We found something pretty cool yesterday at the Hiidenkangas site. McGill University graduate student **Colin Nielsen **picked up a big **stone axe head** that was sticking out the ground! None of the blade part was showing – Colin didn’t know it was an artifact until he pulled it out. He knew to check because it was the right kind of stone.
Found at Hiidenkangas site by Colin Nielsen
It is almost a foot long and has nicely ground surfaces on both sides of the cutting edge. It is made of a kind of green igneous rock called ash flow tuff.
This side shows plenty of ground surface
You could use this axe for all kinds of things once it is hafted to a handle: chopping or splitting wood, or cutting holes in ice.
seen edge-on
It sure makes me want to go back to Hiidenkangas and just spend a day walking around, my eyes glued to the ground.
The drawing was made by State University of New York at Buffalo undergraduate student Katie Grundtisch
Today we went on a field trip to the Kastelli "Giant’s Church.” A "Giant’s Church” is a kind of prehistoric stone wall, unique to this part of Finland. This one is in the shape of a rectangle, with one small gap in each of the four sides. It is the size of a soccer field.
It's hard to photograph because it is the size of a soccer field
Nobody knows what Giant’s Churches were for. They were built about 5000 years ago. They must have served as some kind of public space. The landscape around this one would have been different 5000 years ago: It would have been on a low hill overlooking the sea. There would have been less soil around and it would not have been surrounded by trees. It would have been visible from a long distance. Today it is hidden in the woods.
Linnankangas
It is staggering to see this, and realize the amount of energy invested in it by the hunter-gatherers who built it. Remember, these people had no agriculture. Whoever was moving these stones was fed on wild foods while they did the work.
Linnankangas