I woke up at 5 AM and took the two hour long drive from Helsinki to Hanko to meet up with ”Sjöba” at the Hanko Front Museum.
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In the early morning hours his digger dug down to a depth of 2,5 m below ground surface just in time before the excavation team of 18 people arrived at 10 AM.
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Although this first day of excavations was mostly about removing the sandy soil that covered the remains of the shelter we still managed to find quite a lot of mostly weapons related small finds like rifle, pistol and machine gun cartridges. Many of these had exploded as a result of beeing subjected to intense heat in the fire that destroyed the shelter in November 1941.
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Other small finds included fragments of a Finish hard liquor bottle made by Riihimäen lasi and a charred gaming piece.
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The remains of the infamous tent stove that possibly caused the fire (by overheating) surfaced to the right of the entrance . Behind it we found well preserved unburnt remains of the westernmost wooden wall of the shelter.
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More tomorrow as we dig into the first real excavation layer!