Dr. Martin Rundkvist is a Swedish archaeologist, journal editor, public speaker, skeptic, atheist, lefty liberal, bookworm, and father of two.
We finished machining away the ploughsoil today, and I reckon we've uncovered about 800 square meters. I have a permit for 1200 sqm, but I stopped here. The landowner doesn't want us to expand in the most interesting direction where we have more cool metal-detector finds. And the directions that remain to us are out of the metal-finds swarm and downhill.
Sunken features everywhere, and the team has been busy cleaning away remnants of the ploughsoil, finding the edges of features, sectioning many. None with any finds worth writing home about though. Pete/Fozz did find a seltzer bottle sherd: faux-Medieval German glazed stoneware used to package and sell mineral water in the 19th century. I only recognised it because me and Per Vikstrand picked up a few sherds of it at Saint Olaf's field in May and pottery expert Mathias Bäck told me what it was.
The team's ealdormen Phil & Bill cooked us an amazing dinner with chicken and roast potatoes and cabbage and string beans and carrots. And then we played Roborally and Connor beat us all again. I wish I could pit him against my friend David who always kicks my ass at games, he'd knock some sense into the kid. And annihilate me.
[More blog entries about archaeology, Sweden; arkeologi, Östergötland, Linköping.]
Humanities & Social Science
Comments
Oh sounds fun! I am so looking forward to seeing what you find
Posted by: The Scarlet Tree | September 17, 2008 10:56 PM
Rare Viking-era shield found in Denmark
Posted by: Tegumai Bopsulai, FCD | September 18, 2008 11:41 AM
By ploughsoil, do you mean the soil as far down as it has been ploughed before? Does that mean the same as topsoil? I'm watching your excavation with baited breath here, in Texas. No interesting Viking remains here, just prairie dog holes and clay-like, dark soil called "black gumbo"!
Posted by: DianaGainer | September 18, 2008 8:03 PM
By ploughsoil, do you mean the soil as far down as it has been ploughed before?
Yes!
Does that mean the same as topsoil?
No. There is topsoil even if a surface has never been tilled, e.g. in old woodland.
Posted by: Martin R | September 19, 2008 4:13 PM