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.
I type these words in a seafood restaurant at the main square of Visby on the island of Gotland. I haven't been here for almost a decade. Today I had the rare pleasure of teaching undergrads. My old grad-school buddy Gunilla Runesson at Visby University College gave me four hours to talk about the Late Iron Age elite, which is what occupied most of my working hours from 1994 until last fall. So I got up at 06:15 this morning, rode a tiny propeller plane across the sea and did three hours on settlements and one hour on graves. Very nice students!
Afterwards I walked through the Medieval city and out to the former artillery regiment's area where, for reasons of regional jobs policy, much of the National Heritage Board is based these days in a shiny new building. Johan Carlström showed me around the place as the sun set, I met my friend Lars Lundqvist and I chatted to a bunch of other colleagues. This is, for instance, where the country's excellent on-line sites & monuments register is kept.
Then I walked back into town and made my usual round: the Eastern City Gate, Horse St., Cramér Sq., Beach St., St. Olaf's ruin, the Botanical Garden, where I said hi to the Empress tree, Main Square with St. Catherine's ruin. Everything a little ghostly and melancholy in the dark and snow, trees denuded. And here I am now, belly full of fish soup, bread and aïoli.
On the way there I rode a Handley Page Jetstream 32 (production start 1968), and on the way back a Focker 50 (production start 1987) with cool six-bladed propellers.
Here are the presentations I used: the intro and the Östergötland elite settlement one.
Humanities & Social Science
Comments
Good to see that the level of enthusiasm of archaeology student matches that of engineering students... :-) Interesting that you think of your stroll as the "usual round" when it's the first time in a decade you visit town. Or was it the seafood restaurant?
Posted by: Joakim S. | January 25, 2010 4:35 PM
I did my doctorate on Gotland's biggest prehistoric cemetery (google "Barshalder"), so I had reason to go to Gotland quite a lot. But since graduating, I've been working in other areas.
Posted by: Martin R | January 25, 2010 4:47 PM
Ah, yes. Good to see that the tradition of sleeping through the visiting lecturer's presentation continues! :) What a fabulous name and heritage for a tree! Is it an invasive species in your corner as well?
Posted by: Krystal | January 25, 2010 8:41 PM
Martin: Good to see you again!
Readers: This is what Martin saw but didn´t mention... http://www.flickr.com/photos/arkland_swe/tags/visby/
Posted by: Lars L | January 26, 2010 1:08 AM
I've only ever managed to put half a class to sleep at any one time, so that must have been a most impressive lecture.
How cool that you got to ride a Jetstream, thanks for the info!
Posted by: kai | January 26, 2010 2:49 AM
Krys, the Empress tree is not procreating spontaneously in Sweden, probably for reasons of climate. I am only aware of the one in the Visby Botanical Garden, which is an unusually warm and sunny spot for Sweden.
Kai, the Jetstream is the coolest thing, like a little school bus with wings! And the instrumentation looked mighty analog. I believe they use them because Bromma airport has a noise level limit.
Posted by: Martin R | January 26, 2010 3:08 AM
Hello Martin, could you please put your presentation on your blog. While I was sleeping, as oviously most of us did, I forgot to make me some notes. Thank you for the lecture & see you next time in visby. Till då.
Kind regards
Christian Schewe
Posted by: Christian Schewe | January 26, 2010 4:18 AM
Hey man! Just click on the links at the end of the blog entry.
Posted by: Martin R | January 26, 2010 4:22 AM
Is this picture of the sleeping stundents true?All are sleeping?????????????
Posted by: Arwo | January 26, 2010 8:48 AM
No, they're dead. At the end of the lecture I cast a spell of re-animation on them.
Posted by: Martin R | January 26, 2010 9:17 AM
"Martin Rundkvist, Re-animator" - it doesn't have quite the same quality to it.
Did anyone notice a difference when their re-animated corpses shambled out into the hallways?
Posted by: Akhôrahil | January 27, 2010 5:26 AM
Everybody just thought they had had too much gotlandsdricku.
Posted by: Martin R | January 27, 2010 5:32 AM
#9 Have you ever heard Martin talk? Of course we're all sleeping... ;)
Posted by: Sara | January 28, 2010 5:34 AM
I came in the door and said "Hey everyone, my name is --", and then there was this massive THUNK SNOOORE when everybody's head hit their desk.
Posted by: Martin R | January 28, 2010 5:41 AM
…at which point you wandered off to the nearest pub and enjoyed your lecturing. ;-)
Posted by: blf | January 31, 2010 5:47 AM