Dr. Martin Rundkvist is a Swedish archaeologist, journal editor, public speaker, chairman of the Swedish Skeptics Society, atheist, lefty liberal, bookworm, and father of two.
A buddy of mine sent me a reminder today of why I am happy to not be a contract archaeologist. It's twelve below zero centigrade around here, and still a number of unfortunate Linköping colleagues are out digging. And they're not digging Tut-ankh-amen's tomb today either: apparently they've been assigned the task of excavating and documenting an ancient ploughsoil. Yes, an expanse of clayey soil churned by the ard or plough a long, long time ago. Poor bastards!
See those fuzzy blotches in the pic? They're snowflakes.
Update 8 February: Says my Linköping colleague Katarina Österström:
"The photographer is Fredrik Samuelsson of the County Museum. It's true that we're digging a ploughsoil, but we've also got an ancient stream bed that's meandered around a cupmarked [Bronze Age rock carvings] outcrop. In the stream bed are pottery and bones, burnt and unburnt, and a lot of burnt stones. We're continuing the dig in the spring, hopefully under better circumstances."
[More blog entries about archaeology, Sweden; arkeologi, Östergötland.]
Comments
I'm digging in the cold too. I tried to send a trackback but it isn't working yet? The trackpack adress
(http://scienceblogs.com/mt/pings/32736) seems illogical to me - you'd expect something along the lines of http://scienceblogs.com/aardvarchaeology/pings/whatever-post-name instead?
Anyway my post is here: http://www.henrikkarll.dk/recent-finds/digging-below-zero
Cheers!
Posted by: Henrik | February 10, 2007 8:03 AM
I asked the other Sbers, and they said "trackbacks have never worked and we don't use them". So I guess it's no go.
Posted by: Martin R | February 10, 2007 8:08 AM
If I had to choose I would prefer your dig, Henrik!! I certainly would...
Posted by: LL | February 10, 2007 9:34 AM