Today dark clouds covered the sky and the rain have been falling more or less the whole day, most of the time in form of a drizzle. Now this does not stop an archaeologist in the field all that happens is that you get dirty.
Among other things I found this nice double edged flint scrape.
I also found my peaked cap that I lost a few days ago, I’ve been morning it a little as it’s been my companion the last few years in the field and has a really good fit. But on my way to the local supermarket what did I find if not my cap – some nice soul had hanged it on a pole – Thank you whoever you are!
It’s been ruffed up a bit but nothing the washer won’t be able to fix.
Day 8 at the Skepplanda 32 excavation dealt a mixed hand; a bit of rain, a good deal of sun and some wind to top it off. It all started with horses though, two had escaped and was finding our excavation site a nice enough place (sorry no photos).
Obviously not all that glimmer in the ground is from the Pitted Ware Culture (ca 3200 - 2300 BC), today we found an arrow head from the late Neolithics (ca 2350 -1700 BC).
The excavation continues, though a lot of nice flints and some ceramics we’ve still haven’t found any traces of the settlement itself, no postholes, no cocking pits and no hearths. Well we’ve found one hearth but it’s probably Iron Age and not Stone Age though a C14 analysis will settle that at a later date. The flints and the ceramics are from the Neolithic pitted ware culture.
At the moment it’s my task to excavate and document it; as seen on the picture below the SW quadrant have been dug so far, ca 1 x 1 m and 0,15 m deep. I’ve only found a few scattered flints at the bottom of the hearth, if they are part of the hearth or not is anyone’s guess at the moment; if they are it might be Stone Age if they aren’t it’s probably of a newer date.
As you can see there are a lot of stones, most affected by the fire and found in a layer filled with ash and coal.
This afternoon I got a curious visitor, a slow worm (Anguis fragilis) or in kopparorm (in Swedish) is a lizard that in Sweden is called a snake and in English a worm.
Returning to the title of this post. At this dig I’ve been appointed head of measurements; which means I constantly needs to find measure slaves (people to hold the lath), though the instrument isn’t the newest it is kind of nice to relax behind it and watch people run around at your whim.
As I returned to Skepplanda this afternoon I saw a road sign just outside of Skepplanda saying; Rock carvings (Skepplanda 20:1).
So I stopped the car and took a quick walk – the pathfinder sign is due for replacement though.
The rock carving was set at big rock wall at Stugåsberget, in my eyes it’s a bit of an odd placement but I’m no expert of the Swedish west coast rock carvings. These are normally dated to the Bronze Age, ca 1800-500 BC in Scandinavia.
The motive is a rather large ship ca 3 x 0,5 m and a wagon/carriage just below to the left.
In Alvhem (= the home of the elves) ca 40 km northeast of Gothenburg on Jätteberget (the mountain of giants) is a small rock with a number of beautiful rock carvings, Skepplanda 56:1. The rock is ca 10 x 5 m.
Most of the carvings on this rock are of ships but there are also few animals and couple of humans and some cup marks etc.
On top of the mountain is a cairn, though heavily damaged (since long ago), and a few hundred meters north of the rock carvings finds of flint has been made.
This might sounds awful when one is lucky enough to get to work on an excavation but it’s been a warm week and I feel beat some this weekend will be a lazy one. On Thursday we had a thermometer with us to see how it was; at 2.30 pm it was 44° Celsius in the sun and 33° Celsius in shade.
Today’s find was of course mine (at least in my mind) and has nothing to do with stone age or prehistory but rather the 20th century; a pin or a brooch.
The head is ca 2, 5 x 1, 5 cm and has originally been deep blue around the edges and the boxes are likely to have been gilded bronze or possibly green.
I’ll be back with some pictures of a rock with great rock art from Gota Alv dal.
A few finds from Skepplanda 32. The majority of the finds are different kinds of flints;
A square flint arrow head and a small flint chip (ca 15 mm x 3 mm)
A flint knife
A flint scrape
A flint chip
These are just a few of our finds, most finds are flints that are raw material, of bad quality, possibly waste material etc. The settlemnet and these findings are tentatively dated as about 5000 years old, we hope to find hearths or other foundations that can help us date the settlement with a better certainty.
If you happen to be in Sweden around Gothenburg you are welcome to visit our dig, we (Arkeologicentrum) have daily tours at 12.30 Monday to Friday (Information in Swedish on how to find us are availble in this pdf; Flygblad_Skepplanda_32, please contact me if you want this in English) july 2 – july 16th.
It’s been a hot couple of days with lots of sun, but all is well in Skepplanda due to lots and lots of water and some nice finds that keeps the spirits high.
In this picture at the S part of the settlement a search shaft has been made wherein we’ve found several nice flints, among them a few arrow heads and next to it in a newer search pit (not seen in this picture) we’ve found parts of a stone axe.
In this picture is the NNW part within a part of arable land, used up until last year.
This part of the field we ploughed and then harrowed. As it has been ploughed up until now the ploughing init self does not harm the settlement, after the harrowing we’ve field walked the area and collected finds, mostly flints and measured them with a total station, from this we can see the spread of finds within the area. These finds are not in its orginal place but show general patterns. We will harrow the field three times and do field walks to get a good picture then we’ll start to excavate this area.
I’m sitting on the train towards Gothenburg and then to Skepplanda where I will work on an excavation the coming three weeks. The excavation concerns a Neolithic settlement called Skepplanda 32:1. It is ca 100 x 75 m. At a previous excavation in order to delineate the settlement finds including a post hole, flints including three flint knifes and a flint arrow head (Beckers type B) etc.
In total we found 2 ancient remains and 20 remains of historic value. The remains are foundation remains of crofts and cottages and traces of their arable land in form of cairns from the fields, remains of coal mining, remains of a mill, old boundary markers etc. And now FMIS have been sent information concerning these, their position (GPS points and shapes), their size and what they are etc (a description).
Mayhap not the most exciting of remains but a few of them where very well preserved and have a high pedagogic value in additon to the historic.
Hello and welcome to Testimony of the spade.
My name is Magnus Reuterdahl and I am a Swedish archaeologist and osteologist. Most posts are connected to my work or my interests in general; Scandinavian archaeology, osteology, cultural heritage, literature and so forth.
Contact; inventerare[at]hotmail[dot]com or via a comment.
Contact; inventerare[at]hotmail[dot]com or via a comment.
