News on Antikythera
Category: Archaeology
The Metonic cycle is represented by the Antikythera Mechanism.
Posted by Martin R at 5:24 PM • 3 Comments •
Aardvarchaeology
Martin Rundkvist's blog. Archaeology, skepticism, Sweden. And books and music and stuff.
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Dr. Martin Rundkvist is a Swedish archaeologist, journal editor, public speaker, skeptic, atheist, lefty liberal, bookworm, and father of two.
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Recent Posts
- Like an Elephant
- Laptop Day
- Early Medieval Magnates Talk in Lund
- Dan Simmons's Scientific Let-Down
- Information Longevity Talk in Gothenburg
- Upgrading Ubuntu Linux is Risky
- Odin from Lejre? No, it's Freya!
- Recent Archaeology Mags
- Intellectual Aristocrat
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Recent Comments
- Martin R on Dan Simmons's Scientific Let-Down
- Brian X on Dan Simmons's Scientific Let-Down
- Raka on Dan Simmons's Scientific Let-Down
- Raka on Dan Simmons's Scientific Let-Down
- Martin R on 11th Nordic Bronze Age Symposium, Day 1
- Leslie Johnson-Gillert on 11th Nordic Bronze Age Symposium, Day 1
- Martin R on Odin from Lejre? No, it's Freya!
- kai on Like an Elephant
- Al on Odin from Lejre? No, it's Freya!
- Cattis on Like an Elephant
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Blogroll
Good Blog Carnivals
July 31, 2008
July 30, 2008
Bob Lind Gets Grant
Category: Archaeology
Bob has neither formal qualifications nor any excavation experience.
Posted by Martin R at 1:43 PM • 8 Comments •
July 29, 2008
Hymen Reconstruction and Public Healthcare
Category: Politics
Hymen construction is a silly pointless procedure in demand among certain immigrant groups.
Posted by Martin R at 9:35 AM • 3 Comments •
Estonian Chicken Spam Nightmare
Category: Psychedelic
So it's the 80s, Estonia is under Soviet rule, and your job is to direct movie commercials. And when you get the assignment to promote kana-hakkliha (processed chicken meat), you know exactly what it will take to make the...
Posted by Martin R at 2:51 AM • 4 Comments •
July 28, 2008
Birthday Clustering
Category: Children
Yesterday my glorious daughter turned 5. Today my radiant son turned 10. In the maternity ward five years ago I quipped to the nurses, "The kids being born one day apart, I suppose I'm only fertile for one week each...
Posted by Martin R at 5:35 PM • 9 Comments •
July 27, 2008
Social Nucleus and Accretionary Matter
Category: China
Once in the early 90s two Stockholm girls went to college to major in Chinese. They became friends: one was half-Chinese, the other had spent part of her childhood in China. They would one day become the Architect and...
Posted by Martin R at 10:57 AM • 4 Comments •
Chaosium's Basic Role-Playing
Category: Gaming
Anybody got a copy of Chaosium's 1980 game-rules booklet Basic Role-Playing? And the 1982 Worlds of Wonder boxed set, specifically the Magic World booklet? I'd love to have a look at them (photocopies or a brief loan would be fine),...
Posted by Martin R at 2:17 AM • 2 Comments •
July 25, 2008
Google as an Emergent AI
Category: Tech
Here's a cool update on the old Programmer Mel story, a tech-nerdy short story by George Dyson on Google as an emergent AI. It's sort of a fantasy-fulfillment tale for the boomers who seem to make up the bulk of...
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 0 Comments •
Mahna Mahna
Category: Humour
When was the last time you saw the Muppets perform "Mahna mahna"?...
Posted by Martin R at 5:50 AM • 19 Comments •
July 24, 2008
Fireweed
Category: Biology
Wind-borne seeds like thistledown that can sprout anywhere.
Posted by Martin R at 3:21 PM • 11 Comments •
July 23, 2008
Google Knol Live
Category: NOIBN
Alun tells me that Google Knol is now live. It's like Wikipedia, only written by experts and pwned by Google. Check it out! Also, I happened upon Everything2, this other weird & interesting hypertext community where anything goes, not modeled...
Posted by Martin R at 3:39 PM • 4 Comments •
Against Theoretical Archaeology
Category: Archaeology
All enquiry that does not concern the life-ways of people in the past and/or does not study material remains is non-archaeology.
Posted by Martin R at 2:08 PM • 46 Comments •
July 22, 2008
Game Review: Pandemic
Category: Gaming
You discuss among yourselves who goes where to whack-a-mole infected cities.
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 7 Comments •
July 21, 2008
Rental Sculpture
Category: Art
Most artists have a large backlog of unsold work sitting around their homes and studios.
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 12 Comments •
July 20, 2008
Giant Vertebra Found in Swedish Lake
Category: Biology
The find spot hasn't been near the sea since the end of the latest ice age.
Posted by Martin R at 5:29 PM • 10 Comments •
July 19, 2008
Slave to Love
Category: Introspection
A much-publicised trial in Falun, Sweden is giving me a funny feeling. The man on the stand has confessed to the murder of a woman and a small girl, and is also charged with the violent rape of both and...
Posted by Martin R at 11:12 AM • 11 Comments •
July 18, 2008
Bob Lind Challenges Me to a Duel
Category: Archaeology
"You with your fine archaeological credentials will surely not find reason to complain."
Posted by Martin R at 9:48 AM • 8 Comments •
July 17, 2008
Sailing the Ley Lines with Dr. Curry
Category: Skepticism
Reading up on some pseudoscientific ideas common among dowsing-rod enthusiasts, I happened upon a funny detail. Many Swedish dowsers believe in the "Curry grid", consisting of "power lines" across the surface of the Earth, detectable only by dowsing. They...
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 5 Comments •
July 16, 2008
Skepdude Beefcake Calendar
Category: Skepticism
On my desk is a copy of the 2009 Skepdude pinup calendar. It features lascivious images of many prominent skeptical gentlemen, including D.J. Grothe, Hemant Mehta and Brian Dunning. For March, there's even a picture of a skinny white dude...
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 10 Comments •
July 15, 2008
Film Review: Sizzle
Category: Film
What about the scientists? Are all of them real? Some of them? None?
Posted by Martin R at 5:00 AM • 5 Comments •
July 13, 2008
Paddy K Seeks the Bridge of Orchy
Category: Travel
Paddy K is hiking in Scotland without any portable internet connection. He just texted me a request for the coordinates of the Bridge of Orchy. He's currently in Inverardran, about 20 km SSE of the bridge. People in the...
Posted by Martin R at 1:52 PM • 2 Comments •
July 11, 2008
Four Stone Hearth Call for Submissions
Category: Archaeology
Everybody with an interest in anthropology and archaeology who isn't lost in some green summery haze far from the nearest internet connection -- it's time to contribute good new blog entries to next week's Four Stone Hearth blog carnival. You...
Posted by Martin R at 3:06 PM • 6 Comments •
Cesspit Incavation
Category: Archaeology
I often dig old crap out of the ground, so today's chore at the summer house provided some novelty.
Posted by Martin R at 7:59 AM • 5 Comments •
July 10, 2008
33 Test Pits
Category: Archaeology
Today we dug and sieved our 33rd and last square-meter test pit at Djurhamn, and I took the gear back to the County Museum's stores. Unless a colleague with better early-modern pottery skillz than mine provides any surprises, it seems...
Posted by Martin R at 12:53 PM • 2 Comments •
July 7, 2008
Test Pitting at Djurhamn
Category: Archaeology
I wish one of those pits would strike a 16th century midden!
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 5 Comments •
July 5, 2008
Anthro Blog Carnival
Category: Blogging
The forty-fourth Four Stone Hearth blog carnival is on-line at Greg Laden's blog. Archaeology and anthropology, and all about luta livre! Luta livre is a broad term referring to wrestling in Portuguese. In Brazil, it may also refer to...
Posted by Martin R at 5:13 PM • 4 Comments •
Classical Music Festival Pics
Category: Music
Here's a set of pics from the Music Tuscany mini-festival near San' Giovanni d'Asso in Tuscany, Italy, last week....
Posted by Martin R at 3:55 AM • 1 Comments •
July 4, 2008
Tuscan Photographs
Category: Art
I've put some pix from my recent trip to Tuscany in Italy on-line. In other news, my wife has suggested a brilliant and radical re-interpretation of the Swedish 70s dansband pop hit "Margareta", by Sten & Stanley. Comprehensible only...
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 4 Comments •
July 3, 2008
Film Review: Journey to 10,000 BC
Category: Archaeology
Late Palaeolithic people sail across the Atlantic to illustrate the Solutrean hypothesis, and the mast is at the aft of the boat. Painful stuff.
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 6 Comments •
July 2, 2008
Science Blogging Starting to Look Like Football
Category: Blogging
Here's an interesting development. Top science bloggers have become a commodity hot enough that a situation like that in European football is emerging. Players are getting snatched from team to team through hostile buyout (Carl Zimmer of The Loom), and...
Posted by Martin R at 9:27 AM • 3 Comments •
