Today is the day before it all starts 🙂 The excavation-plans at the site of Sa 14.9 were kindly approved by the Museum of Åland and, thus, anyone passing the church of Saltvik in-between the 1st and 14th of September is welcome to have a look at the northern side of the church in order to see us working out in the field.
There will be two trenches opened up: one of 20 squares at the site of the hall and another one of 10 squares at the second longhouse located at the site. And today we were busy setting out these trenches, but also fix points for total station (which, apparently, can lead to blue hands 😉 ) as well as fix points for photogrammetry (i.e. measuring from photographs) and aerial photography planned at the site. Thanks to the association Fornföreningen Fibula who loaned us table and benches we could even have our first lunch out in the field in a civilized way, though working with the laptop turned out to be best executed under the table 😀 In any case – tomorrow will be the official start of the excavations and as I have an intention to keep a daily update, follow this blog to find out how the dig progresses!
The hall at the crossroads of Baltic waterways 