When it comes to digging expeditions my summers have two clear highlights. First is of course when the Military Archaeology Legenda expeditions is happening and the second is when my friend from Trondheim comes North to relax with his family on their summer place. They arrived some days ago and soon after I got a text from him asking when I would be ready for a dig. Yesterday morning I filled the car with my gear and drove ca an hour and a half to meet up. Baard and his son Skule were waiting for me on the stairs and I jumped out of the car to greet them, and threw a nice relic german helmet on Skule as a little summer gift. I think he was quite happy with that as he likes to make lamps from helmets to have around in his room. Baard had been doing his research again and organized permissions for us from a landowner. After a short drive we stopped at the farm and met the farmer. He sent us further on a forest road some half kilometer where it should be a huge camp. This camp had housed four thousand German soldiers and had a shooting range and a horse track. The area is huge and we had no idea about the layout of the camp so we just switched on the detectors and began sweeping grass. The best thing about it was that no one has ever been digging here before us!
After having dug up a whole bunch of 7.92 rifle casings we were pretty sure we knew where the shooting range had been. Looking at some of the casings we saw that they had been shooting not only with the Mausers but also with machineguns. One can get bored rather fast from only picking spent ammo and we wanted to find the area the soldiers had been living.
The boiling sun also made the open area quite unbearable so we decided to check out a birch forest that outlined the area. Not far in between the trees I had the first signal. It was a lonely Soviet coin from the end of the 20`s. A very good indication that we were on the right track. Soon after I had another great signal and dug out a rifle cleaning kit and a cut down 10.5 cm brass casing. I also had in my hand a very nice signal flare but I dropped it and it disappeared down between some rocks and was never to be seen again.
Baard was expanding his collection of nails and horseshoes while my Fisher F5 gave hints of a coin spill. In a 1x1 meter patch I found 18 coins. Both German and Finnish. I also found 7 German uniform buttons. I moved a meter or so and checked a not too good iron signal and pulled out a close combat dagger. Baard had grown to hate me by now naturally as he pulled out yet another horseshoe, little did he know that on the end of the day I would give him the close combat dagger :D
We could make out an old road going through the forest and on the sides of it we spotted holes in the ground, small and large ones, Possible dumping pits! I opened up one of them and there were some rust and bottles in it. I picked out two nice bottles from it, together with a toothbrush, a bayonet scabbard and a beautiful little bakelite cream jar. Opposite to that pit was a small burn pit with hundreds of spent 7.92 casings and we found the remains of the wooden crate they once had been stored in.
After a little coffee and lunchbreak we went back at it. Me and Baard searching while Skule tried to climb to the top of every little tree he could find and we worried if we would need to call in the ambulance helicopter every time he fell to the ground. I walked around a bit to try get a little overview and when I returned I could hear Baard, but damn if I could see him. I almost stepped on him there he was laying on the ground opening up a dumping pit. He had found what is probably the end of the barracked area coz we saw foundations of buildings and pit upon pit scattered around. All of them had good signals so I just chose one to start opening up. I had luck with my choice as relics just flowed out of it. It wasn`t a very big ditch, maybe 1 meter x 0.5 meter, but it was deep, and filled with the red pioneer wire so it took the rest of the day to empty it.
The pile of relics grew steadily along with the scrap- and spoil heap. I found two bakelite cups for field flasks, lots of bottles, small and big ones, and a bayonet leather frog. Other items were the rests of a technical learning book, lots of gaming pieces (16 or 17 in total), a few coins, two or three rifle cleaning kits, some boots, bunker candles, tent pegs, a crystal ashtray, broken porcelain, two porcelain insulators and another toothbrush.
The last few items to come out from the wet-ish and heavy clay was a cardboardbox with 20 Mauser rounds, which Skule quickly grabbed, emptied and made a small "gagarin" with the gunpowder, and a few different bakelite boxes. The very last find was funny. I saw a small aluminum plate with letters stamped on it. I could read "..Bitch" !! `What the heck` I thought, `How rude!!`. Baard cleaned it up while I was filling back the pit, and it was a tag that had belonged to Obergefreier Kobitch, apparently. A very fine end of the digging.
Baard didn`t have too much luck this time, but that is quite usual when it is first time in a year one uses the detector. It takes a trip or two to get into it again, so I bet his luck will turn next time we go out there. Hopefully very soon. He had a interesting find though, a pair of soldier boots with a modified sole, I will add a pic of it and I hope some of you guys might have an explanation to why they were made like it.
It had been a super day, alittle bit because of the finds but mostly because of the company. I think I ll launch a campaign to have them move back up here permanently, it is just silly living in a city in mid- to south of the country :D
Well,it was hard to dig the heavy clay so today is all about relaxing in the sun. So I wish you all a great end to the weekend and a nice week :)
See you again soon.
After having dug up a whole bunch of 7.92 rifle casings we were pretty sure we knew where the shooting range had been. Looking at some of the casings we saw that they had been shooting not only with the Mausers but also with machineguns. One can get bored rather fast from only picking spent ammo and we wanted to find the area the soldiers had been living.
The boiling sun also made the open area quite unbearable so we decided to check out a birch forest that outlined the area. Not far in between the trees I had the first signal. It was a lonely Soviet coin from the end of the 20`s. A very good indication that we were on the right track. Soon after I had another great signal and dug out a rifle cleaning kit and a cut down 10.5 cm brass casing. I also had in my hand a very nice signal flare but I dropped it and it disappeared down between some rocks and was never to be seen again.
Baard was expanding his collection of nails and horseshoes while my Fisher F5 gave hints of a coin spill. In a 1x1 meter patch I found 18 coins. Both German and Finnish. I also found 7 German uniform buttons. I moved a meter or so and checked a not too good iron signal and pulled out a close combat dagger. Baard had grown to hate me by now naturally as he pulled out yet another horseshoe, little did he know that on the end of the day I would give him the close combat dagger :D
We could make out an old road going through the forest and on the sides of it we spotted holes in the ground, small and large ones, Possible dumping pits! I opened up one of them and there were some rust and bottles in it. I picked out two nice bottles from it, together with a toothbrush, a bayonet scabbard and a beautiful little bakelite cream jar. Opposite to that pit was a small burn pit with hundreds of spent 7.92 casings and we found the remains of the wooden crate they once had been stored in.
After a little coffee and lunchbreak we went back at it. Me and Baard searching while Skule tried to climb to the top of every little tree he could find and we worried if we would need to call in the ambulance helicopter every time he fell to the ground. I walked around a bit to try get a little overview and when I returned I could hear Baard, but damn if I could see him. I almost stepped on him there he was laying on the ground opening up a dumping pit. He had found what is probably the end of the barracked area coz we saw foundations of buildings and pit upon pit scattered around. All of them had good signals so I just chose one to start opening up. I had luck with my choice as relics just flowed out of it. It wasn`t a very big ditch, maybe 1 meter x 0.5 meter, but it was deep, and filled with the red pioneer wire so it took the rest of the day to empty it.
The pile of relics grew steadily along with the scrap- and spoil heap. I found two bakelite cups for field flasks, lots of bottles, small and big ones, and a bayonet leather frog. Other items were the rests of a technical learning book, lots of gaming pieces (16 or 17 in total), a few coins, two or three rifle cleaning kits, some boots, bunker candles, tent pegs, a crystal ashtray, broken porcelain, two porcelain insulators and another toothbrush.
The last few items to come out from the wet-ish and heavy clay was a cardboardbox with 20 Mauser rounds, which Skule quickly grabbed, emptied and made a small "gagarin" with the gunpowder, and a few different bakelite boxes. The very last find was funny. I saw a small aluminum plate with letters stamped on it. I could read "..Bitch" !! `What the heck` I thought, `How rude!!`. Baard cleaned it up while I was filling back the pit, and it was a tag that had belonged to Obergefreier Kobitch, apparently. A very fine end of the digging.
Baard didn`t have too much luck this time, but that is quite usual when it is first time in a year one uses the detector. It takes a trip or two to get into it again, so I bet his luck will turn next time we go out there. Hopefully very soon. He had a interesting find though, a pair of soldier boots with a modified sole, I will add a pic of it and I hope some of you guys might have an explanation to why they were made like it.
It had been a super day, alittle bit because of the finds but mostly because of the company. I think I ll launch a campaign to have them move back up here permanently, it is just silly living in a city in mid- to south of the country :D
Well,it was hard to dig the heavy clay so today is all about relaxing in the sun. So I wish you all a great end to the weekend and a nice week :)
See you again soon.
On the shooting range Baard found this little gem.
Between all the rifle casings this razor was hiding.
The first hit in the camp area. A soviet Kopek.
10,5 cm casing.
The first coin in the coinspill...
..and they kept coming.
Mostly German coins with some Finnish in between.
Close combat knife.
The first dumping pit.
Bakelite cream jar.
Hundreds of rifle casings.
I could hear Baard, but could not see him anywhere..
At first I thought the old guy had experienced a heart attack but he was just opening up a dumping pit.
One of the boots Baard found. We are wondering why the sole was made like this. Could it have been modified to fit better on skis or stirrups?
What was left of a book.
A packet of 7.92 rounds...
..which the little pyromaniac grabbed and did his thing with :D
A sock and two rifle cleaning kits.
Tent pegs.
Ashtray.
Porcelain insulators.
Bottles.
A strange aluminum bottle.
Toothbrush.
Bakelite!!! :)
Leather frog for bayonet.
Bakelite drinking cups.
I filled one of them with gaming pieces.
It became a nice little pile of treasures.
Obergefreiter Kobitch.
Some of all the wires that had to be fought out of the pit.
A massive anthill. I could hear them from where I took the photo.
It was a very nice weather, almost a bit too nice for digging.
Skule with his new helmet. A good pay for having to carry our shovels and finds all day :D
Cleaned up gaming pieces.
The tag lightly cleaned.
Some bakelite.
I liked this box the most. I think it was toothpaste in it originally, but the soldier had put some paperclips, nails and a button in it.
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