Start of 2015 Excavations

The map of the 2014 and 2015 excavation trenches at Stensö, Östergotland.

This week we started our excavations at Stensö by opening three trenches inside the site of the former castle and several, smaller exploratory units farther afield. Much like last year, the aims of the project are to retrieve small finds to help better understand how the people of Stensö lived and to uncover architectural features of the castle in order to learn how the castle was built and what form it might have taken while it was in use.

The three main trenches we opened (as you can see on the map) are D, E, and F, with the small group of test trenches labeled G (off the map, farther down the hill near the “harbor” to the east).

Trench D aims to uncover evidence of a well or water catchment area identified in previous surveys by Christian Lovén, the Swedish castellologist, located near the perimeter wall. This site has already yielded an enormous quantity of bone and other waste including iron and ceramic.

Trench E aims to uncover the base of the southern tower wall where it touches the bedrock in order to learn how the castle was built.

Trench F, inside the southern tower, has both architectural aims and aims associated with understanding the lives of the people who lived at Stensö.

Test trenches G (1, 2, 3, 4, and 5) will hopefully show traffic between the castle and the bay, potentially showing how construction materials and other commodities were transported either during the tenure of the castle or during its dismantlement.

I am supervising Trench F, inside the tower. Interestingly, the castle has attracted an enormous amount of attention after it was inhabited and abandoned, and the first layer of Trench F (the turf overlaying the rubble from the collapse), shows clear evidence of camping and other outdoor recreation at the site in the 20th and 21st centuries (a fire ring, melted bottles, bottle tops, clay pigeons, and such). We even found a coin from 1987. Also, thus far, we have uncovered more than 30 1940s era magnesium batteries, showing that the tower was potentially used as a lookout during World War II when Sweden—although neutral in the war—was wary of activity in the region from both Russia and Germany.

Last year, we also found evidence of post-abandonment refuse, potentially dating to when the site was inhabited by tenant farmers living in a small hut or house on the site of Trench C. Thus, although the primary aim of the project is to learn about life in the medieval era, we are also gaining insight into how the site has been used throughout all the eras since. 

The collapse layer at Stensö, showing the bedrock just under the photo scale and the living floor, a thin, dark layer visible just to the right of the complete bricks.

After opening a test trench within Trench F to understand how deeply the rubble covers the cultural layers we are most keen to excavate, we found the “living,” earthen floor of the castle tower immediately overlying the bedrock hill upon which the tower was constructed. As we clear the tower of debris, we will come closer to our aim. Excavating in rubble is often a messy business, much less orderly than working with clear strata one might see in an archaeological textbook. However, since last year we have learned an enormous amount about how the castle collapsed after its use, and seeing a modern collapse at Stegeborg Castle to the south has helped as well. We are moving much more quickly than last year with the help of Martin’s excellent students!