Eero: Look up on the Archeology of Espoo.

Today I went for the prehistoric roots of Espoo and ended up looking up stuff related to the "copper money" or Plootu's, we where introduced to during the lecture by Espoo City Museum personnel. I found some resources to use if you are interested in prehistory (and read Finnish) of Espoo.

This is an interesting map system which shows the locations of archeological excavations and archeological findings by private parties:
http://fba.evvk.com/geo/kulttuuriymparisto

Here is a portal, with more detailed data:
http://kulttuuriymparisto.nba.fi/netsovellus/rekisteriportaali/portti/default.aspx

The Plootu's currently exhibited in the museum where found from Mäkkylä, but despite the efforts we where unable to find newspaper clipping etc. of the finding. I'm now trying to find the boys who found the Plootu's by with the help of the museum staff. The museum also had replicas of their Plootu's made and I'm trying to find the Blacksmith responsible for making them... In hopes of purchasing a copy! I guess this interest in Plootu's is related to local currencies and the Suomenlinna Money Lab but I'm not at all interested in trying to build a local currency for Espoo.

There was also a "Clock Museum" in WG house and I was given a short introduction to the collection. A device of particular interest was the "Observatory Balloon" which was used to set the clock on ships in sync (from Helsinki, Tähtitorninmäki). This particular balloon was lifted on top of a flag pole every day at exactly 12:00 and ships used this signal to sync their clocks (sync on clocks is needed for navigation, more here). In short the device is the gps-technology of it's time. If the weather was bad a cannon was fired to send the sync signal. I send a request to meet with the Clock-Museum staff next Friday (for fun) and to have a look at their archive.

Not sure where these investigations will result to.. I also learned that there was a mine (for iron) in Leppävaara (with ore of 30% iron!) and that there is a dugout there.. I could go for mining too. The most interesting link I found was this. Which is a forum/portal for Finnish treasure hunters. I wonder if I could build a metal detector? Or does Aalto Uni. have one I could borough? (edit: apparently metal detectors are simple to build: http://www.easytreasure.co.uk/bfo.htm)

-Eero