Research Projects

Susiluola cave (Wolf Cave) at Karijoki, Kristiinankaupunki.  A multidisciplinary research project concerning Susiluola cave was initiated in 1997. The National Board of Antiquities directs the research work carried out in associated with the Geological Survey of Finland and the Department of Geology of the University of Helsinki. Finds of artefacts indicate human occupation of the cave over 100,000 years ago, before the last Ice Age. At present there is an interval in the excavations of the Susiluola Cave after the three-year research period that ended in 2006.

RANE.  Rock Art in Northern Europe is a Nordic project implemented in Finland by the Department of Archaeology of the National Board of Antiquities. Its aim is to promote the protection of rock art, develop its documentation and study, to monitor the factors that make rock art deteriorate, and to spread information on rock art. Initiated in 2002, the project will document all 90 of Finland’s rock paintings.

MoSS. The three-year project MoSS (Monitoring, Safeguarding and Visualising North European Shipwreck Sites) was brought to a close at the end of June 2004. MoSS was the first project on underwater cultural heritage that was supported by the European Community Culture 2000 Programme. The project was run by the Maritime Archaeology Unit at the National Board of Antiquities in Finland. The aim of the project was to tell the peoples of Europe about the underwater cultural heritage, the value of this heritage, and the importance of its protection. The project was based on four European shipwreck sites. The site in Finland was the wreck of Vrouw Maria from the year 1771.