I had a work meeting today, so I took the bus to work today, and had the fun of taking fika with colleagues

After work I took the bus all the way to Skellefteå, where we attended a lecture at the museum about the archaeological excavations that took place this summer. There is an area not far from here which will get a train track installed, so they are excavating all of the former settlement and burial areas before the construction crew comes in.

It was super interesting! They found over 550 different features, including hearths, cooking pits, post holes, and more.

They have already dated a few of the burned bones from the hearths, which show that there are at least 6 different periods that area was settled, from as early as 1196-902 BC (not so long before that this area would have been under water, and before that, ice), up to 1450-1631 AD.

Much to their surprise and delight, even though the soils here are acidic enough that metal normally rusts completely away, they found a couple of metal artefacts: