Day 7

a Stone Age fireplace

This day was especially interesting, because an untouched fireplace was found.

Pieces of coal were found around it. The pieces can be carbon dated.




A general view into the organizing of archeological digs in Finland

The largest piece of cole that was found near the fire place.

In Finland, all of the official archeological digs are supervised by the National Board of Antiquities. This means that if you want public funding to search areas for old habitation you must get a permit from the National Board of Antiquities.

Officially, one cannot go searching just anywhere, but a digging permit can be applied for one of the known sites on the official list of the National Board of Antiquities. The sites are divided into three categories. Most of the sites are category two which are in areas that have had a lot of changes in the past few thousand years resulting in the destruction of artifacts. It is harder to get a permit to a category one site than a category two site. The excavations made by amateur archeologists in the Salo area are exactly on these kinds of category two sites, which have not been sufficiently examined.

The modern archeologist use land survey instruments to
get exact information.

Offical digs are always supervised by a professional archeologist who makes sure that all significant artifacts are delivered to the National Board of Antiquities for thorough examination. Of course the archeologist must be hired, and the laboratory examination is another expense. At the end of the dig, the archeologist writes a report to the party that commisions the work and the Board of Antiquities. In the case of the Kisko digs the party that commisions the work is Kisko-Seura and in Kiikala Kiikala-Seura and so on.

This trial trench has been divided into several sections.