City Center

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.