European Archaeology Skills Exchange 2013
Kierikkikangas Stone Age Excavation- Finland
Dates: 26th June - 30th July 2013
Number of UK participants: 6
Duration: 5 weeks
CLOSED
Kierikki consists of two parts: Kierikki Nature hotel and restaurant, which is a private company, and The Kierikki Stone Age Centre, which is owned by the municipality of Yli-Ii. There is the main building with archaeological exhibition, the Stone Age village with reconstructed houses and archaeological sites. About a hundred sites have been found around Yli-Ii, and some of them will be visited during your stay. The Kierikkikangas Stone Age Excavations are hosted by the Kierikki stone age centre http://www.kierikki.fi/ The excavations focus on a stone-age dwelling site circa 4000-3500BC.
Background
Excavations at Kierikki were begun in 1960 when hydroelectric power
stations started being built on the river Iijoki. It has been discovered
that Kierikki is one of the richest Neolithic (5000-3000 BC) sites in
Finland. Research is still continued annually with two excavations.
Every May there will be an international research group at the other
side of the river Iijoki (http://scenop.googlepages.com/). In July,
the Kierikki Stone Age Centre organises public excavations at Kierikkikangas,
situated about a hundred meters from the main building. The site is
dated around 4000-3500 BC. The first excavations at the site were conducted
in 2006.
Kierikkikangas excavation site, where participants will be digging is
one of the largest archaeological sites in Yli-Ii. There are 40 Neolithic
house depressions, and you will be excavating one of them. The dwelling
remain can be seen in the ground as a seven meters long oval depression.
The excavation is non-stratigraphic, and we use absolute layers (5 cm
digging, documentation and then another 5 cm layer until the bottom
of the house remain is reached at around 1-1,5 meters depth). Your main
objective is to learn basic methods of arctic Neolithic excavation and
different parts of that.
Finds will be washed everyday, 1 hour / evening.
From 12-1 p.m. there is a break and lunch will be served at the Kierikki
restaurant. There are also restrooms and other facilities for the staff
at the Kierikki main building, and members of EASE are allowed to use
them. There is also a computer with Internet connection available for
you to use.
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Kierriki Stone Age Centre
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Excavation
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Stone Age village is located less than half a kilometre from Centre and during the summer it will be open to visitors. We have at least one person there between 10.00 - 17.00 guiding tourists. Usually our guides do something 'stone ageish', like stone polishing or archery. We hope you participants would be interested to do some craft and artefact production using wood/bone/antler tools, pottery etc. UK participants will be welcome to participate in some experimental archaeology, depending on skills, experience and interests. Participants will be taken on field trips in the surrounding area to visit different kinds of sites and monuments.
In 2007 Sarah Pickin from Derby, found a piece of Neolithic chewing gum (the lump of birch bark tar) while on the excavation. Neolithic people used the material as an antiseptic to treat gum infections, as well as a glue for repairing pots. This is particularly significant because well defined tooth imprints were found on the gum.
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Chewing Gum dating from the Stone Age
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Sarah Pickin from the 2007 excavation
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Accommodation
Participants will be accommodated in the Pahkakosken kartano hostel. The group will be in 2 bedrooms (2+3 beds). There is a spacious living room (2 beds, tv, DVD + sofa). The kitchen has an electric cooker, table and chairs, 2 fridges and a microwave oven. There are also toilet and bathroom facilities. There is WLAN internet access available. Students are free to use the billiard table in the meeting room downstairs. Also the sauna, fireplace outside, and swimming pond in the yard can be freely used. The guests have a fishing licence to the nearby rivers Iijoki and Siuruanjoki. Iijoki riverside is only 400m away. You will be fixing your breakfast and evening snack yourselves in the hostel kitchen. Groceries will be bought to you but you can make requests for that. Lunch is served daily at the Restaurant Kierikki.
Important: You will be moving around in Yli-Ii by bicycles (provided to you by the Kierikki Stone Age Centre). Your accommodation at Pahkakoski is located two kilometres from Kierikki and you need to use bicycles to transfer. You are expected to use cycling helmets also provided for you by Kierikki Centre.
Read the report by Elowyn Stevenson, 2012 participant
Read the report written by Jeremy Hallatt, a participant from 2009
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Images from the 2009 Excavation
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Trench from 2011
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2011
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LIST OF THINGS NEEDED
Proper outdoor clothes and shoes
Warm clothes, specially pullover
Student card
Cash in euros. Yli-Ii doesn't have cash dispensers, credit cards are
valid in most places.
European Heath Insurance Card
Passport
Sun glasses
The Leonardo da Vinci funding available for these placements will cover travel (return travel from main UK airport), insurance, subsistence allowance (equal to three meals a day) and accommodation.
For specific questions regarding the site at Kierrikki Stone Age Centre please contact Leena Lehtinen (leena.lehtinen@kierikki.fi) +358 8 5585 8219 directly or alternatively for more information regarding the placement and application questions contact Grampus on 016973 21516.
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NOTE: Participants on all of our placements will now require a European Health Insurance CARD (EHIC). CLICK HERE to visit the external website and apply for your EHIC online. |
