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Is Finland the wettest country on Earth? I know there are places that get more rain than Finland. There are probably even whole countries whose average rainfall exceeds Finland’s. I’m not just talking about average rainfall. I’m talking about what happens to all that water after it hits the ground

When the day is done, we’re not really "done.” Most evenings we meet in the University of Oulu’s Archaeology Laboratory after dinner. It is a pleasant place with a skylight, lots of tables, computers, and books, and chemistry supplies. Mostly we meet here to process information. Archaeology is

It is fun getting ready for such a trip! It is a bizarre place to visit so I get lots of interesting questions. One that is on everyone's mind is, "How cold is it in May and early June?" I wonder that myself since there isn't a way to look up the forecast because the NEEM research center is not a

Today we began to uncover a large and impressive site on a hillside in Haukipudas, north of Oulu. It has at least fifty pits! Each pit represents a dwelling. Plus, the site is "loaded” with artifacts: you can see quartz flakes, quartz cores (bigger stones from which flakes were removed) and

Northern Finland has very little of the monumental public architecture from past centuries past that we expect to find in England, France, Germany, or even southern Scandanavia. Most of it looks more like Alaska than Europe. Everything is modern and utilitarian. A happy exception is Oulu Cathedral

One of the best parts of the Kalevala (see my post from May 8) is in chapter 3 when young Joukahainen comes to challenge Vainamoinen to a singing contest. He introduces himself by crashing his horse-drawn sleigh into Vainamoinen’s sleigh: * shaft seized on shaft-end traces tangled with