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FIELD PHOTOGRAPHS
COVERED DRAIN (TYA 281: 53)
Type: Close-up of wooden remants (unit 1142) - a covered drain between two log houses.
Site: Raisio, Ihala, Mulli abode.
Period: Viking Age / Crusade Age / Early Middle Ages.
Dating: 980-1220 A.D.
Photographer: Taina Pietikäinen.
Direction of photography: From east
On the west side of the excavation area, between the two log houses, a north-south directed darkened strip was discovered that appeared to be a drain. The drain was some 15 meters long and it empties into a east-west directed ditch situated north of the excavation area. The drain was partly filled up with wood rubbish, twigs, clay, sand, soil, fragments of clay-disks, stones and fragments of pottery.
From the folklore we know that a stone stack was often made upon a covered drain. To prevent the covering soil to drip into the drain, a layer of birch-bark, moss, wood-chips or spruce twigs had to be laid on the stone stack. The soil was laid on these. Covered drains were built in watery hollows which people wanted to dry. Also in Mulli abode, a draining system was built a thousand years ago to keep the settlement site dry.
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Coordinates: x=99, y=502.
Map: 96/03.
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