Maritime Archaeology Field School 2025 in Porkkala, Finland

 This web page is the working repository of the Maritime Archaeology Field School 2025 in Porkkala, Finland. The Field School is facilitated by the Maritime Archaeological Society of Finland (MAS.Fi) for the Universities of East Carolina (ECU) and Helsinki (UH) also in close co-operation with the Finnish Heritage Agency (FHA). The Field School will take place between the 1st and 21st of September 2025. Its base-camp is in the "Porkkalan Leirikeskus" i.e. Camp Porkkala and the official language is English. When we are out to the sea, MAS flagship DSV Stella will be our home-base for the day.

The Field School will teach and research the holistic maritime archaeological landscape of Porkkala peninsula from underwater, ashore and on land. Primary research questions include previously unresearched shipwrecks, as well as the potential locations(s) of the Porkkala port and village during late iron age and medieval times. The existing archaeological inventory of the area is mostly superficial. Hence the maritime archaeological assessment and interpretation of previously identified sites is in an important role too. Weekend visits to Estonia, Suomenlinna and other signifficant maritime cultural historical sites are included in the program. All field work is done on actual sites "learning by doing" under the supervision of ECU and UH academics.

Contact person for all external inquiries is Markku Luoto, contact details below.

Lynn Harris Professor tel.+01-252-328-1967 harrisly@ecu.edu	David Stewart Associate Professor tel.+01-252-328-1124 stewartda@ecu.edu	Eric Oakley Assistant Professor tel.+01-252-328-1031 oakleye23@ecu.edu	Kristin Ilves Associate Professor tel.+358-50-556-0340 kristin.ilves@helsinki.fi		Markku Luoto Chairman of MAS tel.+358-40-844-9511 puheenjohtaja@mas.fi

 

 

Preliminary Schedule

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
1. Camp Porkkala - Arrival & gearing - Walk-around(?)	2. Camp Porkkala - Orientation - e.g. Dragesviken wrecksite     - Team-one - Precision inventory land/water     - Team-two	3. Camp Porkkala - e.g. Dragesviken wrecksite     - Team-one - Precision inventory land/water     - Team-two	4. Camp Porkkala - e.g. Stakaudden wrecksite     - Team-two - Precision inventory land/water     - Team-one	5. Porkkala => Estonia / Tallinn - e.g. Stakaudden wrecksite     - Team-two ('till lunch) - Precision inventory land/water     - Team-one ('till lunch) - Ship Helsinki - Tallinn - Hanse Koggs at P. Margareeta	6. Estonia / Narva - Toolse Fortress     - Shoreline analysis - Narva City/Castle     - Culture divide analysis	7. Estonia / Tallinn => Porkkala - Tallinn Hanseatic City - Lennusadam Maritime Museum - Ship Tallinn-Helsinki
8. Camp Porkkala - Excavation wrecksite-1     - Team-one - Excavation land/water     - Team-two	9. Camp Porkkala - Excavation wrecksite-1     - Team-one - Excavation land/water     - Team-two	10. Camp Porkkala - Excavation wrecksite-1/2?     - Team-two - Excavation land/water     - Team-one	11. Camp Porkkala - Excavation wrecksite-1/2?     - Team-two - Excavation land/water     - Team-one	12. Camp Porkkala => Suomenlinna - Coastal navigation to Suomenlinna     - Navigation challenge     - Wrecksite survey     - Island survey - Explore Helsinki	13. Suomenlinna  - Tasked or Exploring? - MAS 30 years miniseminar & dinner	14. Suomenlinna/Porkkala  - Tasked or Exploring?
15. Camp Porkkala - Continuing Porkkala	16. Camp Porkkala - Continuing Porkkala	17. Camp Porkkala - Continuing Porkkala	18. Camp Porkkala - Closing sites - Documenting "after" - Packing for tomorrow	19. Camp Porkkala => Tour(?) - FHA collections center - Tour spot 1 - Explore e.g. Mikkeli	20. Tour(?) - Tour spot 2 - Tour spot 3 -Explore e.g. Hämeenlinna	21. Departure - Kansallismuseo - To the airport

 

 

Potential Wrecksites for Research and Field School

"House Wrecks" of the camp site bay "Dragesviken": Two (rowing?) boats of which the southern one (Dragesviken-3) is presumably more recent, thus non protected and can be freely used for (intrusive) training. Maximum depth about 20ft and no fishing nets or other evident threats have been noted on the wrecks. These wrecksites are perfect for testing one's equipment and getting acquinted with local conditions (weighting, temperature, visibility).

The Dragesviken-3 boatwreck on the croshairs of a side scan sonar screen. The survey vessel has travelled form north to south and passed the boatwreck from the west side of it, hence the boatwreck appears on the left side of the screen and survey vessel's keel line.

The straight cut stern of the boat hints towards a 20th century boat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Engelskobben-1 wrecksite, a new diver inventory report and some pictures of the wrecksite. There ae contradicting observations of the site's location, but they both agree that the maximum depth is about 20ft. This wrecksite is quite protected from all but South-Western winds, which unfortunately are the most common ones. As can be observed from the pictures, the wrecksite is quite flat i.e. without cavities and seemingly no loose fishing nets or other hazards. This is also a very typical "real thing" case, where the wrecksite needs to be repositioned, inventoried from a larger area, furnished with buoys, recorded "in situ" for photogrammetry with cross check measurements, then sampled for dating and if deemed "interesting" also test excavated (test pits and trenches). The fact that the wreck is deeply burried in a fairly hard bottom may hint towards an older wrecksite - possibly a middleaged one.

   - Report: etsinasukellus_300922_hannu_rokka-1.pdf

   - Comments: "There are a few bigger pieces between Engelskobben and Söderskär too"

 

Stora Hamnholmen Shipwreck, a "serious" rumour about a fairly large, up to 30m. long and quite intact wooden shipwreck in about 20ft. of water. The facts that make the rumour serious are that it's listed in the FHA's registry, reported by a commercial diver, who was also the first to own a private side scan sonar, plus there are remarks that the wreck has been dived in the 80's. This wrecksite is a non typical case in a sence that usually the fairly intact wrecks are better known and dived on. Repositioning the wrecksite may require some additional side scanning, but if the wreck is indeed that big, it should be easy. After repositioning, the wrecksite should be surveyed for potential dive hazards before the research activities. A large intact shipwreck poses a challenge for the photogrammetric recording and even more so for the traditional techniques. Hence, this being a more challenging site, it's likely to be surveyed on the latter part of the field school.

 

Other Potential Wrecksites to Visit

There are a number of other suitable wrecksites in the area (max 30ft depth) which could be visited for studing the various typologies of the Baltic Sea wrecks. Some of these are already surveyed and 3D-modeled. The models can be accessed by clickin the images below -or- the images can be enlarged by right cliking them and choosing "open image in new tab".

"Varmbådan" shipwreck, 20-30ft depth. An early 17th century Swedish Manowar with a large hearth.	"Alku" wreksite, 15 to 30ft depth. A mid 19th century coastal freighter full of limestone.	"Pampskatan" shipwreck, 3 to 23ft depth. Presumably an 18th century Manowar with several decks.	"Putkinotko" Cannon dump area, 10-30ft depth. Large finds area, where 4-6 cannons and cannonballs + twinshots are yet missing.
"Tykkikylki" wrecksite, 25 to 33ft depth. A large piece of Manowar hull with one cannon and two carriages.	"Truttkobbarna" wrecksite, 23 to 30ft depth. A large fragment of a carvel built ship yet to be dated.	"Ormholmarna" cannons & "Kyrkogårdsö" shipwreck, 20 to 30ft Depth. Unsurveyed wrecksite in FHA registry (generic pic.)	"Torrören" Viking boat parts, 10 to 25ft depth. Once sited "Viking boat like" stem or sternpost part ("cutwater") to be found a.a.

  

 

Potential Sites Ashore for Research and Field School

Lillanskogdraget, a very likely "boat drag" (place name + topology) which due to ground upthrust has likely been an important pass though during the Iron Age. Both shores should be surveyed for burried items (sonding) and for artefacts (metal detector). On land, metal detecting is probably the only viable way of surveying, since organic items are not likely to survive the acidous soil.

 

Porkkalasundet, a medieval or possibly even iron age canal (NE purple line), which is said to have split the "old village" of which the earliest record is allegedly from 1255AD. The NE end of the canal is marshland and some preliminary surveys have yielded "bieps" on its SE "shore". The marsh area is extremely interesting as the "village harbour" must have been somewhere there and as the mars preserves organic material magnicent. Test pits or even test ditch may be excavated as there are no protected areas. 

 

Vetokannas, yet another almost certain "boat drag" (place name + topology + records), which has been used up to the 19th century. Again the after effects of teh ice age could have made this a sailable pass though up 'till late midle ages. Both shores should be surveyed for burried items (sonding) and for artefacts (metal detector). On land, metal detecting is probably the only viable way of surveying, since organic items are not likely to survive the acidous soil.

 

 

Potential Sites on Land for Research and Field School

Jätinkirkko, a previously uninventoried, very large rock pile in a perfect "manor" position - uphill from the canal and medieval village. A "level laser" and spray/chalck to mark 1m, 2m and even 3m sea levels on the "shoreline" may become handy determining the topographic features of the site. <Kristin will fill in a short description of tasks>. Test pits or even test ditch may be excavated, as this is not a protected site and may yet prove to be modern (e.g. Soviet era).

 

Rock Piles & "Jatulintarhas", there are at least a dozen of inventoried rock piles, some protected and some not, but none ever surveyed. They have alvays been assessed only from the land perspective => might they be sailing route markers etc. sign posts or are they really graves? They should be surveyed and the most likely to be worth excavation should be chosen for next season to be excavated. Jatulintarhas are also worth reassessment and documentation (drone?).

 

Medieval Harbour and Village. Where was the late iron age or medieval international port of Porkkala? We have some hints about the village in early 16th century + the folklore but no description of the sailing ship port(s) where the Knars and Kogs traded or waited for favourable winds. Has it been on the peninsula -or- was it e.g. on Träskön island where there was also a fresh water lake? The village boundaries may be easier to define around the canal area,

 

 

Interactive Site Map of Porkkala and Excell thereto

The potential research sites (currently identified) are displayed on the interactive map below and in this Excel. porkkala_potential_sites.xlsx
On the map below, orange pins contain English (AI) translations of the site descriptions in FHA's heritage registry. That is the same information as in the Excell above. This map/Excell is the ontology of all known and suspected archaeological sites in the Porkkala peninsula area. Hence, it's not a list of final research sites, but merely an index of the potential sites, the attendance of which depends on weather conditions, training syllabus or active research questions.

Short manual:

If there's a 3D-model of the wrecksite in Sketchfab.com, it can be launched by clicking the "broken" icon just below the description text (marked with red arrow in the picture on hte left). The visible link will take to the official FHA heritage site in Finnish languge only.

 

 

 

 

Topographical map window (Finland)

The topographical map window below also contains an aerial photomosaic view, which can be selected from the tools on the right hand corner of the map window.

 

Lidar & Orthophoto & Maps tool

(click on the map to open Google map in a new window)

There's a coarse LIDAR material and an orthopohoto layer (along with base and topographical maps) available in FHA's service, which will open in a new window by clicking the picture below. Unfortunately the "orange pins" i.e. the English language annotations can not be copied to this tool => one has to use the windows side by side. The maps / orthophoto / LIDAR can be toggeld on the bottom of the window.

 

 

The MAS.Fi flagship DSV Stella's homepage

 

 

Historical context and sources

The written history of Finns is very scarce, as their language "Finnish" only became litterate through the Lutheran Reformation in the mid 16th century. The first description of Estonians, Finns and other Finnic tribes of the Baltic sea is found on the very last chapters of the "De origine et situ Germanorum" (English translation) by Publius Cornelius Tacitus, a Roman historian from the first century. Throughout the Roman period and early middle ages Finns are mentioned on maps or in various manuscritp's side notes as Fenni, Finni, Skrid Finnoi (skiing Finns) or "Suomi" - the latter which is Finland in Finnish and other Uralic languages. In the scarce references of Finns they are often placed as the furthest people in the northern Europe and their geographical connection to the rest of Europe is vaguely known.

The later more detailled descriptions of Finns appear in the "Viking" (Norse) sagas of 8th or 9th century, where almost all north European royal houses of the early middle age legitimate their royal status through inheritance by marrying a Finnish Princess. Even the Scandinavian demigods like Thor, Luke etc. were said to have a Finnish grandfather (Fornjót). The more formal records of Finns are found from the Papal letters of the late12th century and from the first tax - or more likely tax relief - records of the mid 13th century, when Finland joined newly established Sweden - possibly to ally against the Mongols of the "Golden Horde" ravaging the middle and northern Europe at the time.

The written records of Finns or Finland from the high middle ages remain scarce, but towards the late middle ages, document numbers reach almost 7000 (as of 2023). The best Finnish effort to cllect them is the Diplomatarium Fennicum database within the Finnish national archives. This however, contains documents mostly from the nearby state archives like those of Sweden and Estonia. Almost certainly there are yet to by identified documents of Finns and Finland in the city/national archives of the Finnish trading partners ports of call or origin. Regarding foreign trade outside the Baltic Sea, the Danish Sound Toll Registrys are a signifficant source from 1477 AD onwards. The Lloyds' Register is also a very valuable source from 1764 onwards. Naturally the large language model artificial intelligence services like Chat-GPT and Copilot are excellent search tools for many things, but they still have a lot of issues "understanding" the "exlusive or" of the thigs past.

Links to geographically linked histories

- History of Finland: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Finland

     - Viking voyages to Bjarmia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bjarmaland

- History of Estonia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Estonia

     - Timeline of Tallinn: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Tallinn

- History of Sweden: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Sweden

     - Driva, a Finnish princess to legitimize Swedish kingdom: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanlandi

- History of Denmark: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Denmark

     - Signe, a Finnish princess to legitimize Danish kingdom: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signe_(Finnish_princess)

- History of Norway: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Norway

          - Snøfrid a Finnish princess to legitimize Norvegian kingdom: https://snl-no.translate.goog/Sv%C3%A5se_Finnekonge?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=fi&_x_tr_pto=wapp

- History of Latvia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Latvia

- History of Lithuania: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Lithuania

- History of Russia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Russia

and just in case: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Europe

Links to other relevant histories

- Danish king Valdemar's sailing route description from the AD 1230's: itinerarium_marinum_balticum_regis_danorum_valdemari.pdf

- Teutonic order: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teutonic_Order

- Republic of Novgorod: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novgorod_Republic

     - Alexander Nevski: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_on_the_Ice

- Black Death plaque: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Death

- Victual Brothers - the Pirates of the Baltic Sea: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victual_Brothers

 

Gulf of Finland, Camp Porkkala and other potential places visited during the The Field School

  (click on the map to open Google map in a new window)

Legend

Finland:

• Porkkalan Leirikeskus = Camp Porkkala, the base camp of the Field School
• Airport = The Helsinki-Vantaa airport where ECU team will arrive/depart
• Suomenlinna = The 18th century sea fortress where the second weekend of the Field School will take place
• Forum Marinum = Maritime Museum of Turku. Primarily displaying 20th century ships of the Finnish Navy.
• Turku Castle = Mediaval fortress but completely rebuilt after WW2
• Häme Castle = Medieval castle established by the Swedish colonialisation
• Holy Cross Church = One of the oldest mediaval churches in Finland
• Rapola Ancient Hill Fort = Early medieval / Iron Age stronghold of Finns - the largest of it's era in the whole of Europe
• Päijälän Castle Mountain = Early mediaval / Iron Age stronghold which has seen battle around 1100 AD. Very typical of it's kind (over 200 in Finland)
• Astuvansalmi rock paintings = Paleolithic paintings from 3000 BC including extremely rare female hunter figures
• Kummakivi = Unsurveyed site of gigantic balanced rock, rumoured to be an ancient court of justice
• Maritime Center Vellamo = Maritime museum of Kotka, Primarily focusing on 20th century civillian sea faring. Some archaeology too.
• Porvoo = Medieval church and early medieval stronghold + a nice 19th century old town
• Husholmen Medieval Fortress Island = A middle aged stronghold associated with Victual Brothers pirates near Porvoo
• Museoviraston kokoelma- ja konservointikeskus = Finnish Heritage Agency collection and conservation center
• Raseborg Castle Ruins = Medieval fortress of potentially Teutonic origin.

Estonia:

• Tallinn = A 13th century "Hansestadt" - probably the best preserved in Europe - especially the old town.
• Estonian Maritime Museum = The home of most Kogs found
• Toolse fortress = Ruins of a 14th century castle of the Teutonic Knights and northern most fortress of the Holy Roman Empire
• Narva = A medieval (twin) bordertown of one of the oldest cultural, language, religious and tribal as well as state borders in Europe
• Lennusadam = Former "Air Harbour" and a maritime museum of mostly 20th century sea faring

 

Latest update: 20th of Januaty 2025