Dr. Martin Rundkvist is a Swedish archaeologist, journal editor, public speaker, skeptic, atheist, lefty liberal, bookworm, and father of two.
The incomparable net-head archaeologist Ulf Bodin directs the highly successful work to put the collections of the Museum of National Antiquities in Stockholm (Statens Historiska Museum) on-line. Off and on over the past year, I've worked through the scanned catalogues of two centuries, searching for source material relevant to my work with Late 1st Millennium elite manors in Östergötland. To do this, I only needed to visit the museum once, looking in the flesh at some early acquisitions that weren't described well in the catalogue. So I could have done almost all of the work from anywhere in the world.
Ulf just blew my mind yet again with an e-mail. He tells me the museum has acquisitioned the finds my metal detectorist friends from the Gothenburg Historical Society made at Skamby in Kuddby in April of 2003, when we were prospecting in advance of 2005's boat grave dig. And get this: there's an RSS feed for each province of Sweden, so you can have timely news of every new find the museum acquisitions.
Good times for Swedish finds scholars and armchair archaeologists, good times!
[More blog entries about archaeology, museums, Sweden; arkeologi, museum.]
Comments
Yes, it is for sure an enormous accomplishment, especially if you consider all the critcism that has been directed towards the museum these last years... :-)
Posted by: LL | February 10, 2007 9:41 AM
Oh, but you know, those critics were all absolutely insane and are most likely locked up in some asylum by now.
Posted by: Martin R | February 10, 2007 4:54 PM
Thanks, much appreciated!
Posted by: Tommy Rohde | February 10, 2007 5:39 PM