland. The bugs returned again in force as well, and most of the team left the site with more than a few new bug bites, Riku being the exception, as he seems to have an immunity built up from dealing with the various insects that infest the trench from time to time. After a few water breaks and taking down a few layers in all of the units, the team noticed some interesting wave patterns in the trench, a pattern that may be romising as further layers are uncovered in the coming days. Overall, it was a very productive day at the excavation site, and team is eager to see what new archaeological features may emerge.

Week One: The Excavation Begins

2011-06-06T11:36:00.000-07:00

Monday and TuesdayAfter long plane rides, we had a small amount of time to get over our jet lag. Eva and Jen were piteous to our situation and the first Monday began at 10 as opposed to the usual 7:45. We went to the University of Oulu to gather supplies like tarps, sifters, trowels, buckets, shovels, etc. We met Babar and Saima (international students from Pakistan studying in Oulu) along with Riku, our Finnish assistant. After loading up the cars and eating lunch, the adventure to the site began. We enjoyed the sights of Finland including the lack of stop signs, pine and birch trees, and the beautiful Ii River. After driving back the path to the site, we encountered some fallen trees. Thankfully there was another way around because there was no way we were going to be able to get there. We finally got to the site, dropped off our equipment and explored.
Tuesday was the first day of excavations and the war with the total station. It refused to participate by giving completely inaccurate results. We learned how to fill out layer sheets and how to dig properly. By the end of the day, the total station was semi-compliant to our wishes, which was satisfactory. We endured the bugginess of Finland and engaged in battle by using the strongest bug spray in the world (which is apparently too weak to repel the bugs). Overall, the weather has been beautiful and sunny.

June 1 2011 Wednesday:After a tough day of digging on Tuesday, the team finally caught a break on Wednesday as rain clouds moved in on the Yli-II dig site. After picking up Riku, and two Pakistani students, Babar and Saima, the team set out for the excavation site. Overcast clouds held for roughly two hours in the morning, when rain began pouring down. The team took shelter in the tent/vans for about 20 minutes hoping for a break. As the rain began pouring more severely, however, Jennifer and Eva decided to take the team out for a field trip and the Yli-II museum. The team spent a rainy afternoon touring the exhibits and learning about the concept of uplift. Uplift is caused when the sea level gradually recedes and the shoreline expands westward. Archaelogists can use this phenomenon to accurately measure where the shoreline was at a particular point in time, and more importantly, the specific time periods of the artifacts buried within a particular time period. After wrapping up the afternoon with a short video on previous excavations in the area, the team broke for a quick meal and then returned to the dig site as the rain had finally subsided. Great progress was made in the remaining hours, with artifacts such as charcoal, quartz and fcr found within the trenches. Overall, it was a much easier, yet still productive day for the excavation team, who looked forward to discovering new finds the next morning.June 2 2011 Thursday

Thursday began with a continuation of digging in the trenches. Greg’s flight had been delayed in Toronto due to inclement weather on the Eastern coast of North America, but he was due to arrive that night, along with Dustin. The usually excavation suspects were joined by two faces: a Chinese student, and a Finnish-American student, both welcome additions to the team. A new unit, 111C was opened by Joe, Babar, and Saima, and many total station points leftover from the previous day were taken. In addition to excavation, Colin and Alesia were able to get some hands on experience with using the total station and the prism, as there were plenty of new points to be taken by the team due to the plethora of new finds. With these new finds the team continued to learn on how to fill out the paperwork, documenting samples, photos, and layers. Thankfully the weather began to hold much better today, and with increased warmth and wind, the bugs were much more sparse than earlier in the week.

June 3 2011 Friday: What the ROOT?
The weather on Friday was pretty nice, it was warm and windy which help kept the bugs away for a while. We were split into two groups for survey and excavation. Jen supervised the excavation team consisted of Babar, Saima, Riku, Alicia, and Eva. Dustin supervised the survey team consisted of Joseph, Colin, Dan, and Leyna.

Furthermore, while digging the excavation team found a big root that got in the most of the way and had a significant effect on the layer profile drawing. The only other way to avoid this root was to work around it for now. The survey team was introduced to t

he methods of survey by Dustin, he showed them how to look for artifacts that were in the mix of destruction by forester who chopped down the trees and destroy most of the previous excavation site from 2008. We were looking for anything that relates to pre-historic humans that lived in the region, such as flake, slate, and FCR (Fire-cracked rock). Once we found these artifacts, we marked them with a red flag. Th

en later on we came back to mark the coordinates with the handheld GPS in order to use it for mapping purposes. Friday was Eva last day working with us;

we took a group picture and said our farewell’s to her. We will miss her!

June 4TH 2011: Fun Saturday!
We went out to explore downtown Oulu to see what the nightlife had to offer. The downtow

n was pretty live due to a numerous numbers of high schools that just graduated. We went to the Finnish karaoke to chat and grab a couple of drinks. Ultima

tely, downtown Oulu was very fun and exciting. It was a nice to see a different perspective of nightlife in contrast to the U.S.

Sunday:

Today was a BEAUTIFUL Sunday in Finland!

We decided to take a field trip to a nearby "Giants Church" and the nearby bird sanctuary/park. The "Giants Church" is a large ring of piled stones with several surrounding burial cairns.

The morning ended up being a bit more eventful

than we imagined… While we were in our van (looking for the signs to the Giants Church) we ran over the stump of a tree that had been recently cut down! Thankfully, no one was hurt and other than a VERY flat tire there was no damage. We even got lucky because the van we were driving had a FLAT SPARE TIRE but our other van had another one we could use. Archaeology is always an adventure!

The bird sanctuary was absolutely beautiful- clear skies, shining sun and the perfect example of isostatic uplift! There were signs marking the previous shorelines, one

as recent as 1986! The entire sanctuary was a marshland, but they had built a nice little wooden walkway to allow the public access. Most of the land was still very waterlogged, however you could see the slow process of it drying out and rising above the water. The park also had two bird-viewing buildings- one was a very tall tower, and the other a small one-story building with many windows to allow people to view the many migrating birds that visit the area. Unfortunately, we didn't see too many birds but it was absolutely beautiful anyway!

It was a fun day all around! :)

Monday:
The majority of us resumed excavating this morning while Greg, Dustin and Riku (our Finnish colleague) went to restock the vans with spare tires. After yesterdays adventure, we figured it best to have usable spares just in case anything happened again…

For those of us at the site, the bugs were really bad… No amount of bug-spray helped- even the FIRE didn't help! There weren't many mosquitos out, it was the black flies that were the problem. They land on you and crawl around until they find a delicious spot worth biting into!
Greg, Dustin and Riku made it back to the site in time for lunch, and after that we split into two teams. One team, Greg, Dustin, Colin and Joe went off to scout for new areas to survey while the rest of us continued excavating. It was SO frustrating having to work with so many flies trying to eat us alive, but by the end of the day we had gotten to level 7 in squares B and C and to the bottom level 5 in square D. On order to do that, Saima had to saw through a huge tree root that was becoming too frustrating to dig around anymore.

Overall, today was a great day and we can't wait to get back to excavating and to begin our survey project.

"It's like we were never here...sort of"

2010-05-28T06:32:00.000-07:00

The final day has come and gone with no further discoveries to speak of. The units that once fell a meter deep have become whole again. The red flags indicating the potential importance of certain areas have been plucked from their positions. And the rumbling of the 8 a.m. van, filled with excavation rookies for the most part, has tallied its last kilometer.

Final touches were made on some of the units as profiles were reviewed and corrected appropriately.While a press event was held at the local Kerikki museum, where we were invited to give a brief summary about our work throughout our excavation period. At the lone bone unit, small fragments of bone continue to show up; whether they are from an animal or human, it is still unknown.

It was a fascinating three week experience, one that, I'm sure all will agree, would not have been traded for anything. The lessons we learned and the time spent with new friends cannot be replaced. From a cultural aspect, we learned a lot about life outside of the U.S. while in a archaeological sense we learned the importance of teamwork and order. We learned how a single miscalculation, whether its mapping a unit or surveying a site, can disrupt the timetable of a work schedule. But lastly, and arguably most important, we learned that archaeology is a job but one with a field of history; deeply rooted within the soils and sands of the past. Farewell team, this excavation will forever belong to us.

Spring Cleaning

2010-05-27T07:31:00.000-07:00

With the final day of excavation approaching, we were surprised by a visit from Professor Ezra Zubrow. With one day remaining, he came to examine the excavation site as well as potential sites, for the future, with the survey team. Today at the site, almost the entirety of the day was spent profiling the completed units and finishing one final unit. Nothing new to report from that end except that some more fire cracked rock was found.

The survey team, on the other hand, set out to explore the area surrounding the mysterious bones that were found a couple of days ago. Quartz flakes and chips of bone were indeed uncovered but without the use of the total station at hand, nothing more could be done without disturbing a potentially huge site. Friday, the final day of excavations should prove to be an interesting one with all of the man power focused on the "bone" site.

Clarification for legal purposes

2010-05-26T11:53:00.000-07:00

The tooth has not yet been examined by a bone expert, and the most we can officially say is that it is from a medium-sized mammal that is not likely to be a pig, deer, or seal.

Bad to the Bone

2010-05-26T07:16:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday the 25th, in the mosquito infested area of Kierikki, a startling discovery was made by our survey team which consisted of Dan, Rob, Greg, Laurel and Dusty. The discovery, though only a glimpse at what could potentially be the biggest find of the excavation for us, was the uncovering of bones and human teeth. After a few hours of shovel tests the team grew weary, especially considering past survey teams have made it back to camp empty handed. This time, however, morale received a boost of hope after Laurel and Greg carefully screen the shovel tested dirt. The discovery not only brought hope to the survey team but also the team back at the excavation site.

On the other hand, with highs come the lows and those lows were given to the team at the dig site. After hours of digging with the hopes of finding more fire cracked rock or potential fire pits or maybe even a dagger the team came up empty handed. But even with days where nothing comes up something is always learned. In this case the lesson is that patience is an archaeologists best friend and also we learned where not to dig.

Today, Wednesday the 26th, most of the day was spent preparing to complete the excavation. Some people worked diligently on the strange circle in the fire cracked rock unit but only to notice that the circle has been slowly disappearing. While others were assigned the duty of mapping out the excavation area and drawing profiles for the already completed units. With the rains punishing us today, the team trekked on through the harsh weather completing the tasks at hand and we were rewarded with a lunch makkara feast over a fire in reconstructed stone age village hut. Though we did not find anything new today, it should not be considered a failure and many necessary tasks were completed. Tomorrow holds new breath for our excavation site.

Who you callin' a dirt circle?

2010-05-24T12:46:00.001-07:00

This is the edge of a big pit full of the remains of old fires, including more fire-cracked rock than I have ever seen at any site in the area.

Diagrams, diagrams, and more diagrams...

2010-05-24T09:12:00.000-07:00

Friday we began sketching the walls of our one by one excavation pits. It was actually very interesting since we'd never previously inspected the soil layers. Having to draw them in great detail we were now forced to examine them thoroughly. Many walls had up to six or seven separate layers while at a glance they seemed only to have two or three. Our diagrams continue and once we have some finalized pictures I'll be sure to post them up.

Art at Arktikum, Christmas Comes Early and A Return to the Excavation

2010-05-24T07:50:00.000-07:00

For this weekend’s excursion from the daily excavation site the team gathered together for a road trip to Rovaniemi. It was a long, sleep-filled haul but the end product was quite worth the trip. We arrived in Rovaniemi at around 1 p.m. and immediately the group split to dine at whichever place their wallets felt most comfortable. Some ate at the famous Rocktaurant as other decided for a pizza buffet.
After the delicious meals filled our belly’s we walked down towards the river where, unbeknownst to us, a marathon was being run and we were standing at the finish line. Runners zipped on by as we cheered on those who have never met us; they gave us grateful smiles and kiitos. The river was an amazing site and an equally amazing site was the bridge, which our Finnish friend Riku informed us was helped built by his father.
Soon after we became sucked in by tourist traps and coughed up some cash for souvenirs, completely forgetting the time and the rendezvous point of our other half. We scrambled, asking strangers for directions to the nearest museum (not truly knowing which museum we’re supposed to head to) and finally we found ourselves in the Arktikum museum.
The Arktikum museum was an arctic wonderland for arctic archaeologists with exhibits about Lapland and their World War II horrors but, on a lighter side, many of the exhibits dealt with animal life in the region and archaeological sites of importance in the area. Showcases of iron tools and blades outlined the perimeter of the first museum hall while other halls displayed reconstructions of wildlife and human inhabitance living together as one in the treacherous, changing weather of the Arctic Circle.
The other standout aspects of the museum were the theatre room, which I will get to in a moment, and a room, appropriately titled by the students as the “acid” room. In the “acid” room, one had to lie down on a cushioned-filled floor and observe a light show of life in the arctic. Though the show lasted only about 10 minutes, the music and the CG blended together to created a beautiful world of the northern lights. The theatre room was an entirely different experience on a more educational basis. In the theatre room, a short film about the history of the Lapland was shown; giving people a glimpse of a world long since past.
Though the Arktikum museum was a fulfilling trip in itself, we were gifted with a trip to the Arctic Circle and an opportunity to meet Santa Claus. Unfortunately we arrived too late to see Santa we did enjoy the company of our team in an environment outside the excavation. Rovaniemi was a wonderful experience and a trip worth remembering. The tension of the excavations quickly vanished but the sun is always brighter before the rains and on Monday, the rains came.
Saturday’s trip to Rovaniemi seemed so long ago today as excavations began not so bright and early. The dig site was gloomy and miserable, entirely due to the rains falling upon us at such a crucial time of the excavation. The team was split into surveyors and diggers. The survey team consisted of Spyros, Laurel, Greg, Dan, Dustin, Chris and Lauren while back at the dig site the team consisted of Matt, Adam, Juan, Carlos, Noelia, Eva, Riku and Rob.
From the sound of things, both team had trouble dealing with cold, wetness of the rain as the survey team was plagued with mosquitoes and rain, as well with the disappointment of finding nothing. While at the excavation more fire cracked rock was found and a strange dirt circle. At this time the dirt circle is still a mystery but hopefully tomorrow, being a new day of opportunities, an understanding of what it could be might be brought to light. Until than, I must leave you bloggers with this cliffhanger; check back tomorrow.
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Some natural stone, some not

2010-05-20T11:00:00.000-07:00

Well, it looks like the big stones are there naturally... tireless and extremely patient students hauled sand out of the bottoms of a few other units and cleaned off the profile of the unit with those cool stones, and it looks like 1) there are stones down deep in other parts of the site, and 2) there are clear natural strata above the stones, which means that they ended up there before people ever moved in to the area.

On the other hand, we've got a ton of fire-cracked rock (FCR), dark fireplace soil, and quartz flakes from tool-making coming out of another unit, so at least we know that people were actually there during a stone-tool-using time in Finland's past!

Sweating with Mittens On

2010-05-20T07:29:00.000-07:00

In the dog days of the excavation, with the sun slowly beaming UV skin cancerous rays, the team has shown an unwavering extent of focus and interest in the project at hand. With many faces unfamiliar with the field of archaeology, let alone being a part of a full length excavation, the experiences had and the knowledge gained have left most of us wondering why did we ever volunteer for such a job.

In the wee hours of the morning, as the sun completed its routine 24 hour cycle around Finland, 13 familiar faces lined up at the pick-up zone for the 9th straight weekday. Today, in particular, was a day filled with workers weary from farewell festivities the night before but the search for artifacts remains the top priority for us, well for just about two of us. As teams were chosen, a lucky few of us were given the opportunity to change the pace a little by sending one team out to survey and opening a new site next to an existing in the hopes of finding more meaning to the FCR found yesterday.

In the new hole more FCRs were found but a subtle vagueness has begun to settle in to the minds of the workers, perhaps these stones are just naturally made within the area. The evidence of quartzite and FCR presents hope for people being there 5,000 years ago or a miscalculation has occurred and these stones are there because of a geologic strata.

Hopes have yet to dwindle but a noticeable fade has taken its course. In time it shall pass. In all honesty, the fade may have something to do with the fact that our foreign exchange kids are leaving tomorrow. The times spent together has been one of memories that will not fade until about 2 weeks from now. As for the memories of the today, hopefully more substantial will be made tomorrow.

Here's that mysterious stone formation

2010-05-19T09:30:00.000-07:00

Rocks from a tree-fall? Stone Age cremation burial? Foundation for some structural remains? The mystery continues. The first image shows the south half of the stone cluster before we took them out to see what was underneath. The second photo shows the north half of the stone cluster after we excavated out the rest of the unit.

Kierikki Stone Age Center

2010-05-19T07:45:00.000-07:00

Today we went to the Kierikki Stone Age Center for sausage day. After splitting up for survey and excavation this morning we all met up at noon by the Ii river where a stone age long house has been reconstructed. After building a fire (which was way too hot because of the wind) we made our sausage and had lunch overlooking the site. As we later learned the whole area of Kierikki is an archaeological site. The state built the official museum there after a dam project forced them to quickly excavate all the artifacts on the shoreline of the river. As we proceeded into the center we got a much better idea of what we might find some day at the bottom of one of our excavation holes. T shaped daggers, ceramic pots, and amber beads/buttons were the most memorable items to be excavated in this area. Although the film we watched upon entering the museum set a new precedent for boring material the rest of the museum was very interesting. After leaving the museum we once again headed our separate ways and after more shovel tests and excavation work we all headed home for some well earned rest.

First Week of Excavations

2010-05-18T06:50:00.000-07:00

After almost a week offline the blog begins! Of course throughout this time we’ve been digging furiously (but carefully) in the sweltering heat. Now I know what you must be thinking, Finland and heat seem like contradictory concepts but I assure you it’s been 28 degrees Celsius on more than one occasion (that’s 84 degrees Fahrenheit). Glancing back at the recommended packing list for Finland it included: long underwear, wool socks, a warm hat, a thermos for hot drinks, and a number of other warm articles of clothing all of which proved absolutely useless shortly after our arrival. Luckily even nature seems confused and despite the heat mosquitoes don’t seem to be biting yet. And I didn’t mention the sunlight, although it was expected it’s difficult to imagine before you see the sun set at 11 o’clock at night that it can do that. Needless to say sleep has been much more difficult as the sun floods everyone’s window at around three am every morning. Enough complaining about working conditions let me begin chronicling the past week in greater detail.

A day after my arrival Eva, Riku-Ville, and our European Archaeology group went out to begin the preliminary excavation. Our European group consists of Noelia a Spanish Archaeologist from Barcelona, Carlos coincidentally Noelia’s neighbor in Barcelona he’s studying to be a history teacher, Spyros an architecture student from Greece, Juan Pablo a Mexican graphic design student, and Axelle an English major from France. Our interesting national variation has made for some very interesting conversations about our different cultures.
The first day we began our square meter by meter holes and took off the top layer of the first few. Split into groups of two we each drove our nails and roped the boundaries. Cutting through the top soil like a root filled layer cake we dug down through the turf to reveal a layer of white nutrient leeched sand. As we got to this layer it was already time to go.
Friday night a large part of the American group arrived: Matt another Anthropology major, Chris a recently applied Anthropology major, Rob an English and Film major, and Lauren an Anthropology major who intends to do premed. That night and over the rest of the weekend we all settled in and got to know one another. A night or two of clumsily adjusting to the new sleep schedule and we were ready for excavations Monday morning. On Sunday our graduate students Greg and Dan arrived.
Digging further into the first layer we began to find our first artifacts, quartz flakes, charcoal, and massive amounts of fire cracked rocks. Quartz flakes show evidence of tool making, charcoal pinpoints where there was a wood fire, and fire cracked rocks are likely rocks left around a fire place which exploded due to the pressure from the heat of the flames. Searching through each layer for artifacts we dug down five centimeters each layer and documented whatever we could find. The first day didn’t get us very far, but the second day was a different matter entirely. In addition Dustin, another graduate student arrived Monday night.
Tuesday, everything changed when Excel and I found an almost intact charcoal pit in our excavation hole; it was circular and had another almost intact piece of charred wood on the other side of the hole. It wasn’t a major find but it reaffirmed the knowledge that people had lived in this place. That night, Laurel arrived after her graduation from SUNY Buffalo, now technically a graduate student she marked the last person to join our excavation crew.

Wednesday is sausage day. Now be fore you get any ideas, sausage day is when Eva goes to the market and buys an assortment of different Finnish sausages, we go to a nearby camp site and cook them over a fire. Last Wednesday the tastiest sausages were the cheese filled package Eva found. As they cooked over the fire you could feel the cheese bubble from the heat when they were nearly ready. After a tasty lunch we returned to work where Rob and Noelia found an odd rocky depression in their hole. Digging further down they sadly realized it was just misshapen hardpan.
Thursday marked our biggest discovery to date. When the team furthest from the center Spyros and Chris (in the same hole Axelle and I found the fire pit) dug down into their supposed hardpan layer they reached a wall-like rock formation. At the time we believed the formation extended eastward and set up to shovel test around it the next day. Thursday was the first day we began our shovel tests an d each group got a chance to do one. I enjoyed mine as I grew up doing very little shovel work but other groups seemed less enthusiastic after their turn had come.

Friday the shovel tests were all geared around finding more of the rock wall. Fire cracked rock could be found in almost every layer above where the wall began. This strange wall formation still could not be identified even with the help of Sam our resident Finnish expert. The day finished with a short walk toward another site. When we came across a river, Rob and Laurel decided it was time for a swim. Rob had the foresight to remove his clothing before undertaking the endeavor but Laurel decided to spend the rest of the day in soggy clothing.

As the first week drew to a close a weekend of trips to and outside of town began. Saturday Laurel, Lauren, Chris, and I accompanied the Graduate students to the center of town where we visited a bazaar area where we sampled Finnish cuisine in the form of tiny fried minnow sized fishes which were reminiscent of spiced french-fries when eaten as they were meant to be taken whole. Laurel especially had trouble eating the cute ones. I on the other hand devoured my box quickly and was happy to help her. Afterward we headed further into town, passing a fur shop, an assortment of Finnish food stores, and finally stockman, a gigantic store reminiscent of New York’s Macys (you can get literally everything there). Arriving back on campus we had dinner at Eva’s place which consisted of various types of smoked fish, hamburgers, and panqueques de manzana (a new recipe prepared by Laurel). The other group of we later discovered, had spent the day at the beach, which the weather had been perfect for.

The next day we took a long drive out to the Giant’s church, which I saw very little of. Eva had talked up the snake problem in the area so much that I found it difficult to look anywhere but straight down. The forest around the church was beautiful though, I managed to notice that between staring down at the ground.

Next we visited Liminka’s salt marsh, one of the best places in Finland to see the direct effects of Isostatic uplift. As we walked further through the marsh you could see where the shoreline had receded over the past 200 years. The marsh itself was a sight to behold; it smelled like a beach but was covered with tall wheat grass which ends abruptly at the shoreline. A bizarre but peculiarly attractive sight it made me imagine a landscape in which Kansas were by the ocean.
Yesterday, Monday we began our first set of surveys; led by Dustin, Greg, and Dan: Chris, Axelle, and I trekked through the Finnish wilderness in search of new Archaeological sites. Meanwhile the rest of the group continued to work on the original set of holes and dug deeper into their respective layers. An extremely hot day, we were all happy to end early and make our way back to the yliopisto (university in Finnish) for our first day of laboratory work.

Day 19 May 28- Thats All Folks

2009-05-29T04:40:00.000-07:00

Much to the dismay of the ’09 field crew, the final day of excavations had at last arrived. Relentless winds harassed the group from departure to arrival and attendance was carefully monitored in between should anyone have decided to have themselves blown into the bog. Our proficiency over the course of the final week would be rewarded with a much more relaxed pace today. Only a couple of tasks remained; the completion of soil sampling at the Thing, and surface exposure at the 2nd upper dwelling depression at Hiidenkangas.

Surface exposure of the second upper dwelling at Hiddenkangas

Sam’s timely arrival with cookie supplies put an end to Colin’s tyranny at Hiidenkangas. In the absence of Colin’s cookie embargo and despite high winds and the repeated pummel of airborne buckets, the surface exposure of the second upper dwelling depression was completed by lunch and the finds, quartz debitage, mapped by Colin and Sam. After a lunch blasted by wind, Sarah, Elizabeth, Hunter, Lisa and Brendan returned the cleared soil to the exposed site and unrolled the sod mats in an almost natural fashion.

With yesterday’s trench backfilling, work at the Thing was almost exclusively soil sampling. In the morning, soil cores were extracted from along the platform by Loretta, Mike, Katie and Eva and mapped by Dustin and Greg. After lunch, Greg and Dustin ventured off to map out a row-house discovered in the first week of fieldwork.

By the time either site’s crew called it quits, it was just past lunch and the teams bid an early farewell to the Finnish bush and the prehistoric sites they’d come to call home. Although laboratory work will continue on into Friday, archaeological fieldwork for the 2009 season has ended.

Our 3 weeks of survey, testing, and excavation along the prehistoric coastlines of 4500-5500 years BP have no doubt provided a substantial contribution to the ongoing research exploring long-term human adaptive responses to change in boreal environments. In collaboration with further research in northern Canada and proposed expeditions in Kamchatka, the 2009 research results from Finland will expand the scope of an emerging model examining human responses to climate change from prehistory to the present day. From the diminutive fragments of quartz debitage to the intricacies of the dwelling depressions serenely fixed upon the ancient landscape, our findings comprise a growing repository of knowledge fostering the development of new perspectives on a people and a land extending far into prehistory.

Day 18 May 27th- A Farewell Gift

2009-05-27T11:36:00.000-07:00

A light rain greeted the crew on the morning of the 18th day, but it was no time for dampened spirits. With but two days remaining prior to Friday’s conclusion, the day’s pace would be rigorous and demanding.

Surface exposure at Hiidenkangas

The victims of Colin’s ongoing dictatorship over at Hiidenkangas, Lisa, Elizabeth, Beth, Sarah, Hunter and Brendan, confronted the arduous task of rolling sod for further surface exposure of the upper dwelling depression after the usual scavenger hunt for quartz flakes. The morning’s ferreting about for quartz flakes did in fact turn up more quartz flakes in numerous localized scatters along the lower plateau of the contour. Sam and Colin trailed behind (whips lashing) and mapped the flakes using the GPS.

Despite ongoing negotiations and policy revisions at Hiidenkangas in the post-Andre term, a continued lapse in cookie provisioning has again disrupted worker-leader relations. Although the reinstatement of cookie break has been welcomed, it remains clear that more than one pack of cookies will be required to maintain crew morale during these stressful final days.

After lunch saw a shift in focus from sod-rolling to the down and dirty surface exposure of a second, slightly smaller, depression on the upper level. To no surprise, quartz flakes turned up en masse. Meanwhile, a short distance away, Brendan’s aimless wanderings on a commissioned search for a single stone in a field of stones turned up a very different kind of stone. Brendan’s discovery of the 2nd ground-stone adze was found no more than 50m from Colin’s first and proved to be a fine specimen that will nicely match Colin’s.

Brendan's ground-stone adze

The second team comprised of Loretta, Keegan, and Mike spurred on by Katie and Eva managed to nearly complete extracting soil samples from the 3x3 metre grid. Katie single handedly dealt the final blow to trench T409 by recording it’s stratigraphic profile with breathtaking fidelity.

Having not got the memo that the field-school is almost over, our over-achiever’s Greg and Dustin, went on to locate yet another prehistoric site along the 50m contour during a survey. Identified by quartz flake scatters, a scraper and a core, in association with possible depressions, the site was recorded with the GPS and tucked away for further examination next season.

Day 17 May 26th- The End is at Hand

2009-05-26T11:16:00.000-07:00

Beneath the blessings of the returned sun, the budding archaeologists rallied for day 17 of the field-school. With Thursday quickly approaching, the tentative grand finale of the 2009 expedition, a sense of urgency lingered in the air. For example, despite steady progress, the hordes of soil samples returning to the lab each evening have only provided approximately 2/3 of the required samples and seemingly done little to appease Eva’s appetite for more. On the other hand, the successful completion of the surface exposure and salvage operations at the lower dwelling depression at Hiidenkangas have pacified Colin’s slave-driving and rumor has it that his subjects received a well-deserved cookie break this afternoon.

Soil sampling, soil sampling, trench excavating and soil sampling comprised the majority of the tasks delegated by Eva to Sarah, Elizabeth and Brendan toiling about at the Thing. Sarah and Brendan managed to bring down T409 to the alluvial deposits laid down by wave action and Elizabeth finished it off with another marvelous rendition of its gorgeous stratigraphy.

Trench T409

A stone’s throw away, Katie sketched a stratigraphic profile of the sand-pit that contained the organic contents of a pit uncovered earlier this field-season. The complexity of the stratigraphy, compounded by a bulldozer cut, has been described by Katie as “crazy.” We find ourselves at the field-school in complete agreement with this statement. Crazy indeed.

Meanwhile, a stone’s throw away in the other direction would have hit Eva as she worked to collect soil samples from the 3x3 grid. Later in the afternoon she would be given a hand by both Sarah and Brendan who, now freed from excavating T409, discovered an ominous pink layer in a core sample. Although Brendan’s remorseful suggestion that they had indeed just “sampled” a small forest creature was immediately rejected, a more plausible and likely rational explanation has yet to be provided.

Having barely avoided mutiny the previous day, Colin and Sam re-evaluated their approach to worker motivation and reinstated the cookie-break with immediate results. The team composed of Andrius, Lisa, Loretta, and Hunter back-filled the lower dwelling depression by unrolling the sod mats over the exposed surface to prevent erosion and mask the work from curious eyes. The crew was then marched up to the upper depression where a number of finds including more quartz debitage and several worked tools were uncovered during the continued surface exposure.

Zooming about on their speeder-bikes on the farthest moon of Endor, Greg and Dustin summoned the satellites to map the sites found along the 55 contour last year. The duo also completed soil testing at two additional possible sites located earlier this season along the 60. Dustin and Greg’s limited experience at maneuvering the speeder-bikes, provided by an Empire-sanctioned grant, proved inefficient and the two were force to resort to the traditional van. No sooner had the pair reluctantly handed the bikes over to a band of Jawas, when the van got a flat. Thank to Greg’s training in the grueling pits of NASCAR, the two were off again in 11.67 seconds.

Greg on survey

Day 16 May 25

2009-05-25T09:51:00.000-07:00

Day 16 May 25

With the weather briefly making a return to more traditional Finnish weather, cool and cloudy, the battered but zealous 2009 contingent of students embarked on the final week of the NOCUSO archaeological field-school.
The ongoing surface survey and artifact recovery operation at Hiidenkangas was carried out by Sarah, Lisa, Brendan and fearless leaders; Colin and Sam. Despite the abrupt disappearance of the Chief (Andre), presumably involving a cloud of mysterious purple smoke and a maniacal laugh, Colin managed to keep the three scrounging about for all things white and shiny. The tiny fragments of quartz, flaked debitage from the production or modification of stone tools, were flagged and their distribution recorded with the aid of the GPS.
Prior to lunch, the morning's scavenging switched to the ongoing surface exposure of the lower dwelling depression, which quickly came to completion beneath the crack of Colin's whip.
In the absence of a stable supply of cookies, mutiny among the team was avoided only with the promise of new discoveries as the ranks marched back up the slope to further expose the upper site. The ensuing sod removal brought the crew ever nearer to the brink of upheaval, but were quelled by Colin's menacing glare. Nevertheless, the grumbling and complaining soon gave way with the appearance of a defined hearth from which two charcoal samples were extracted.

Scurrying about the Finnish forest floor on survey were Beth, Keegan, and Loretta, lead by their nimble leaders; Dustin and Greg. During the band's merry wanderings graced by the presence of a cuckoo bird, several carins were dicovered along the raised platform of the 60m contour.

Dug in amid the trenches of the Thing, the remainder of the team shared a number of tasks including soil sampling, stratigraphy drawing and geological excavations.
In an effort to reconstruct the stratigraphy of the Thing, Katie was guided in the ways of soil sampling within the 3m x 3m grid by master Eva. Further sampling and analysis of the obtained samples from around the Thing will eventually determine the extent of it's coverage and determine if the structure was cut into the natural topography or artificially raised.
Additionally, a short distance away, a soil sample taken from an historical depression revealed midden deposits containing charcoal and fibers. Neato!
Meanwhile, Elizabeth donned her artist's barret and drew the stratigraphy of T209 before assisting Jenn and Hunter on T409. Proving to be an expert in all fields, Elizabeth was subsequently drafted by the soil sampling crew and proceeded to discover a double-floor.

2009-05-24T01:46:00.000-07:00

Day 15 Friday May 22

UKKO SPEAKS

Today at The Thing started by Katie and Loretta lowing the geologic unit T309, Jen drew the stratigraphy of T209's walls, and Brendan and Keegan took a great many soil samples.

In the morning there was more field walking at Hiidankangas. We found lots more quartz flakes, debitage, and fire cracked rock (fcr).

Sam made the interesting observation that quartz flakes found unassociated with fcr and other debitage tend to be used while other clusters with debitage and fcr tend to be unused and associated with manufacture. This is something we would never have discovered if we hadn't been doing a full survey of this area!

We gathered at the museum for lunch and coffee It's lucky for us that Andre has a sixth sense, seeing that as soon as we stepped inside the museum Ukko (the Finnish mythological god of the sky who specializes in storms and lightning) showed up and massive rain showers poured down around us! Fortunately as we were about to head back to work, the skies cleared and we were off.

After lunch the whole crew came to lend assistance at The Thing. The large organic mass at the SPW was finally removed to the lab, but not without much contemplation over exactly how it might be done.

Continuing on T309 were Loretta, Max, Hunter, with alternating supervision by Colin and Sam.

Andre took Jenn, Greg, Dustin, Eva, and Sarah to check out the platforms found in Survey the day before. What is interesting about these platforms is that they are not continuous along the shoreline and it's only one spot in this area. A series of round dunes lined up next to each other and when you look at them they are clearly little hills as opposed to long continuous dunes. It is not clear what made them, they are not in an estuary environment so we need to look into the processes that may have created them. There is a row of already known structural depressions nearby, as well as a cairn (possibly more). The houses themselves seem to have one high side and one low side, which is contiguous of other dwelling finds in the area.

Sam taught Katie how to use his mobile (and incredibly accurate) GPS unit. She then mapped in the roads intersecting The Thing, as the earlier DEM's (Digital Elevation Model's) did not signify these modern intrusions. Next was mapping the drainage trench through the Sand Pit Wall (SPW) which had grown exponentially since last year. Then through the dense trees Sam's GPS unit proved quite successful in keeping strong satellite signals to map the Neolithic depression and high ridge that encompasses the SPW.

As the day was coming to a close and Katie was taking the last few possible points with the GPS unit, Ukko, riding in on his dark black ominous cloud, spoke to us and told us to vacate his forest!!!!! Luckily, just as that happened Andre's van returned from Survey and we hightailed it out of there!

2009-05-22T08:45:00.000-07:00

Day 14 Thursday May 21 2009

Today is a holiday in Finland, so no work for us.... but luckily for us we're going on a field trip to see the largest Jatinkirkko (Giant's Church)!!! This is one of the places where Finnish Archaeology was born. It's a good chance for the complicated geologic processes we've been learning about to be explained in context. It's good for everyone to see how the natural moraine areas have been built up by human agency into massive megalithic structures. This is also the reason why we are going to see an area of clear land uplift, which is marked by helpful signs stating the year the area was at the shoreline.

These Jatinkirkko are only found in North Eastern Ostrobotnia. They began as moraines (rocks left by glaciers) and these natural features were modified by humans. These were always placed in prominent points in local topography.

The environment 5000 years ago was seaside. The soil and vegetation was different, there was also an open view of the sea side and was very visible from open water. The cultural system that created this was in a different set of environmental factors; what we see now has been influenced by shoreline displacement (land uplift). It is important to not as archaeologists that what we see now is not what these people saw when living here and creating these structures. In this area, as the Jatinkirkko's construction were dropping of in number, the cairns were continuing to be constructed. Also, regarding to their positioning in the landscape, the Jatinkirkko were always built on the current shore. As time goes on though, cairns were built continuously more and more inland.

The carins nearby were probably looted or excavated (not according to our standards). We can tell this because 'we' (today) would have put the stones back in place and they would also not have had giant gaping holes in their center. More likely they would have been dome-like in the center, as opposed to the concave dips. Though there are some flat ones found. There is a great variability in the morphology of cairns; the people who made them possibly did not see them as the same thing, but we lump them in to one category. A vast majority do not have remains in them. There are theories though that there were once graves within them and over time they disappeared for one reason or another, i.e., these types of remains do not preserve well in the acidic soil, excavation, or also looting.

It is hard to date cairns, but if multiple cairns nearby to each other can be chronologically cross-dated against each other it is possible to see if they were built around the same time period. This is done by analyzing bedrock weathering beneath. Unfortunately, the cairns must be destroyed in order to analyze the rocks underneath.

We were then off to Liminka, were we stopped at a 24 hour gas station and had our lunches. Many of us had the coffee and munkki (doughnut) special for 2 euros!! Not surprisingly the conversation did turn to the military (again).... only after a slight deviation to UFO sightings.... (Just remember, it's almost the end of the second week and we're tired.....)!

At Liminka we stopped at the bird sanctuary, but for a very different reason. We, as budding archaeologists, were there to see the land uplift! Inside the center was an interesting and very beautiful array of artistic photographs on display, mostly of the surrounding wildlife.

High up in the observatory, there was a 360 degree view of the area, and a telescope to make use of. From there you could see clearly a few small houses perched precariously out on the water.

In this area, the land uplifts regularly, but it's rate was much faster in prehistory than it is now. Averaged over a 7,000 year period it rises about 100 meters per century. The flow is much faster closer to the center of the ice mass (glacier).

We walked along the boardwalk and observed each of the signs showing the recorded date that that point was at the shoreline.

In the marsh that we were walking through, it was quite buggy, though there were a few beautiful yellow flowers poking up through the dry reedy grass.

In another observatory there was an explanation of those cabins on the water. They were built on heaps of stones at the estuaries of the Temmes and Liminka, which leavs them safe from times of high water. The cabins are primarily owned and used by fishermen and hunters, as well as winter skiers!

And apparently at some point Greg tried to hijack a boat....

2009-05-21T12:54:00.000-07:00

Day 13 Wednesday May 20 2009

Today at Hiidankangas we continued to clear the Lower Clearing. Also started was a systematic survey of the hillside, 1/4th was completed and a large axe head was found!!!!

The plowing did some damage but it also created furrows (exposing the leeched layer) that were perpendicular to the slope (parallel to the hillside). This gave a good idea of the density of artifact distribution. One person per furrow slowly walked, and as finds were located Sam took points with his GPS unit. Surprisingly, we found that the discrete concentration of material was not necessarily correlated to depressions. There were also some fireplaces that were not close to any depressions. Sam will create a map of the activity areas and hopefully Eva will do chemical analysis to correlate these finds.

Marikka Wednesday is always a fantastic way to unwind in the middle of a well-worked week. The group bonded over the campfire in a row house. Most of the stories somehow ended with a correlation to the military. (We can thank Andre for that one!!!)

The Survey consisted of Dustin, Greg, Mike, Dr. Zubrow, and Keegan. They began shovel testing on the high point on the 60 meter contour. They found one flake in the depressions.

The Survey team found platforms as well as a possible quartz knife! There have never been any finds like these platforms before, except at The Thing. Animal spottings of the day were a turkey and a hare.

Eva did more soil coring near The Thing. She finished the flat area and started in an area near the nearby House foundation. This was in order to look for areas of high phosphorous where no visible surface depressions were evident. This is to look for prehistoric activity areas outside of all the nearby known areas.

Today at The Thing, Katie and Elizabeth mapped T109's stratigraphy. Then they continued to lower T209 until all areas were level and at the bottom sand. Towards the end of the day they mapped the top plan and began the wall stratigraphy.

Jenn and Sarah observed yesterday's finished pits and then continued on to two transects to look for the soil morphology and phosphorous near The Thing. This included lots and lots of coring!!

Dr. Zubrow suggested looking more closely at the walls to see if the stratigraphy reflected the mounded platform as much as the surface did. There is a possible plan to do systematic soil cores more closely together on the walls to achieve this. This will help see if the mounded areas are cut from the natural topography or if the elevated areas are as built up as the platform.

2009-05-19T13:04:00.000-07:00

Day 12 Tuesday May 19 2009

Today at Hiidankangas we had a smaller group so we focused on the Lower Clearing. We continued the previous days work of clearing loose dirt left by the tractor as well as the organic layer. Located was hearth with fire-cracked rock at the center as well as a bunch of quartz flakes. All the finds were mapped in using a transit total station, many of the students were trained using this device. Also used to map coordinates was the high accuracy GPS unit, Sam walked the entire Lower Clearing site to create a high resolution Digital Elevation Model (DEM).

Today, Katie supervised work at The Thing. Working on the Geological trenches were Katie, Mike, Keegan, and Max. Katie and Mike finished lowering and mapping the depths of T109 on top plan. Once they finished T109, they joined Keegan and Max, who had been working diligently on lowering T209 to the bottom sand. Surprisingly though, the ditch that runs through the unit continues down at least 70 cm on the South wall. After cleanup, while waiting for Eva and Hunter to return, Katie took the team over to the Sand Pit Wall and gave them the rundown of the activities that had occurred at the end of last week, and describing some of the theories that go along with such finds.

Eva and Hunter were continuing to take soil samples along a ridge leading South of the 2006 and 2007 sites. After lunch she continued taking samples on the flat ridge on the other side of the road from The Thing. There has been no indication of human occupation, as in depressions. Though the flatness of the area would suggest otherwise, as it is a prime area for activity, hence the interest in continued sampling.

Not too long after lunch Eva was needed to take cores at the Hiidenkangas units. So both teams working in the area of The Thing headed over to lend assistance to the days activities at the Lower Clearing.

Later today, in lab, Eva showed Loretta how the phosphorous spot testing works, the intensity of the color indicates concentration of the chemicals.

2009-05-19T12:05:00.000-07:00

Day 11 Monday May 18

Today we opened two units at Hiidenkangas. This is an area of clear archaeological significance which appears to have been greatly disturbed by logging. The extensive area was narrowed into two significant study areas: 1. the Upper Clearing, and 2. the Lower Clearing, which were 15 x 15 meter units.

The Upper Clearing contained 2 small depressions, the team rolled large amounts of turf between tractor furrows and located any diagnostic tools or remains, but left them in situ. Finds consisted of quartz flakes and debitage (which would be related to manufacture), as well as charcoal. These finds seemed to be dispersed with no discernible spatial pattern.

The Lower Clearing group worked on clearing the organic down to the leeched (A Horizon). They located surface finds ranging from quartz (thinning flakes and retouch, indicating curation) to fire cracked rock. The forest clearing did not compromise the depositional environment of the artifacts.

This unit consisted of a large depression that had a similar morphology to the Kierikki depressions in that they have steep walls with a dip at one end and a mound at the other (probable midden), and two hearths. Similar also is was that in the sea-shore facing area were large amounts of flakes which did not occur on the back end of the depression (indicating a spatial patterning).

This indicates that either the two depressions (areas) were occupied at different time periods or at similar time periods but for different purposes (specialization), the quartz finds indicate these two possibilities as well.

Eva and Loretta completed 57 soil samples at the Kotikangas site from the excavations in 2006 and 2007. While heading down the road from the Thing to the Kotigangas excavations, Loretta spotted an adder crossing the sandy dirt road. As it began to slither away, Loretta took a few quick snapshots before it was lost in the brush. This warm weather is bringing out all sorts of creatures. Moose tracks were found along the road after the last soil samplings of the day. Another small lizard scurried beneath the filed of lingonberries.

Today at The Thing, Katie and Lisa worked together like a well-oiled machine. The first task was to complete the top map of the large organic mass at the Sand Pit Wall: this included depth measurements for each layer it was comprised of. It was, yet again, slow going. But fortunately because of all the hard work and careful planning started last Friday by Brendan and Katie, it was finished by lunchtime.

The next task began after lunch, which was to help Jenn, who had been working painstakingly all day to lower the Geologic unit (T109) to the bottom (or beach) sand. Beth trained Keegan on soil sampling and they completed 16 soil cores. Once completed with that task, they began work on T209. They dug the unit down another few centimeters and it appears that there is another leeched layer below the enriched.

It all went smoothly, though periodic episodes of laughter made Jenn (the site supervisor) a tad nervous that the unexpected and intense heat of the day might have been frying everyone's brains!!!! Not a soul argued when it was time for cookie break!!!!She was worried about us drinking enough water.... but we weren't the ones with the orange slice smile....

Day 10 Sunday May 17 2009

Day 9 Saturday May 16 2009

2009-05-17T09:19:00.001-07:00

Day 8: Friday May 15 2009

ENDANGERED SITES: A REOCCURRING THEME
(BUT LUCKILY HIRVI IS WATCHING OVER US!!)

Today at The Thing, excavation on the Geological trenches resumed.

The Sand Pit Wall was as exciting as ever, more of the stratigraphy was cleaned up for mapping. Lead by Andre, students took points in the beginning processes of map creation.

More mapping was done on the South wall of the SPW- this time from the top! A top view map was painstaikingly created by Brenden and Katie of the large organic mass that sits at the bottom of the storage pit discovered earlier this week. Unfortunately because of the time-consuming detail of this type of hand drawn map, it was not done to completion, but not to worry, there's always Monday!

The Survey team (Greg, Dustin, Mike, Loretta, Sabi, Lisa, Max, and Colin) explored the 60 meter contour today with the aid of their handheld GPS unit. They walked along the contour just North of the row house depressions that were found on the second day of Survey (Day 5: Tuesday). Unfortunately today provided negative results for those particular transects. But one cannot forget: negative results are just as informative as positive results, all the information is necessary.

As opposed to the usual Makkara Wednesday, turn of events pushed it back until today. All of the teams gathered at the Kierikki Museum's reconstructed row house for the traditional weekly Makkara lunch around the campfire!!

It is not only a good morale booster in the middle of what is usually a very cold and wet week, but it is also a traditional experience that everyone visiting Finland should have! Even our vegetarian team members enjoyed soy Makkara!

It may also seem as fate had more in store for the team, as they quickly jumped up to help one of the museum's workers. This young man was painstaikingly rolling a very large log (by himself!) along the boardwalk in front of the reconstruction, removing each of the small logs in succession and replacing it in the front of the line.... slow going if you can imagine! You may ask yourself what he was doing dragging this immense log across a beach- he was building a new row house reconstruction... BY HIMSELF!!!

So after a quite relaxing lunch on the beach we were headed on a tour of two sites. The first of which was an impressive site (the one reffered to earlier) which Andre explained may either be three small dwelling structures, or one very massive one all lined in the East-West orientation. This correlates to almost all dwelling structures found in this area.

Then the whole team headed over to the site we would begin work on for Monday, an endangered area already disturbed greatly by logging. On the way we saw two Hirvi, or moose, good omens according to Andre (backed up by early Finnish mythology!!)!!!

The team split up and scoured the ground for scatters of artifacts on the surface and depressions which were in all stages of disturbance. The surface finds were marked for further investigations that would resume on Monday, and the team headed home.

2009-05-17T09:18:00.001-07:00

Day 7: Thursday May 14 2009

COMPLICATED STRATIGRAPHY: WHERE PREHISTORIC AND MODERN PITS COLLIDE!!

Today at The Thing was quite interesting and eventful as usual. What started yesterday as a systematic look at the stratigraphy of a bulldozer cut that had dangerously encroached upon a known Neolithic pit, turned into a much intriguing view into what was a surprisingly large and possible storage pit. As we cleaned up the unearthed sand pit wall, this continued into another much larger pit with multiple horizons which had been truncated by said bulldozer. This work was done mostly by Dr. Andre Costopoulos and Max, one of our NOCUSO students.

One of the most imperative goals of today near this endangered site was to map the stratagraphic profile that had been unearthed by the modern cut. By this analysis, we discovered that this looks like a case of multiple disturbances of the area over the long period of time since its original usage. Straight lines seem to dissect the original stratigraphy of the pits, even earlier than the modern bulldozed sections. The mapping was initiated by Katie Grundtisch and Elizabeth Gohringer, who completed the first two meters of mapping in of the 475cm cut into the sand pit wall.

Most likely, as is tradition in this area, large areas of earth are moved and\or sifted for gravel in roads, construction, or what-have-you. This seems also to be the case for the adjacent water-drainage trench which has grown exponentially in size since last years excavations.

Jenn and Beth continued their soil sampling grid in the area of The Thing. They also took some samples near the known Neolithic depression and discovered what seems to be a long period of occupation indicated by complex stratigraphy and plenty of charcoal!

Sam, as well as periodically supervising the area of the Sand Pit Wall, walked the forest; mapping the terrain with the incredibly accurate GPS unit. This unit is accurate to 1cm, acting along with the GPS base station anchored to the roof of the Kierikki Stone Age Museum, which feeds of multiple satellites, allowing for such accurate results.

Today the Survey team systematically scoured the 60 meter contour which entailed a what would have been peninsula and a few small islands in prehistory. They reached an unpassable river but fortunately for them they came across a small fishihng wier which acted like a dam as well as a bridge across the expansive and swiftly moving river.

As well as an exciting moose spotting, the Survey team took a field trip to Haukipudas! What they found there were very large and very deep depressions on the 45 meter contour.

2009-05-17T09:17:00.001-07:00

Day 6: Wednesday May 13 2009

DISCOVERY OF A TRAGIC TRUTH: NEAR DESTRUCTION OF A PREHISTORIC SITE

Today, while the team working at The Thing was opening up two new Geological trenches, Andre was checking out a nearby known Neolithic dwelling depression by the side of the road.

To everyone's dismay, he discovered that a sand pit that had been dug in years past for road gravel was encroaching dangerously near to this depression.

So what he has had us do is clean up the stratigraphy in the cut that was made by the bulldozer. This was done in order to see if it had actually destroyed part of the site.

And what do we find? A storage pit had been partially removed and we could see the large organic mass that was formerly the contents of the pit. We do not know yet what it is, we have to wait to remove it. Andre wants to take it out in one large chunk and transport it to the lab so it can properly be analyzed. A possibility is to use apoxi and do thin slices to be viewed under the microscope!!!! (Which by the way is really freaking cool!) Now this is so interesting because: we normally would not see these things from this angle, in an excavation one would be removing very carefully, very slowly, and very evenly in flat layers from the top. Right now, we have a huge in-tact storage pit sticking out from the side of a wall. Nuts!

2009-05-17T09:16:00.001-07:00

Day 5: Tuesday May 12 2009

SURVEY: OVERCOMING OBSTACLES

Greg's Survey team covered a lot of ground today; tromping through the forest we were looking for depressions in the ground along the contour lines. This is done because as time goes on in the geologic history of this area, the land uplifts, so you can see distinct shorelines for particular points in time, they appear as ridges (contours) that dramatically drop off in elevation. This means that as the land was rising out of the ocean, people could only inhabit what was above the water. And where do people like to live? By water! For transportation, food, etc. So these ares, by the old shorelines and rivers, are the best places to survey. Good indications of human occupation are dwelling depressions and storage pits; these depressions look like distinct holes in the ground, unlike many other types of holes that occur in the ground. Eventually the eye is trained to see these things...

Some of the most difficult aspects of Survey are the density of vegetation as well as the impacts of logging in the area. Logging in this region requires drainage which is due to the high water table in the area. This means that large trenches are dug throughout as well as subsequent smaller trenches which usually become a complex of streams, all of which must be overcome by any means possible. Today, one of the largest trenches we've seen so far was quite a feat to overcome!! (Apparently, for everyone except Greg!)

Some of the natural barriers that impede efficient survey are rivers. This one in particular was quite expansive, deep, and swiftly flowing. We had some difficulty finding a place to cross until one of our surveyors discovered this fishing weir. It looked as though someone had taken great pains to create it, as it was impressive in size and it's construction.

At the end of the day our instructions had been for all teams to meet at the nearby Kierikki Museum. We were met, to our surprise, by Mike.... in full furs!

He had spent the day at the Stone Age Center volunteering as a guide to visiting school children. As part of his duties he taught them how to make slate jewelry using a sharp piece of quartz (a burin) to drill holes in the stone.

Other activities he partook in were showing the students how boiling water was made by dropping hot stones into it, as well as how to use a bow and arrow!

2009-05-17T08:34:00.001-07:00

Day 4: Monday May 11 2009

FIRST DAY OUT WITH THE CREW!!

As today was our first day on site with our whole team, it started with a tour. Eva Hulse, Jennifer Bracewell, Sam Vaneeckhout showed the group some of the places they have excavated in the past. This was to give the undergraduates an idea of what a Stone Age settlement looks like for surveying purposes. Eva, along with the Grad students, gave a thourough explanation of the previous years excavations and finds and put them into an on-site context. This brought all of the students up to date while in the field.

Voima-Kuusela, one of the stops on our tour, is a large excavated row house.

Dwelling structures are indicated by one or more shallow depressions in the ground that are either square or oval shaped. The oval shaped depressions are harder to sight and are older than the more defined square depressions. The depressions were the foundations for pit houses. The hearth is often defined by a spot in the middle where the vegetation is especially lush because of the extra nutrients remaining after burning. Sometimes quartz flakes or pottery shards are visible from disturbance.

Jenn gave her intro to The Thing, explaining its context as a built up earthen mound, as well as its re-use throughout time. It is an interesting site once used to forge iron and seems to have a double layer of podsol.

The team went to the Kierikki Stone Age Center to have lunch. At the center, they have constructed a row of pit houses as they might have looked 5000 years ago. Some people had lunch inside them around the fire.

In the afternoon Dustin Keeler and Greg Korosec led two survey teams previously designated along the 55^th and the 60^th contours. This allows for a systematic search for depressions and pits in the ground, indicating past human disturbance. The goal of these surveys is to cover more ground with more accurate GPS equipment in use.

Michael Wing (the teacher who is part of PolarTREK) who was part of Greg’s team described surveying accurately as follows: “Greg holds a GPS (global positioning system) device that tells us where we are. The rest of us form a line to the right and left of him, each person about twenty steps away from the next. We advance together in a line, keeping our eyes on the ground. We leap across ditches, trip over stumps, slog through wetlands and crash through bushes. Greg moves fast, and you have to keep up! If we see something suggestive of a pit house we call out and Greg comes over to look.”

It is quite the adventure and many of the team members find it a rewarding process even when the results are negative. Greg Korosec’s Survey cleared sites on the 55 meter contour so archeologists looking for Stone Age sites there know not to look there. Dustin Keeler’s Survey of the 60 meter contour came across two sites, one a cluster of depressions and the other a long row of pits.

Day 3: Sunday May 10 2009

EXPLORING OULU

Today was a rest day, some of the undergraduate students chose to explore the tourist aspects of Oulu in the morning. It’s only a short bus ride away or a beautiful 5K walk/bike that takes you through quaint residential areas and forest scenery.

The city was founded in 1605 by King Charles IX of Sweden. Its rapid economic growth is attributed to its exportation of tar and growing university. Fires in 1882 destroyed much of Oulu. Much of the city was re-designed by Carl Ludvig Engel. His designs still dominate the town center to this day.

Some interesting sites in Oulu are the Market Square, Cathedral, Observatory Café, Hupisaaret, the Botanical Gardens, and the Toripolliisi. The observatory café is an observatory tower built on the old foundation of the Oulu castle as part of a The Oulu Marine Institute, but now serves café with a wonderful view of the city. Hupisaaret is a wide park area that offers the opportunity to enjoy nature right in the heart of the city. There are small streams and a few botanical green houses along with salmon runs.

The Toripolliisi is a bronze statue of a large police man that guards the city in the market square. If you drop a letter in the market square it will be stamped with the Market Square Policeman postmark. To learn more about Oulu you can visit www.visitoulu.fi.

Modern art is pleasantly spread throughout downtown. Some are labeled stating their historical significance, others are left up to personal interpretation.

Day 2: Saturday May 9 2009

Day two consisted of Greg Korosec, Eva Hulse, Dustin Keeler, Michael Wing, Dr. Ezra Zubrow, Loretta Sun, and Sarah Billiar going out into the field as well as to the Kierikki Stone Age Center.

It was a great chance for the undergraduates to see for the first time the terrain they would be working in. They went into the field to test the GPS system and run some soil tests to determine how frozen the soil was. Eva is showing Mike and Sarah how to use the auger to run soil samples.

The soil was very soft to walk on and had a sandy texture. Away from the sight at a lower ground level ther was a pretty bog... little did the undergrads know, they would be surveying through it! Eva showed the team lingonberries, which occur everywhere in the forest. Even though they are from last year and slightly fermented, they are still good to eat because they have spent the winter frozen.

The team then drove to The Kierikki Stone Age Center where they ventured onto the roof of the three story log building to set up the GPS system.

The center and the village are located on the banks of the Iijoki River and hold a unique combination of Finnish prehistory, which dates back to 5,000 B.C. To find out more about the Center you can go to http://www.kierikki.fi/sivu/en/kierikkikeskus/.

2009-05-17T08:28:00.001-07:00

Day 1: Friday May 8 2009

GATHERING THE RANKS

Our first Day consisted of an introductory meeting, construction of screens, and cataloging of the equipment to be used throughout the project.

During the introductory meeting in the morning we were reminded of the goal of our research, what organizations we would be working with, whom we would be working with, and what was expected of us. The goal of our research is to find insight into the long term human adaptation to climate change in the arctic through excavation and the study of climate models. The organizations we will be working as part of are: The International Polar Year, National Science Foundation, European Science Foundation, and the Finnish Academy of Sciences. Our research team consists of multi-national mix of the brightest professors, graduate, and undergraduate students who are from, the University at Buffalo (USA), McGill University (Canada), University of Oulu (Finland), Villanova University (Spain) and from France. We will also be working with a high school teacher from California, Michael Wing, who is part of PolarTREC . PolarTREC is a program that works with Teachers and Researchers Exploring and Collaborating in the Arctic to encompass learning experiences in both the Arctic and Antarctic. You can find his blog of his time working with us at www.polartrec.com.

During the afternoon we constructed the screens and cataloged equipment. Three screens were constructed. Two fine screens and one coarse. They were put together using only a hand saw, drill, wood, screen, and screws.

The final note of the day was to report to the University at Oulu at 7:30 AM ready to work.

Field School Begins!

2009-05-17T07:05:00.000-07:00

SITE UNDER CONSTRUCTION: BACK POSTS ARE COMING ASAP!!! (we promise!)

Day 13 & 14 - May 28th & 29th: The Wrap Up

2008-05-29T04:15:00.001-07:00

This will probably the last post this year, it's been fun, but all the excavation and such is now done (clever rhyme, no?). I'm conglomerating the last two days of work to form a good size post, instead of two extremely small ones.

Day 13

As always, well mostly always, I'll start with the news from T108 at KKN. Stratigraphy profiles were done of the north and east sides of the trench and then it was backfilled and covered up. That's all for KKN...exciting!

In trench T208 at the Thing it was realized that all the possible fire pits (including another one just discovered today!) go too deep to be completely excavated this year, so the trench will have to be filled and then re-excavated next year. The other news from the Thing is that about a third of the platform and surrounding area was mapped using the total station.

Another set of trowel tests was done at a possible site and stone structure that correspond to an elevation that roughly dates to the transition between the stone age and the bronze age. Three test pits were done in the possible stone structure and one test pit was done in a nearby dwelling depression. All pits were negative, meaning they didn't contain any finds.

As the excavation is drawing to a close more lab work is being done. Several people worked in the lab today and were cataloging finds, organizing finds, and cleaning charcoal.

It was also media day today. The local newspaper, radio, and television companies came out to interview Dr. Ezra Zubrow, Sam Vaneeckhout, Eva Hulse, and Jen Bracewell about the excavations this year.

Here are some pictures from Day 13.

The line of trowel tests being done at the possible stone structure.

Stomping down the dirt while backfilling trench T108 at KKN.

Backfilled and turf replaced at T108, almost as if we were never even there...

Day 14

It's really the end now. Only a few people were sent to the field today, for the purposes of drawing stratigraphy profiles for trench T208 at the Thing, to back fill T208, as well as map the rest of the platform and surrounding area of the Thing with the Total station.

Besides that all that was done is lab work. People continued cataloging, organizing and all that fun stuff. Here are some pictures once again.

Seth Wagner (A University of Buffalo Undergraduate student) organizing finds.

9 years of back logged Nocuso finds after we had finished organizing them.

So that's all! My job is done. Well almost, let's run through some of the exciting things discovered in this year's excavations. A large new site was found by the survey team along the 55 meter coastline, dating roughly to 5000 years BP, which will hopefully be excavated in the near future. An amber bead was found on the south side of the Yli-Ii river at the KKN site for the first time ever, this was very cool. A large refitted quartz scraper was found in the test pits along the shore line from the KKN site, which matches the area's soil samples and supports the theory of the shore line being used as an activity site and possible midden in neolithic sites throughout the area.

The most important thing about this year's excavations is that they seem to support the proposed theory of social evolution throughout the Yli-Ii river area. The Pits site, which was theorized to be the result of early transient Hunter-Gatherer use, seem to be storage pits, while the dwelling depression at KKN contained no evidence of economic specialization. Both of these excavation results tentatively match the theory, as the Pits was located at the 63 meter coast line, while KKN is located at the 60 meter coast line. Remember that in this area higher elevation usually means older, thus the Pits is older than KKN, and this matches the social evolution hypothesis of increased sedentary life style and resource intensification over time (see the first posts for a refresher on this theory if you need it). Carbon dates and further analysis of the new pile of data collected this year will be needed to confirm or falsify these results, but so far, the theory stands. Unfortunately excavations at the Thing weren't completed this year, thus a full interpretation of the site will have to wait until excavations are completed next year.

There we go, synopsis of the Nocuso Archaeological Field School 2008 excavations complete and my job officially done. Hope you enjoyed the blog as much as I enjoyed writing it for you. Tune in next year I guess, hopefully the blog torch will be passed on to a 2009 member of the field school.

Cheers,
The Field School

Day 12 - May 27th: Pits, Pits, Pits

2008-05-27T09:46:00.000-07:00

Today is going to be a short one, things are starting to wrap up so there isn't a whole lot to report.

Trench T108 at KKN is now officially done being excavated. Sterile bottom sand has been reached in all sections of the trench. Now all there is left to do at KKN is some stratigraphy profiles and back filling the trench, which will be done tomorrow.

Today in trench T208 at the Thing business continued as usual. The bottom of two of the fire pits has been reached which is a good sign, as it means that excavation is nearing completion. The trench was also sketched and mapped with the transit as per usual. Two good sized charcoal samples were also taken for dating purposes.

Survey has finished for the year so the survey team was trowel testing at some of the sites identified this year during survey. The trowel testing is done to see whether identified sites are in fact legit. Today one site was positive and the other was negative. A soil core was also taken, which has a similar function as the bog core described yesterday. Some more bog cores were also taken today.

Test pitting was also done today. A third line of test pits was done at KKN south and parallel to the other two lines done yesterday and Friday. A few of the pits in this line were positive, one of which was closest to the cluster of dwelling depressions, and another which was further away. Another line of test pits was done at the 2005 site today. This line was completely negative except for one pit right on the edge of what is now a bog.

Once again, here are some pictures from the day.

Cookie break after taking a bog core.

Katie Grundtisch (A University of Buffalo Undergraduate student) excavating trench T208 at the Thing.

This is a lizard we found in trench T208 yesterday. I felt bad about today's blog being so short a picture bereft...so I present a photograph of a lizard to you...in an apologetic manner.

That's all for today.

Cheers,
The Field School

Day 11 - May 26th: Blog Cores

2008-05-26T09:55:00.000-07:00

Welcome back to our last week of excavation here at the Nocuso Archaeological Field School 2008.

Yesterday (Sunday, May 25th) was field trip day for us. We went to Hossa National park near the Russian border to see some rock art which has been dated to about 4000 years BP. It took us 3 hours to drive there, and we didn't even get to see the paintings. There was too much snow and thus the paintings were not accessible. Oh my dearest Finland. Twas not all bad though, we saw some reindeer at the Hossa reindeer farm, went on a walk around some rapids and an old mill, and drove up to the Russian border...which was, well, a border (Hey, we drove all the way out there, we had to see something!). We then drove the 3 hours back to Oulu. It was a long day, but everyone enjoyed themselves.

Moving on, let's start with the news from trench T108 at KKN. The finds of the day include quartz flakes, a broken biface (a tool worked on both sides), and some very coarse ceramics. Several pieces of charcoal were also removed from the center of the hearth for dating purposes. The last bit of important information from KKN is that the majority of the site was mapped, including the terrace, coastline, and other dwelling depressions.

Now for news from trench T208 at the Thing. We have found yet another fireplace in the trench, that brings the total up to five, meaning this pit is one hell of a palimpsest. The cuts in the stratigraphic profile also confirm the very palimpsestual nature (reused a frightening amount of times) of this pit and show us with relative accuracy what order the fire pits were deposited. Carbon dating should confirm this. These cuts are seen as a V-shape of leeched soil extending into the enriched layer. We have also reached the coarse bottom sand at one end of the trench, this means that that section of the trench is nearly done being excavated. There is however at least 6o more centimeters to excavate in the center of the trench. Nothing more to report other than the trench is now pretty deep, which makes it a little difficult to excavate.

The survey team turned up nothing today. Some bog cores were taken as well today (hence the today's somewhat catchy blog title). Florin Pendea (A PhD student from McGill University studying Palaeoecology) was the man doing this, with some help mind you. A bog core is when you stick a hollow tube into the bog and pull up, well, a core. This core shows the various layers and composition of sediment and allows us to learn more about past shorelines a floral composition of the palaeoenvironment.

Test pitting continued today, which turned up some quartz flakes, ceramics, and some burnt bone. Today's line of test pits was done on the south side, the side furthest from the shore, of the cluster of dwellings at the KKN site. As you may remember a line of test pits was done on the north side of the cluster last week along the shore line which were almost all positive (had finds). The line today only had two positive test pits, which were located close to the dwelling depressions, whereas as those further away were negative. This seems to further support Eva Hulse's hypothesis that the north shore line at KKN was used as a sort of communal midden, as I described last Friday.

Here are some pictures from the weekend field trip and today.

Everyone tormenting a reindeer while it was trying to eat some tasty...pellets.

A curious reindeer.

Trench T108 at KKN.

Jen Bracewell's legs sticking out of trench T208 at the thing...told you excavation has become difficult.

Florin Pendea and Hoyt Leonhardt (A University of Buffalo Undergraduate Student) taking a bog core.

A bog core (Yes, we know what it looks like).

That's it for today, back again tomorrow.

Cheers,
The Field School

Day 10 - May 23rd: The Beginning of the End

2008-05-24T07:26:00.000-07:00

Today was the last day of excavation for the Oulu University students and the Nocuso students. We wish them farewell and good luck. Now it's up to the McGill and the University of Buffalo students to finish the excavation.

Today was an interesting day at KKN. Trench T108 yielded yet more quartz flakes and ceramics, but we are getting to the bottom sand in several spots, which means the trench is almost done. The section where the midden was believed to be is now being brought down to the same level as the rest of the trench. It is yielding a large amount of quartz flakes, ceramics, and possibly burnt bone. It seems that our trench has just caught the edge of the midden in the south east corner. Test pitting of the KKN area also commenced today. A line of nine 50 by 50 centimeter test pits (one every 4 meters) was done along where the shore was during the occupation of the KKN site where there were no dwelling depressions. Only one of the test pits was negative while the rest yielded large amounts of quartz, ceramics and burnt bone. The coolest find of the day was three large pieces of quartz that refit to form a large scraper, complete with an easily identified used edge. These eight positive test pits in such a concentrated area support the hypothesis that this area near the cluster of dwellings was being used as a large midden. This is also evidenced by the soil samples that Eva Hulse took in this area, which have high levels of phosphorus and other anthropogenically introduced substances. These high levels mean that a high concentration of organic decomposition has been occurring, which is very strong evidence for human use as a midden.

Over in trench T208 at the Thing excavation is proceeding at a rapid pace. A soil core has revealed several layers of charcoal up to two meters down, and even charcoal below the water table. In total the site seems to be a palimpsest of at least four separate fire places, with one being near the top and thus relatively recent. The trench will thus be excavated as far as possible, meaning down to the water table, and charcoal samples will be sampled to be dated, to show us when these fire places were being used. This trench also shows a V-shaped line of decomposing matter, much like the one that was found in T308 at the Pits. This could indicate that the pit was once lined with birch bark for either storage or insulation purposes.

Otherwise not much else today. The survey team didn't find any new sites, but it was a beautiful day, so they did enjoy wandering through the forest in some beautiful weather.

Here are some pictures from the day.

Trench T208 at the Thing at the end of the day.

Trench T108 at KKN at the end of the day.

The refitted large quartz scraper found in a test pit by KKN (some of the smaller broken pieces are missing).

A close up of the used edge of the scraper, you can see very small pieces and fractures along the used edge, this is how we can tell when a quartz tool has been used. I will try to include a picture of the used edge under the microscope at some point next week.

That's all for this week, posts will start back up on Monday and continue for one more week!

Cheers,
The Field School

Day 9 - May 22nd: The Belgian Stomp

2008-05-22T09:56:00.000-07:00

Not a whole lot to report again today. It was however a beautiful day today, we were down to our t-shirts while excavating...well at least I was.

We were beginning to reach the hard pan layer in trench T108 at KKN today, which means the excavation is almost complete. Finds today include quartz flakes and some more bone. A large piece of charcoal was also found; this will be carbon dated to provide us with an estimation of the occupation period of the dwelling being excavated.

Over at trench T208 business went on as usual as well. Even more charcoal samples have been taken and the trench is currently being leveled down to what seems to be a fireplace. Trench T408 was excavated down past the leeched level and into the mixed enriched layer; it shows a normal stratigraphy pattern consistent with not being used extensively in the past, which means this is not in fact the air vent for the slag pit last year. I'm including a photo of what an unmodified natural stratigraphy profile should look like for your edutainment purposes.

Mapping was finished over in trench T308 at the Pits and then the trench was back filled. This is where the title of the blog is taken from today. Sam Vaneeckhout was stomping down the loose soil we were using to fill the trench up quite rhythmically, almost like a dance, which we dubbed "The Belgian Stomp", because Sam is originally from Belgium.

Andrius, who happens to be doing his Master's thesis on the social role of amber in neolithic societies, has dug up some interesting information on our amber bead find from the other day. It is a barrel-shaped bead of the tubular type which is a relatively rare find. There have been similar finds at the Zvejnieki burial in Latvia (dated to between 5300 and 5100 years BP), the Tamula settlement in Estonia, the Lubana lake area in Latvia, and other sites in Lithuania and Poland. These beads were made by drilling into both ends of the bead using flint or bone tools.

Here are some pictures. I'm including a map which outlines possible trade patterns throughout the Baltic Sea basin and Scandinavia from 6000 to 4000 years BP. This is to help us understand how the amber bead find from the other day got to where it is, neolithic trade routes.

What a natural stratigraphic profile should look like, unmodified. Notice the double stratigraphy near the top (two dark layers of decaying organic material). This indicates two temporally different forest floors.

Making a wall of shadow for pictures of trench T308 at the Pits.

Feet...and legs.

Neolithic long distance trade routes in the Baltic Sea basin and Scandinavia. Take note of the amber! (Image taken from: Zvelebil, M. 2006. "Mobility, contact, and exchange in the Baltic Sean basin 6000 to 2000 BC". Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 25: 178-192)

Nearing the end of the second week of excavation, time is really flying! Until next post.

Cheers,
The Field School

Day 8 - May 21st: Makkara and the Kierikki Stone Age Museum

2008-05-21T09:47:00.000-07:00

Today was only a half day so there isn't very much to report. We worked in the morning and then had makkara Wednesday at the re-created neolithic village at the Kierikki Stone Age Museum. After everyone had had their fill of makkara we checked out the museum.

Survey didn't turn up any new sites, but they did see a moose pretty close up! I'd say that's pretty exciting. We've also got a really good picture of the survey line I described in Monday's post.

Trench T108 at KKN today yielded some more quartz flakes and ceramics. No really exciting amber finds today but we still have another seven days of excavation left, so maybe some more will turn up.

The leveling of the ant farm tentacles in trench T208 at the Thing occurred today. According to Jari Okkonen (an Archaeologist here at Oulu university who specializes in Iron Age monuments), the tentacle like enriched soil pattern that descends deep into the trench is a result of the practice of radially lining Iron Age cooking pits with wood during their period of use. Besides this news there is nothing else to report from the Thing besides the fact that trench T408 was brought down to the leeched layer today.

Turns out mourning the death of trench T308 at the Pits yesterday was a little preemptive. It's holding on for one more day, it will probably be filled in tomorrow. The middle pit in trench T308 was brought down a little further today to see if it matched the pattern of the western pit which was excavated down to the water table yesterday. The same pattern is observed, the V-shaped layer of decomposing birch bark described yesterday, except at a shallower depth. Thus this pit could also have been a hunting cache. Also, a decomposed log crosses this pit, in the same position that all of the hard pan soil I was struggling with yesterday is located in the other pit. Coincidence? I think not! Turns out I was hacking through the hard pan remains of a log yesterday. Some soil and stratigraphy maps of trench T308 were also done today.

As I said in the little introduction today, after eating some makkara in the re-created neolithic village we checked out the Kierikki Stone Age Museum. The museum is dedicated to the prehistory of the Yli-Ii river area and has some very fascinating exhibits. You can check out the website to learn some more about it here.

I'm also including a fantastic map of the Yli-Ii area which includes all the current sites, old sites, newly discovered sites from this year, and the former coast lines (contours). Thanks to Dustin Keeler for creating this map, I'm sure the readers will appreciate it greatly, I know I do!

As always, it's picture time.

The moose the survey team found today.

A good picture of the survey line.

Excavating trench T108 at KKN.

The ant farm tentacle feature from T208 at the Thing being leveled.

The modern interpretation of a neolithic village at the Kierikki Stone Age Museum.

Roasting makkara in the re-created neolithic row house.

Andrius and Colin Nielsen (A University College of London Graduate student) used their rock climbing skills to get on top of the big ball here at Oulu University.

A map of the region in question (Click to enlarge). The past coast lines are shown, as well as newly discovered sites in red, and the sites currently being excavated in blue and labeled "Nocuso Excavations".

That's all for the day, roughly same time tomorrow.

Cheers,
The Field School

Day 7 - May 20th: Bling on the South Side

2008-05-20T09:42:00.000-07:00

Hello again. Again. Today was a rather eventful day for everyone, except for the survey team, who partook in some rather unfruitful forest wandering.

Starting with the coolest of cool news from trench T108 at KKN. There were two very good finds today. The first is what could be a piece of a ground stone tool, possibly made out of slate. I'll include a picture of it today and will update you on it when we've confirmed the material and the possible function. It was found towards the south wall in the middle of the trench. The other cool find of the day was an amber bead. It was found in the middle of the trench too. The amber bead find is very interesting because this is the first amber find on the south side of the Yli-Ii river in this area; all other amber finds have been on the north side. This is also interesting because amber is not found locally, it is found in the southern Baltic region. Thus this find and previous ones like it provide good evidence for long distance trade. A picture of the amber bead will be included today too. The other finds of the day were more of the same: quartz flakes, some ceramics, and several small animal bones.

Moving onto the Thing. A new 70 by 100 centimeter trench was opened up where the air vent of last year's iron smelting pit was believed to be. This has been pretty much confirmed judging by the amount of charcoal found in this new trench, dubbed very lovingly, T408. Another find was a piece of what could be a type of ore in the middle of trench T208. More on that after further lab analysis. Remember how one end of trench T208 looked like an ant farm last week because of the stratigraphic excavation technique? Turns out this is not just the result of roots as was initially thought. This is because it is quite regular and extends very deep down. I'll let you know when we've got some more information on it.

Time to mourn the end of T308 over at the Pits. The trench was excavated down to the water table today and thus will be back filled tomorrow. There are some interesting features in the stratigraphy at the Pits, one being a V-shaped line of charcoal like material that runs parallel to the stratigraphic profile of the pit on both sides. This could be the remnants of decomposing birch bark used to line the pit if it was used as a hunting cache. The other interesting feature in the Pits is some very large layers of hard pan soil, and let me tell you from personal experience today, hard pan is a real pain to excavate, the name says it all.

Not much from the survey team today, five pits along the 60 meter coast line and then nothing else. However we do have some news about the mysterious U-shaped trident mound from last week! Turns out it has been dated to......(drum roll please).....1962. It was used to store explosives that were being used during the building of the dam on the Yli-Ii river.

Stop, picture time!

Andrius Slavuckis (A Graduate student here at Oulu University) crossing a stream while surveying.

Opening up trench T408 at the Thing.

Surveying with the Transit Station at the Thing.

The soil specialists dream in trench T308 at the Pits.

The end of trench T308.

Jose Lopez (A Nocuso student) holds up the possible slate tool he found in trench T108 at KKN.

The amber bead in situ at KKN.

A close up of the possible slate tool from T108.

A close up of the amber bead from T108.

The amber bead under a microscope in the lab (you can see the amber...it's shiny!).

A close up of the ore found today.

Thats' all for now, back again tomorrow!

Cheers,
The Field School

Day 6 - May 19th: How to Make a Bog Body in One Easy Step...

2008-05-19T09:41:00.000-07:00

Hope you all enjoyed your weekends and welcome to another week of archaeological adventures here at the Nocuso 2008 field school.

The title for the blog today is a little misleading, we did not find a bog body today, though that would have been incredibly cool (for those of you non-archaeologists a bog body is a well preserved body of a prehistoric human found in a bog, not a body found in a bog placed there by any sort of recent 'alternative' means...). The title refers to my tour with the survey team today exploring Finland's boggy wilderness looking for dwelling depressions. I'll start off with the goings on over at KKN, the Thing, and the Pits.

Trench T108 at KKN yielded much of the same today, with more quartz flakes, some ceramics, and even another bone find. Unfortunately we forgot the Total Station legs at the university today and had to do all the mapping with a datum and a line level, which takes a lot more time, but is a good thing to know how to do because not every excavation is lucky enough to have access to a Total Station.

Some interesting news comes our way from trench T208 over at the Thing. A fire pit was found in the west end of the trench which looks much like the hearth identified in trench T108, meaning it looks like a ring of enriched soil with some charcoal deposits in and around it.

Trench T308 over at the pits seems to be turning into a soil specialists dream. The trench is now 1.2 meters deep in the west side where the interesting double stratigraphy was noted last week. This allows us to see a very interesting cross-section of the soil layers in the wall. There also is a ring of hard pan (a very hard layer of iron rich soil which usually forms at about the water table) with leeched soil in the middle in the trench. Not sure what this means yet, we will let you know when we figure it out.

Moving on to the bog-tastic adventures of the survey team. Today the survey team found two possible new sites, two dwelling depressions in one and only one at the other, along the 50 meter coast line, which corresponds with roughly 4500 years BP. The large site found on Friday last week was mapped as well. I was part of the survey team today so I can elaborate on how the whole process is done, because it isn't exactly just wandering around the Finnish forest. Using GPS units, a compass, survey maps from the Finnish government, and a knowledge of prehistoric coast lines, the area is divided into transects to be explored by the survey team. Once we arrive at the transect we wish to survey we spread ourselves apart, placing one person every ten meters or so in a straight line along one side of the transect. We then walk through the transect while looking for dwelling depressions, a tell tale sign of prehistoric activity. After we finish a transect we move to the next one and repeat the process. Every time a depression is found it is marked on a GPS unit so it can be found again for future excavation. Now don't think this is at all easy. Several of these transects are done per day, this means that the survey team walks roughly five kilometers per day. Now you're thinking "five kilometers, that's not so bad". Before you make such hasty assumptions let me tell about the type of terrain we are dealing with: extremely dense forest and bogs, bogs, bogs. And some more bogs. And some bogs filled with decaying forest and remnants of what seems to be a lone man with a chainsaw who cuts down trees and just leaves them there to get in our way. Survey is damn hard work, and is fundamental to the archaeological endeavor, as this is how the sites are found in the first place!

So the moral of the survey story is that it is important, difficult work which requires a good pair of rubber boots here in Finland, because bogs are, well, wet.

Here's some pictures from the day.

Sam Vaneeckhout (A PhD student here at Oulu University) working away at trench T308 in the pits will everyone else takes a break.

Sarah Vannice (A McGill Undergraduate Student) is caught by surprise conducting some unorthodox excavation technique.

Check out this wicked stratigraphy and an unusual square feature from trench T308.

The survey team trekking through the Finnish bog.

Getting in line to survey a transect.

Amy Hansen and Greg Korosec (both University of Buffalo Graduate students) observing, and standing in and outside (respectively), a possible dwelling depression.

Done and done, talk to you all tomorrow, same bat time, same bat blog.

Cheers,
The Field School

Day 5 - May 16th: When Finland freezes over...

2008-05-16T09:59:00.000-07:00

Today was cold. So very cold. People were so cold at KKN and the Thing that a campfire was made over at the lunch site so that we could warm ourselves up. However it was not cold over at the Pits. Apparently Sam worships Apollo, the Greek god of the sun, and cooked up a sacrifice good enough to move all of the sun's rays to trench T308, much to the chagrin of the rest of us.

I'm going to be all crazy today and flip around the order of edutainment provision for you guys. I'll start with a cool find that the survey team found today. They found a large site of 8 depressions (potential structures) that run along the 55 meter shore line. The shore was at this level at around 5000 years BP, so we can relatively safely assume that these sites will date to sometime around this period, as this has been the case with most of the sites excavated throughout this area, they follow the temporal extension of the shore line. The road cuts through one of the depressions and is thus absolutely covered with quartz flakes, but the rest of the depressions are completely intact. This cluster of dwellings will hopefully be excavated in one of the coming years of this project.

Now that I've thrown you guys off with the zany new format...I'll switch back! That's how I roll.

Today in trench T108 at KKN we found more ceramics, and....you guessed it, more quartz flakes. This brings us up to something like 260 finds in this trench, so far most of it being quartz flakes. We started bringing down the east side of the trench more today as that is where the midden is most probably located, this could be why we found more ceramics today and that they concentrate in the east side of the trench. All finds were mapped using the Total Station again today. I'm including a picture of trench T108 today to show you what the excavation technique we are using looks like. It's called technical layering, which means that you keep the excavation going level at all points regardless of soil type. This method allows us to see different patterns of enriched soil and was particularly helpful in the location of the hearth.

Moving on to the day's business over in trench T208. As was posted yesterday, the trench at the Thing this year shows evidence of being a palimpsest cooking pit. No new exciting finds today. However you may find the excavation technique itself quite exciting...well at least I do! I'm including a picture just like I have for trench T108. The technique being used is called stratigraphic layering. This means that you excavate each layer of differing soil types separately. This makes for an uneven trench but helps us to see specific soil morphologies possibly caused by archaeological events. This technique can take a great deal more time than technical layering. Take a look at the picture and you will see what I mean, it looks like an ant farm...FOR GIANT ANTS (hail our new ant overlords...?).

Speaking of ants! Guess who found some sleeping ants in their trench? The team over at the Pits. Before excavation could continue the ants were removed and placed in the back dirt pile so they could wake up when they were good and ready. Otherwise excavation proceeded as usual. The large charcoal feature was excavated showing further evidence for a possible double stratigraphy, meaning two different uses of the site, yay palimpsest! The alternate theory is that we have been digging through a tree and are now coming to the end of it, or some combination of the two (trees frequently root in old hearths for their ash content, disturbing the hearth's contents and creating a dark, rotted root layer nearly indistinguishable from charcoal).

That was a relatively long bit o' text for this post, so now I will cease with the boring and get on to some dazzling photographs.

Feast your eyes on this fine example of technical layering at KKN; also notice the hearth pattern of enriched soil and charcoal at the closest end in this picture, which happens to be the west end.

Now take a gander at some sweet stratigraphic layering at the Thing.

Everyone freezing at trench T108.

Warming up at lunch by the campfire.

Madness sets in at the Thing.

The double stratigraphy at trench T308 mentioned in the post.

Everyone looking at the lovely work being done over at the Pits.

That's the end of week one, it went by pretty fast! Posts will continue on Monday.

Cheers,
The Field School

Day 4 - May 15th: Hark! a Hearth calleth!

2008-05-15T11:38:00.000-07:00

Back so soon? Good thing, because we've got another post up and ready for you.

Again we will start with trench T108 at KKN. More quartz flakes were found as well as decaying ceramics but the real excitement of the day was finding that the enriched soil makes a very distinguishable hearth pattern in the west end of the trench. Pretty cool. This is supported by the finding of a small piece of bone within the hearth structure; burnt bone is well preserved in this soil and, depending on its species, could support the home-hearth theory. If this site follows the coastal residence pattern as seen in previous years this bone is most likely a seal bone, as seal was one of the primary resources in the area. We also had the Total Station at KKN today which dramatically sped up the mapping of finds process.

Over in T208 at the Thing is more charcoal. It seems that the pit was reused several times as there seems to be several separate layers of charcoal. This could possibly indicate that this particular pit was reused for cooking over the passage of time, a cooking pit palimpsest. We will have to see how far it goes down and carbon 14 date all the levels to see how early it started being used. And now for an update on the Thing's slag piece....(drum roll please)....not slag, turns out it was a particularly compressed and frozen piece of charcoal. it took some serious scientific analysis (using a microscope!) to figure this out.

Moving on to T308 at the Pits. Twas a half day there today as Sam had to do a presentation in the afternoon. A double stratigraphy was found in the trench though which is very cool. This means that the particular pit being excavated is the result of at least two separate occupations. This means that trench T308 at the Pits will be staying open for a few more days (instead of being closed up on Friday as previously thought) to see how far down these multiple occupations go.

More news from the survey team; they found another site. This one is 8 dwelling depressions that run along the 55 meter shore line, which dates to about 5000 years BP. Pretty cool. And apparently that's not the only thing they found, whilst trekking through a muddy field they learned that mud + rubber boots = stuck. Some foot excavations had to happen to remove some students who were stuck in the mud.

Picture time!

Making a wall of shade over trench T108 for picture taking purposes...also warmth.

Trench T108 at the end of the day.

Mapping finds with the Total Station at KKN.

Carrying the Total Station equipment back to the vans at the end of the day.

Tomorrow is Friday. This was just a statement. It doesn't really mean anything. Until next post!

Cheers,
The Field School

Day 3 - May 14th: Makkara Wednesday!

2008-05-15T11:00:00.000-07:00

I'll just jump right into it today, not a significantly large amount to report, except some interesting van and mud issues.

Over in trench T108 at KKN quartz flakes were still coming up all over the place in addition to signs of decaying pottery. Some good charcoal samples were also located to be removed tomorrow for carbon 14 dating purposes.

Trench T208 over at the Thing didn't really yield a whole lot today, but that seems to be the trend at the Thing unless you find what could be palimpsest fire pits interesting....wait, that is pretty interesting. Today, as with every Wednesday, Katie Grundtisch (an undergrad from University of Buffalo) got to get in some practice guiding procedures at the site, as Jen is occupied on Wednesdays. This is Katie's second year attending the Nocuso Field School here at Oulu University. She expedited the drawing of surface feature maps and there was a complete lack of mutiny at the site...this is a good sign. As far as the slag goes, it is still hanging out in the lab, we will know soon. Moving on.

Now for an update on the business over in trench T308 at the Pits with dear old Sam. The interesting feature from yesterday was pretty much confirmed to just be a coincidental pattern of charcoal as it was deposited. Other than that there seems to be a large similarity between the pits of charcoal here as at the one being excavated over at the Thing. Coincidence? I honestly don't know yet, we will let you know of any possibly important relationships as they pop up.

Some interesting news came our way from the survey team as well today, they found a small site along the 60 meter coast line, which can be dated to roughly 5500 years BP.

We had to do some rescuing today. While Dr. Ezra Zubrow and Eva Hulse (a University of Buffalo PhD student) were driving around looking for good roads to use for survey, they somehow managed to get the van stuck in the mud. Very stuck. Tires all the way down to the water table stuck. It took a few strong bodies, a lot of digging, and some strategic gas pedaling, but eventually we rescued the property-of-Oulu-University van.

Today was also makkara Wednesday as indicated in the title of the post. This has become somewhat of a tradition here at the Nocuso Field School. Every Wednesday we get some campfires going and throw some makkara (Finnish sausages) on some sticks and eat them for lunch. Very tasty. I think I like this tradition!

On a much sadder note, Dr. Andre Costopoulos (the man with the Heavy Metal plan), spent his last day on site with us today. He has to head back to Montreal to deal with other professorial work. We wish him well and his presence will be missed.

Here are some pictures from the day.

The epic rescue of Eva and Dr. Zubrow's van from the Yli-Ii river quicksand.

Dustin Keeler (A PhD student from University of Buffalo) and Panu (an Oulu University student) roasting Makkara over an open fire.

WWWWWWWWWHHHHHHHHHHYYYYYYYY!!!!!????

Trench T308 over at the Pits.

That's it for this post!

Cheers,
The Field School

Day 2 - May 13th: Ceramics, Quartz...Slag?

2008-05-14T10:17:00.000-07:00

Hey All. Here we go again. The weather today was the opposite of yesterday, twas beautiful and sunny in the morning and it started to snow and rain in the afternoon...my dearest Finland, I never tire of your remarkably unpredictable weather patterns.

Starting with the trench T108 at KKN (finally found out what this abbreviation stands for - Kotikangas North) we had several more quartz flakes found in the leeched layer, about 61 in total. The best find of the day at KKN was definitely two ceramic sherds which were also in the leeched layer at the east end of the trench, which is where the midden (garbage pile for all you non-archaeologists) should be located in the dwelling. These pieces are Comb ware, which is a ceramic tradition that spanned from Northern Finland all the way down to Lithuania and appeared from roughly 6000 to 4000 years BP. I'm including a picture of one of the sherds (a rim) that we took in the lab with this post, it's pretty cool if you ask me. It's called comb wear because a comb was scraped along the wet clay as these ceramics were drying which leaves a very distinctive decorative pattern. This could be evidence of this dwelling being a generalized site, meaning one with little economic specialization, but as I said yesterday we can't really figure this out for sure until the excavation is complete. That's really it for KKN today, everything was mapped, bagged, and tagged as per usual.

Things were still a good deal frozen at the Thing today, but we finally got down through that organic layer and started hitting an interesting mixed leeched and charcoal layer. Turns out trench T208 is just loaded with charcoal, with a large concentration in the middle of the trench, you'll get the idea from the picture I'm including. Another interesting find at the Thing was what could possibly be some slag, I'll update you later on whether this is true after the find has been adequately analyzed in the lab. Other happenings from the thing included the drawing of a scaled Elevation Sketch Map and a scaled Soil Map of the trench.

Moving on to a very exciting day over in trench T308 at the Pits. Maybe I lie. Depends on how much you like charcoal. We found a quite interesting charcoal pattern in the east side of the trench which is shaped like a square with a spherical tail. We don't know what this is, the most likely explanation is that this just happened to be the pattern that the burnt logs were sitting in as they decayed. Other than that we've reached the bottom of T308 in most parts of the trench which means that we will most likely be wrapping up this site by the end of the week and moving the extra person power over to KKN where another trench will be opened up.

That's really all for the day, now revel in our photographic prowess. BEHOLD, US...frozen in carbonite!

A picture of the whole Nocuso 2008 field team at the big ball. Two things to point out, first is the shear number of people involved in the project this year, second is that very few people are actually looking at the camera in this picture, that's because Dr. Ezra Zubrow is taking the same piture from a different angle at the same time here, 10 points to those of you who can identify the people who are actually looking at the camera.

Clayton, a Nucuso student from Australia, poses at the end of trench T108 at KKN.

Everyone working away in trench T308 at the Pits, both mapping and excavation are occurring in this one.

The interesting charcoal feature at trench T308.

Trench T208 at the Thing.

One of the Comb ware ceramic sherds from trench T108 at KKN.

Hope you enjoy the pretty pictures, until next time!

Cheers,
The Field School

Day 1 - May 12th: Quartz Flakes and Frozen Soil

2008-05-13T12:01:00.000-07:00

Day 1 of the excavation started off with a bang, this particular bang being snow, which meant some awfully frozen organic layers to our trenches.

I'll start with the day's happenings in trench T108 at KKN (what this stands for still to come!). The first job was to clear off the organic layer in the trench. This was done relatively quickly, though there were some frozen patches that took a little longer to get through. There was one small quartz flake found near the bottom of the organic layer, but that was only a glimpse of what was to come. Once we got to the leeched layer we started finding quartz flakes left, right and center! I believe the total was about 55 separate flakes by the end of the day, very cool! All the finds were mapped, bagged, and tagged by the end of the day. This large amount of quartz flake finds could be early evidence of economic specialization which matches the shore line this dwelling is associated with, but not the dwelling type, that being a one hearthed dwelling. However it's really too early to be able to interpret this data fully, seeing as flakes are usually found in the leeched layer and other finds, such as ceramics, are usually found further down. Other interesting goings on at the KKN trench include a friendly little competition that myself and Andrius (A Lithuanian student doing his Master's degree here at Oulu University) have started. You see, whoever has the most finds turn up when screening their back dirt (which means they missed the find in its actual archaeological context) loses. We will have to decide a prize for the winner of this competition, perhaps our readers could provide some suggestions?

Moving onto trench T208 at the Thing. It was frozen. Very frozen. So frozen in fact that chiseling away at the organic layer took all day long. And this entire day of slaving over the frozen trench didn't even remove all of the organic layer! Thus a primary goal for tomorrow will be to get all of that organic layer removed!

Last but not least is the news from trench T308 over at the Pits site. This is the trench which will hopefully yield few finds, as that would support the suggested model of social evolution for the Yli-Ii river area outlined in the last post. It turns out that a piece of ceramic was found there, which seems to be older ceramic with very thick walls, which could still support the model.

Other exciting news was brought to us by the survey team. They found a very large, well, mysterious structure. It is a large U shaped mound, roughly 15 by 15 meters and 2 meters high with a another long mound in the middle, of about the same height. Overall it looks kind of like a giant trident or pitch fork (but the middle prong isn't attached) if that helps you visualize it better. It is located right along the 5500 years BP coast line and there is an interesting rock located near it which looks to have been worked somehow as it has various markings on it and perhaps even some pigment. Very cool. More updates will come as we learn more about what I'm going to call the mysterious structure for the time being.

And now for some pictures!

Snow. Something one must deal with when excavating in Finland.

The trench T108 at KKN, complete with snow.

Working away at T108...Andrius is "supervising".

Down to the leeched layer at T108

Mapping finds (ie. billions of quartz flakes) at T108

Chiseling through the frozen organic layer in trench T208 at the Thing

Jen Bracewell (McGill PhD Student) looks at the interesting rock near the mysterious structure with a look of what seems to be disgust...

Yours truly riding Andrius' bicycle before heading to the lab...maybe that's why I'm making a face.

That's all for now, should be posts most days now.

Cheers,
The Field School

The NOCUSO Archaeological Field School: 2008 Edition

2008-05-12T10:33:00.000-07:00

Welcome Back! In the brilliant tradition started by a certain Mr. David Groves, the blog documenting all the thrilling ups and downs of the 2007 NOCUSO Field School excavations at the Yli-Ii river near Oulu, Finland, will be continued this year.

The main goal of excavations this year is to test a proposed model of social evolution for the Yli-Ii river area. This model was covered in the very first post of this blog last year, so if you haven't already read the blog several times over, you should get on that, it will help, but for you lazy people who want to keep the reading to a minimum, here's the story in a nutshell. From 7000 to 3500 years BP (and even up to 1500 years BP at the Thing's smelting pit) in the Yli-Ii river area the land was rising (because of isostatic rebound) faster than the sea level was rising, so the sea level lowered and the coast got further and further out over time. These coast lines correspond very well with settlement patterns throughout the time period in question. So the model thus far is of increasing economic specialization, social complexity, and an increasingly integrated community, over time throughout the area.

The first week here at Oulu University (May 3rd to May 10th) included lectures and several visits to the site. The lectures provided us with some essential background information pertaining to the prehistory of the Yli-Ii river, and the model of temporal social evolution throughout the area as theorized by Dr. Andre Costopoulos (the most metal of all archaeologists). The visits to the site were to determine what was going to be excavated this year, to orient us, and give us a crash course in locating dwelling depressions. It was decided that three separate excavations were to occur at the site this year!

The first trench to be thrown down is at a dwelling depression at KKN (what this abbreviation actually means will be in a later post, simply because I don't remember what it is right now). The purpose of this trench is to provide more evidence to support the model, as it sits in the middle of the chronology of the area (around 5500 years BP) and thus should be a one hearthed dwelling with a wide range of finds, as in no economic specialization yet. The second is at the Thing, which as you may remember from last year contained what seemed to an iron smelting pit, complete with piles of slag! Now there were two depressions on top of the platform at the thing and only one was excavated last year, so the second one will be excavated this year. The third trench is at a higher elevation, and remember in this context that means older (though carbon dates will still be needed to prove the dates of finds). This third trench is of several small depressions along the road which were originally recorded as iron age cooking pits. Dr. Costopoulos believes that these are actually the remains of early, very transient, settlement of the area by highly mobile hunter-gatherers. If this is true it would support the model of increasing social complexity and economic specialization in the area, and thus the hope is to find very little in the Pits, because highly mobile hunter-gatherers would not leave very much behind.

So that's the plan.

On Saturday May 10th (yes, archaeologists are hardcore, we work on Saturdays.), we headed up to take off the turf layer of the trenches so that the top layer of humus would be thawed for excavation on Monday the 12th. This was all done pretty easily, we only had to deal with a little bit of turf frozen to the top layer of soil, but that's a reality archaeologists must face when working in northern settings! Here is a single picture (Edit: there are two pictures now, and who knows a whole post dedicated pictures may or may not occur at some point in the future!) I realize that this is a little lame for the moment, but I promise more will follow, once picture coordination between all three trenches is figured out for this year.

The trench T108 at the Thing once the turf was removed

The trench T308 at the Pits being cleaned up after removal of the top soil

That's all for this post, you can look forward to more pictures and more posts, all coming soon!

Cheers,
The Field School

Last second excavation

2007-05-28T02:33:00.000-07:00

In a sudden and unexpected turn of events, we were forced to dig open and excavate an entirely new trench this weekend. We left the dig site Friday, after covering it up with topsoil and doing our final mapping and measuring, and went home without any idea that two days later we would have to begin the whole process over again, but with less time and more to uncover.

Above: An aerial shot of the new site. The organic layer, which, based on initial interpretation, appears to be made of chocolate cookie crumbs, has been removed from the main trench, outlined in string and pretzel pieces. Underneath the organic was a thin layer of almonds and oatmeal cookie crumbs, and then a leached layer of vanilla cake. In the top corner you can see a fireplace, and in the bottom corner, our sand pile on a tarp.

The stratigraphy of the trench followed the same pattern as our main trench: a cookie-crumb organic layer with some chocolate frosting, a leached layer of vanilla cake, a dense layer of chocolate rice-crispy square ceramics, an enriched banana-bread layer, and then some chocolate chip cookie hard-pan. Most excitingly, the ceramics layer included some jellybean amber beads, something we never found at our original site.

Above: Deciding exactly how to excavate the trench was obviously very difficult, as we didn't want to collapse the layers into each other, or miss anything when dividing it up into pieces. Fortunately, every layer remained intact and worthy of considerable investigation.

Above: A good picture of the profile of the new trench. The rice-crispy ceramics layer is particularly thick at this point, which everyone was very happy about.

So, having completed this surprise excavation (cleverly surveyed for digging by Laura, one of the undergraduates from McGill), we were done with all the heavy-lifting and done with the Field School. It's been a fun and busy few weeks, and we've all learned a lot about Finland and archaeology. It will take some time, of course, before all the things we've found can be fully understood and contextualized, but we all know that it's been an incredibly successful and fulfilling experience. That much, at least, we can guarantee.

That's all,
The Field School

Day 13 and 14: Site Clean-up and Mapping

2007-05-24T09:39:00.000-07:00

After our failed attempt to finish up all the digging on Tuesday, it took us until today to get all of our finds out of the trench. That meant that as we excavated one end of the trench (the east end, where the big clay feature continued much, much further than we expected), we were mapping the other end and filling it back up with the sand we've accumulated over the last three weeks. Of course, that got a little complicated, as the sand gradually encroached upon those still digging. In the end, we managed to completely fill the trench back up again and get all our finds out, although we did have to take all the ceramics left in the sand out in one big chunk and bring them back to lab. As always with archaeology, we found ourselves trapped between trying to do as thorough a job as possible and getting the dig done on time. The mapping process is fairly slow, and while it isn't stressful or difficult, it does require that we have about a day to record all the changes and peculiarities in the stratigraphy of our trench. Hopefully, the maps we make will tell us how much the area had been altered by humans, and how much of it was deposited or moved around by any number of natural forms of disturbance. Like everything, we'll need some lab time to work it all out, and we'll try to post our thoughts or insights on what we find.

As for the Thing, we finally reached the bottom of the last layer of charcoal, which is great, and that means that tomorrow we will take some time to map its profile and then fill it up again. It's a very strange sensation refilling a trench that you've excavated: after all the work you've done, all you want to do is make it look like you were never there. We dig out a mountain of sand, take a couple of kilograms of stuff from it, then put it all back in and roll the vegetation and organic matter back on top. However, we found a very exciting couple of kilograms, and over the next week or so (excluding tomorrow), we'll spend some time in the lab looking over them, preparing charcoal samples to be dated, and thinking about how the artifacts we've gathered change the way we think about Neolithic Finland. What can we infer from what we've found? What have we found that contradicts or reinforces what we already assumed? How does the Thing factor into all this? Of course, many of these questions hinge on some sort of date range to work with, but the ultimate goal of the field school, to paint an accurate picture of life in the Iijoki region a very long time ago, is all about trying to tackle these difficult problems, and doing so with only a small amount of information.

In any event, tomorrow will likely be uneventful, so unless something unexpected happens, we'll just do an update in the next few days with some pictures of the week and a description of the kinds of things we've been putting together and picking apart in the lab.

That's all for now,
The Field School

Day 12: The Last Day Rule

2007-05-22T09:18:00.000-07:00

We had originally intended to finish all of our excavating today, allowing us to spend the rest of the week drawing the profile of the trench, cleaning, and tying up any loose ends. However, there is apparently a concrete rule in archaeology that states that you will always find the most interesting artifacts just as you are finishing your dig. While the rule always guarantees that we get some good results, it is frustrating if you're in a bit of a rush. Over the course of the day we managed to uncover two entirely new and exciting finds, as well as make some serious progress in our previously unearthed features: the clay feature has been entirely removed (it contains some very large pieces of black comb-ware pottery, which is excellent), and the lowest (so far) layer of charcoal has been taken out of the Thing. And, on top of all that, we seem to have found yet another fireplace, this time in the main trench. So, lots to do, lots to do.

The first big find, three little pieces of clay, came from the western extension of our main trench. While that doesn't sound like a lot, the pieces themselves are very unusual; unlike the clay material we've found so far, which have all been pottery fragments, these pieces don't seem to belong to any known form of pottery that we would expect to find in the area. At the moment, our best guess is that they are part of a figurine - an assumption that may seem at first to be a bit of a stretch, but is the strongest working hypothesis we have so far. Figurines have been found in the region before, even by the Field School in previous years, and we're hard pressed to think of any documented ceramic find that looks anything like these things do. As well, the archaeological definition of art is much looser than in most other fields: in the case of prehistory, anything formed by anyone that has a aesthetic, rather than practical, function is art. A figurine, then, could even be a piece of loose clay molded into a rough shape and fired.

The possible figurine fragments. The rounded, almost spherical shape is what suggests that these are quite different from our regular pottery finds; no neolithic pottery that we know of in Finland has round bumps or protrusions. As usual, only careful assessment and interpretation will make sense of this.

The second big find of the day also came from the western trench, and it appears to be a large part of a tiny undecorated clay vessel. This is the first time a pot of this size has been found by the Field School, and on top of the novelty of the discovery, the pottery fragment has a visible fingerprint on it from whoever made it. This is probably a result of how it was made: unlike the bigger comb-ware vessels, this pot was small enough that the sides could have been formed by pinching them between the maker's fingers.

The tiny-pot fragment: without a scale, you can't get a good sense of the size of the piece, but it significantly smaller and more curved than anything else we've found; hopefully we'll get a chance to estimate its overall size. You can't see the fingerprint in this picture, but we'll try and post a shot of that later.

This has definitely been one of our busiest days so far, as well as one of our most surprising. As usual, we have lots more information than we have time to process and inspect, so we'll try to keep the site updated as we make more sense of these new finds.

That's all for now,
The Field School

Day 11: The Clay Feature and Black Ceramics

2007-05-21T10:13:00.000-07:00

So today, at the very end of the day, we finally reached the 1000-find mark. It may seem like a lot, and the pile of bags in the lab is certainly impressive, but most of them are very, very small, and not until the end of last week were we getting pieces of pottery large enough to see evidence of patterning, paint, or asbestos tampering. However, while the finds haven't been big, the amount of work needed to catalogue and weigh them has.

Aside from a number of large intact ceramics fragments and a nice quartz tool at the Thing, there were two very interesting discoveries made today. The first was a large spread-out layer of heavily decayed pottery and clay that covers about half of the east-end extension of the main trench. Most of this clay looks like solid pottery, and within it we have found some big pieces; however, the majority of it is composed of tiny fragments of ceramics, and most of it falls apart when we try to excavate it. A similar clay feature was found last year within a dwelling depression, and so it might be either associated with ceramics production or the disposal of broken, used ceramics. In any event, it certainly gives us more to think about concerning the organization of the settlement, how resources were shared or distributed, and what techniques they used to make their pottery.

The Clay Feature: Judging by the different consistency within the feature, as well as the volume of decayed pottery that we've found within it, we're guessing this feature was formed by a significant quantity of ceramics. What they were doing there, however, is still unclear.

The other big find of the day is even more perplexing. In the middle of the wall that at one point separated the main trench from the east-end extension, we found a piece of ceramics unlike any we've uncovered in the area before. For one thing, it is entirely black, even on the sides of the fragment that would not have been on the surface when it was intact. We can't yet discern if the black is paint or fire damage or what, but the fact that the black coloring is on every surface is very confusing; it suggests that it was applied (intentionally or not) after the piece was broken (if it was broken). Secondly, it has surface patterning that is nothing like the comb-ware we would expect to find in this area. Instead of the rows of indents, there seem to be parallel incisions along the fragment. Once again, it's too early to say exactly what it is, but the fragment is definitely exciting: we could be looking at anything from a piece of poorly formed, discarded ceramics to a yet-unrecorded type of pottery. While the latter may seem more interesting, either result will give us some important archaeological insights into the lifestyle of the people we're trying to understand.

Above: The mysterious and inscrutable black ceramics piece. Note the bizarre lines on the surface, and the coloring. Hopefully we'll be able to figure out a little more about this thing before we leave.

And finally, here are some pictures from the rest of the day:

Above: "Even more damn charcoal" at the Thing. The trench is already 1.30 metres deep, and there's still a lot down there.
Above: Some ceramics with good solid pieces of asbestos throughout (the white bars). Fortunately for us, asbestos pottery lasts longer than other kinds (mainly because the other tempers used were organic, and therefore decay rapidly), and we're finding a fair amount of it.

That's all for now,
The Field School

Pictures, Week 2

2007-05-19T08:00:00.000-07:00

Andre and Professor Jari Okkonen from Oulu University standing in a dwelling depression. We explored some sites in Haukipudas (south of our current site) on Wednesday, and evaluated some new areas to excavate.

Inside a Giants' Church: This particular site was right next to a boulder field (in the top right of the picture), and the structure is quite obvious. You can see that a fair amount of work was necessary to organize and arrange the stones, even if the boulder field was nearby.

More of Andre and Jari. Archaeologists have an innate ability to identify dwellings or features where normal people see nothing; we spent most of our Wednesday morning following them from mysterious depression to mysterious depression.

Pottery: These are among the largest pieces that we've found in our main trench so far, and we usually don't remove finds this big until they're more or less completely exposed. Most ceramics we uncover have decayed so severely that they seem intact until we try to touch them, and so it's always good to be very cautious.

The east end of the main trench. Sam, one of the PhD students leading the field school, is seen here with some pottery and partially exposed charcoal (right of his trowel). At the bottom of the picture is an interesting patch of leached soil that dips well below the enriched layer; we hope that it was some kind of storage pit for inorganic materials, although it could just as easily been the remains of a tree.

Connecting the main trench with a newer one. We left them separate so we could get a good look at the stratigraphy at our site, but the wall has been getting weaker and weaker, so we decided to take it down before it collapsed. Like the rest of the east end of the trench, it's full of decayed ceramics.

The "Thing". The slag, vetch, and charcoal have all come from the west end of this trench (the left side of the picture), which is located in a depression in the middle of the whole feature. In the top-left corner of the trench is the possible fire pit; the deeper we dig there, the more layers of charcoal we find.

The fire pit portion of the Thing. There's lots of charcoal and some slag visible in the middle of the picture (the dark grey/black patches), and the pale white soil around it may be the product of high amounts of heat.

The stratigraphy profile of the Thing. At the bottom of the picture you can see that the enriched and leached layers have been mixed into each other, suggesting that the whole area may have been built up by human inhabitants at one point or another.

Ceramics, ceramics, ceramics. The bottom left piece has clear remnants of black paint, while the other two are good examples of what kinds of patterns we find on comb-ware pottery. Note the size: these are relatively large finds.

One of our PhD students, Dustin, trying to figure out how to use one of the archaeology lab's walkie-talkies.

Kim and Anna, two of the undergraduate students from McGill, putting in geographical coordinates for the 190 or so finds we excavated on Friday. As you can tell, it's a high-octane experience.

Laura, another McGill undergraduate, brushing off some pieces of pottery. Cleaning finds is another exciting aspect of lab-work.

Katie, an undergraduate from University of Buffalo, drying out charcoal. Once dried and cleaned, we can send the larger pieces to be dated (as long as we haven't touched them).

Jen, one of our PhD students from McGill, slaving away in the lab. Jen has been leading the excavation of the Thing.

Eva, our soil expert/PhD student, searching for the charger for our measuring system.

One of the hardest parts about writing the blog is that we can only access the website in Finnish; as a result, I get a lot of error screens, although I'm never sure why.

That's all for now,
The Field School

Day 10: Even more pottery

2007-05-18T09:16:00.000-07:00

Andre left to the airport early this morning, on his way home to Montreal to spend some time with his family. His departure was sad, as his insights and experience are invaluable (as well as his eerily accurate ability to identify pretty much anything), but he has left us in the capable hands of Ieva, Eva, Dustin, Sam, and Jen, the various PhD students involved in the project, and they will undoubtedly keep us from straying from our busy and productive path.

Today was one of our biggest days in terms of finds: in total, we excavated somewhere around 190 pieces. Much of this was pottery, although at the "Thing" we uncovered another layer of charcoal underneath the slag. It looks, at the moment, like the pits there were probably used multiple times in different eras. This, of course, is very exciting for our project: multiple occupations, some in the Neolithic and some in the Iron Age, allow us to examine the changing activities that occurred at the site over time. Our only concern is disturbance, which we will have to be very careful in identifying. If later occupations dug up and muddled the remnants of previous inhabitants, it will be difficult to date our finds or distinguish between what was deposited early on and what came after. Fortunately, our area suffers from little natural disturbance, so we can usually attribute complicated or unusual stratigraphy to human interference. That said, when trying to associate the vetch, the slag, the charcoal, and everything else we've found at the "Thing" together, we tend to err on the side of caution.

At the main site, much of the pottery we found was severely decayed, but there were more than enough large, solid chunks of ceramics left for us to dig out. Aside from more specimens with asbestos-tempering, we found some pieces of pottery with remnants of black paint. Black paint was one of the more significant discoveries to come out of last year's field school, and finding more is certainly a good sign. We don't yet know its chemical composition or how exactly it was applied, but until last year there had been no well-documented examples of paint or coloring on comb-ware pottery (a type of pottery specific to the Baltic region, named for the patterns of imprints left on the exterior by a comb). Paint is an important find for archaeologists because it implies a lot: like long-distance trade or monumental architecture (like a Giants' Church), a society needs a certain amount of surplus manpower and material to devote time to non-essential activities. Black paint, unless it turns out to serve a more practical function, is strong evidence the Iijoki people had enough time to sit around and consider the visual nature of the world around them.

Moving onto the corrections department, it should be noted that there are actually dozens, not hundreds, of Giants' Churches around Finland, and that there actually have been some excavations conducted on them, albeit a very long time ago. Apologies to those Giants' Church enthusiasts out there; you can attribute it to an excess of creative license.

Finally, for those who are interested, the local newspaper Kaleva posted a three-minute video of all of us digging on their website here. While the video suffers from some serious editing problems, it is good for a laugh or two: at about 2:30, you can see Andre walking up in the background, seeing the camera, and abruptly wandering off into the forest.

That's all for now,
The Field School

Day 8 and 9: Giants´ Churches and Asbestos

2007-05-17T11:09:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, we were treated to a heaping dose of fine Finnish spring weather: freezing rain. Mercifully, Andre and Ieva decided that it wasn´t a very good day to go digging, so instead we spent the morning walking around a couple of sites south of our area (in the Haukipudas region), exploring possible future sites to excavate. One of our stops was a Giants´ Church, a large clearing encircled by relatively big stones. Giants´ Churches occupy a special place in Finnish archaeology: until very recently, no one had ever been allowed to excavate the interior of a Giants´ Church (there are hundreds around Finland), and so no one yet has a clear idea of why or when they were made. We do know, though, that they were labour-intensive to assemble, and therefore must have served a function that was important enough to dedicate a lot of time to. As well, the amount of work necessary to move and organize the stones tells us something about the people who made them (for example, they must have had a robust enough economy to devote energy to non-food related activities), and if our ¨Thing¨ turns out to be man-made, then we can likely make the same inferences about the Neolithic people we´re investigating.

To compensate for our "day-off" on Wednesday, we had a long, full day of digging on Thursday. We uncovered more pottery, quartz, and charcoal, but our biggest find was a piece of ceramics with asbestos temper. The presence of asbestos in the pottery we found, while not new, tells us a number of important things about the people who lived there. Most obviously, that they had access to asbestos. The nearest asbestos source is actually to the south and close to the border of Russia, so it provides strong evidence for long-distance trade. It also tells us that they felt that asbestos was important enough to them to import from a long way away: trade requires elaborate and extensive networks and connections between peoples, and is not easy to maintain in societies that are producing relatively little excess goods (our site may have been exchanging fish or seal for whatever they could acquire from further inland). However, asbestos-tempered ceramics have peculiar qualities - they are thinner than normal ceramics, and insulate against heat - that make it difficult for us to understand their value. For example, thinner pottery would be better for cooking, but the insulation factor cancels out that benefit. And asbestos pottery would not be significantly lighter than other forms, at least not enough to make the acquisition of asbestos from so far away necessary. Once again, we have found a fascinating piece of evidence that, in the end, tells us little more than that we know very little.

Anyways, more pictures this weekend, and more to discuss. We´re all getting pretty run down by now, so it will help to have some time to sleep, relax, and think about everything we´re finding.

That´s all for now,
The Field School

Day 7: More of the Mysterious Feature

2007-05-15T10:03:00.000-07:00

Work continued on in our growing number of trenches today (4 so far), unabated by brief flashes of heavy rain (but eventually brought down by the promise of free coffee and cookies at the nearby Stone Age Centre museum). Larger pieces of quartz and ceramics are coming to the surface, in larger and larger numbers, and some distributional patterns are beginning to form. In the east corner of our first trench, and the new trench we've opened alongside it, we're finding lots of pottery, as well as some fairly significant pieces of broken quartz tools. On the other end, we've found a lot more quartz. Hopefully this trend will continue; if so, it may suggest a fairly organized use of the "between" space we're interested in. Spatial organization in turn suggests complicated methods of interaction, and has, in other situations, reflected increased social complexity (the perennial focus of this project). Oddly enough, the location of finds is often more important to us than the finds themselves: where people leave their things and how they interact with their space can tell us an awful lot.

Over at the mysterious feature we have found still more interesting things to consider. On top of the hairy vetch and the iron slag, some early test pits (small, quick, unsifted pits we use to either quickly examine a location for what we might find there or to get a good look at some stratigraphy) done around the feature have revealed some strange soil patterns. While the relative lack of natural disturbance in Finland has left most of the soil in our area in distinct, uniform layers (organic, leached, enriched, and coarse sand, which marks the point at which the Kierikki region was underwater), the stratigraphy of our feature is highly mixed and muddled. This could mean that the elevated plateau upon which we have found the slag and vetch is not natural; and if it isn't natural, it likely required a significant amount of labour to dig up the soil and create the plateau. Of course, even more questions flow from this inference. If it was man-made, when was it made? Why? During the Neolithic, the period we originally assumed we were excavating (the slag has forced us to reconsider), the area would have been right on the water, but by the Iron Age the environment was much, much different. Creating the plateau would not have been a easy task: it is large and relatively flat, and it must have been important enough for the people who made it that they spent time putting it together. One possibility is that it was made, for one reason or another, by Stone Age inhabitants, and then re-occupied by Iron Age peoples thousands of years later, who transformed the plateau into an iron smelting site. This, of course, is all conjecture, as it all hinges on the assumption that the soil was not mixed up naturally. However, the disturbed stratigraphy at the "Thing" provides us yet another unexpected piece of information to decode: like everything else we find, it forces us to reevaluate what we we're supposed to be looking for, and what we thought we were looking at.

That's all for now,
The Field School

Day 6: Slag, Vetch, etc.

2007-05-14T10:56:00.000-07:00

Today was press day, which, as is expected with a small-scale, long-term archaeological dig, brought out the paparazzi in droves. If one were to look tomorrow in Kaleva, the local Finnish newspaper, there's a small chance they might see us. Oh yes, we have finally made it to the big leagues.

The actual news of the day comes from our as-of-yet-unidentified mysterious feature. First, the seeds that we found there may be a species of plant, similar to peas, known as "Hairy Vetch". Hairy vetch, while not a plant that suggests domestication, is often found in areas that were recently cleared and deforested by humans - this gives us some interesting clues about what was going on at the site. As well, some of the seeds have tiny holes in them, which the paleoecologist we contacted theorized may be weevil holes. Some weevils, usually associated with stored grain (an exciting possibility for us), lay their larva in seeds (or vetch); over time, the weevil larva feed on the inside of the seed and grow, and burst out of the hole provided once fully mature. If they are larva holes, and if it is hairy vetch, then we can assume that some fairly complex activities were going on in the area. The question, of course, is when. What we might be excavating is a palimpsest, or a site with multiple occupations at different time periods that are not clearly separated.

Above: The possible Hairy Vetch. Asides from having one of the more melodious names in prehistoric botany, the presence of these seeds points to complex social activities like food storage and land clearance. Note the holes; prehistoric weevil larva may once have lived inside.

The second big find to come from our mystery feature is a big chunk of iron slag. Slag is the leftover junk that is removed from iron ore when it is being smelted, or purified into a usable form. We're still in the process of examining the slag we found to see if we can figure out what process was used to make it, but this is definitely a very exciting find. The iron age is very sparsely documented in Northern Finland, and this slag piece may extend the range of time in which we are examining social change in the region. This reinforces the idea that this area was reoccupied, possibly multiple times, and if we can figure out what specific process was used, we can figure out where it came from originally, and what trade networks brought it there.

Above: A microscopic close-up of the iron slag. Andre says it looks like it's "from Mordor", but we hope to find a more reasonable point of origin. It's still early but once we know more about the slag, more pictures will follow.

Anyways, things are moving quickly here, and we have a lot of information to process and theories to test before we can sleep.

That's all for now,
The Field School

Pictures, Week 1

2007-05-13T03:17:00.000-07:00

So, finally, we're able to post some pictures from the first week of digging.

Trench, Day 1: At this point, the moss layer had been removed, but we still had to clear off the rest of the organic layer.

Trench, Day 2: Under the Organic Layer is the Leached Layer, in which most materials don't survive. The brownish spots are the enriched layer, where we tend to find pottery and charcoal.

Trench, Day 3: By Wednesday we had dealt with most of the leached layer, and were finding lots of pottery at the ends of the L. Note the big patch of grey in the top corner: leached sand goes much deeper there than anywhere else.

Trench, Day 4: On Thursday we decided to open up a new section, in the top left corner. We left a strip of soil between the new trench and the old one so we could get a good stratigraphic profile. As well, an old test pit (again in the top left corner) collapsed, and so the extension visible at the top is actually just an emptied pit.

The New Trench: So far, this trench has contained lots of decayed pottery and some charcoal. Large charcoal segments that are not yet excavated are under the buckets, to protect them from rain.

Trench, Day 5: A week's worth of digging. Not seen here is the second new trench we started, located to the right of the L.

The Even Newer Trench Extension: The original trench is visible in the top left. This trench has given us some substantial pieces of bone, quartz, and pottery. The pale white region in the middle of the photograph is of interest to us: it may point to a fire-pit.

Ceramics: The darker chunks in this picture are the decayed remains of some pottery. It takes some time to get your eyes used to spotting them while digging, and most of them have crumbled into tiny pieces.

This is a 5 mm long piece of charcoal embedded in fired clay: it suggests that we might, if lucky, dig up the remains of a kiln.

All of us digging away.

Total Station: Our mapping machine. It fires a laser at a reflective prism, and measures the distance in three dimensions from a fixed point of origin. Clever, but a very irritating machine.

A lecture on stratigraphy: We uncovered a nice stratigraphic profile not too far from our site, and here we're trying to figure out what it means.

The profile itself. Things to note include the transition from leached to enriched layers and the doubled layer of organic material near the top, which may suggest human disturbance.

Sifting: Once you've dug out enough soil to fill your bucket, you go and sift it to make sure you haven't missed anything. Unfortunately, anything you sift out can't be used for examining spatial distributions.

Setting up the tarp. Finnish weather is very fickle, and it generally rains on and off all day, making a good tarp a necessity.

At the Lordi Rock-taurant in Rovaniemi. Lordi, a Finnish metal sensation, has used their success in last year's Eurovision song contest to launch a number of different Lordi-related products and services, like Lordi Kola and their restaurant. The decor is warm and inviting: you eat out of skulls and the walls are covered in corpses, gargoyles, and dismembered body parts.

Andre Costopoulos, our fearless leader, enjoying a moment of sinister contemplation in his new favourite restaurant.

Week 1 in Review

2007-05-11T06:38:00.000-07:00

So our first week of excavation is complete, and now its time to go over what we've found. Early on, we were already uncovering lots of pottery fragments and quartz debris, suggesting the "between" spaces we're exploring may have been sites of tool production or storage. While it's too early to make any conclusive hypotheses about what we're finding, the spatial distribution of the material remains provide us some interesting clues; the two wings of L-shaped trench we started with are dense with decayed pottery, bits of charcoal (particularly valuable to us for dating the site), quartz flakes, and some very small segments of bone, while the middle of the L is virtually empty. Intriguingly, one section of the trench has a very deep leached layer (Finnish soil is highly acidic, and underneath the organic surface is a layer of grey-white sand that has been entirely stripped of nutrients) compared to the area around it. While this probably doesn't raise any eyebrows outside of the archaeological community, it may point to human interference. If the soil had been disturbed and was originally more even, that area could have been used for any number of activities, and excavating it fully will become a top priority in the next few weeks.

As the week progressed, we began to extend our original trench in the areas where we were getting the most artifacts. The new extensions, which add 5 1X1X1 m squares onto our L (itself composed of 7 1X1X1 squares), look very promising: we've uncovered large quartz fragments, which were likely portions of larger tools, some more substantial bone samples, and lots and lots of ceramics. On top of our main excavation site, we're looking into a large, mysterious feature nearby. It's still too early to say what exactly it is, but we opened a trench along a small pit inside the "Thing" (as we have quite specifically named it) and found some charcoal, some fire-cracked rocks, and most intriguingly, a handful of charred seeds. Once again, a find like this is far more exciting for an archaeologist or paleoecologist than a normal, sane person. That said, charred seeds are a definite jackpot in an environment that leaves very little organic materials for us to examine. Like all important discoveries in archaeology, they give us a handful of answers and a handful of questions. Until we know what they are and when they were burned, however, we'll have to keep our wild theories about them to ourselves.

Pictures are coming in the near future, once we get some time to sit down in the lab and process all the data we've collected. However, tomorrow we head off to Rovaniemi to the Arctic Prehistory Museum, and then Sunday we may all need some time to relax a little. We'll make a concerted effort to get some cool pictures online (maybe even the seeds) some time over the weekend.

That's all for now,
The Field School

Update, Day #4

2007-05-10T10:20:00.000-07:00

The NOCUSO Archaeological Field School, 2007

This year's field school has set a high bar for itself. We have a number of interesting things to explore, some theories to consider, and even though we are only four days in, some unexpected finds to examine.

As usual, the field school's overarching goal is to reconstruct the development of social complexity along the Iijoki river. The Kierikki area offers us unique geographical circumstances that complement our focus well: as we excavate further west along the river, we move steadily forward in time. This is the product of a number of geological processes, beginning with the glacial melts of the early Holocene. Finland, once trapped under kilometres of solid ice, started to rise above and out of the ocean - much like a tightly packed spring, the entire region steadily surfaced. Flora and fauna were quick to exploit the new land, and humans followed. As the ocean receded, communities that relied on marine life for survival attempted to remain close to the coast, and so the further towards the gulf of Bothnia we explore, the more recent the materials are. This provides us a valuable insight into how group dynamics, reflected in the settlement patterns and artifacts left behind, changed over the Neolithic era.

Our strategy this year is to inspect the spaces between dwellings dated to about 5,800 BP. While previous sessions have worked to paint as accurate a picture as possible of what went on inside the dwellings, we have yet to consider the kinds of activities that may have occurred outside. Buildings during this time period along the Iijoki river are smaller and more clustered than the long row-houses that appear later in the archaeological record, and an important step in understanding why these row-houses were adopted may lie in the kinds of behavioral patterns we can infer from what we find between the various dwellings. This area was likely communal, and we speculate that the activities that occurred in this "between" space offer us clues about the ways that these early communities shared, resolved conflicts, interacted, and survived.

Updates on our finds and the status of the dig are forthcoming; we intend to post pictures (some of which are hopefully of interest) and keep a running log of the field school, even though we, apologetically, are considerably behind already. Any questions, comments, complaints, concerns, etc. can be sent to david.groves@mail.mcgill.ca.

That's all for now,
The Field School