Now on ScienceBlogs: Oldest Human-Made Object in Space
Martin Rundkvist's blog. Archaeology, skepticism, Sweden. And books and music and stuff.
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.
July 31, 2010
Category: Gaming
I spent Friday and Saturday with Junior at a small gaming convention in Katrineholm, a town two hours' drive from my home. (I stayed nearby in May of last year with my wife.) With less than 100 participants, not all...
Posted by Martin R at 5:34 PM • 6 Comments •
July 29, 2010
Category: Archaeology
I hope the project does find a 15th century Chinese shipwreck. But if they do, then this will in no way validate the suddenly remembered folklore. It's a ridiculous product of current Afro-Chinese economic relations.
Posted by Martin R at 4:41 PM • 13 Comments •
July 27, 2010
Category: Film
Via Luftwaffe Flak at Boardgamegeek.com...
Posted by Martin R at 4:42 PM • 2 Comments •
July 26, 2010
Category: Books
Whenever I like I can get books for free over the net from within the e-reader: either old ones whose copyright has expired, or newly written ones with a Creative Commons licence.
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 5 Comments •
July 25, 2010
Category: Music
The other night my wife suddenly hummed a familiar melody line. After some mental searching I identified it as a slightly modified version of French Canadian synth-poppers Trans-X's 1983 hit "Living on Video" that I haven't heard in 20...
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 7 Comments •
July 23, 2010
Category: Fieldwork
No big news on site today. I did some topless deturfing in the sun and taught a bright student to use a metal detector.
Posted by Martin R at 4:23 PM • 2 Comments •
July 22, 2010
Category: Archaeology
The Department of History and Archaeology in Chester is moving from their lovely but run-down Georgian building at the north city gate to the main campus. So I spent most of today helping with the move: shifting finds from...
Posted by Martin R at 3:56 PM • 6 Comments •
July 21, 2010
Category: Archaeology
We're still on top of the barrow's capping slate-shingle cairn (put in place by the 18th century antiquarians who re-erected the Pillar of Eliseg?), and it is uncertain whether it will be removed at all this year.
Posted by Martin R at 5:22 PM • 5 Comments •
Category: Blogging
The ninety-seventh Four Stone Hearth blog carnival is on-line at Zenobia. Catch the best recent blogging on archaeology and anthropology! The next vacant hosting slot is on 15 September. All bloggers with an interest in the subject are welcome to...
Posted by Martin R at 4:19 PM • 2 Comments •
July 20, 2010
Category: Archaeology
I did some metal detecting, finding lead spatters that may have to do with 18th century repairs to the 9th century Pillar of Eliseg, and two 20th century coins, and of course a few aluminium ring-pulls.
Posted by Martin R at 5:41 PM • 11 Comments •
July 19, 2010
Category: Blogging
Over the past 4½ years I've made a habit of calling out on my blog whenever I've planned trips abroad, in the hope of meeting up with readers. As far as I can remember, the only times when this has...
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 36 Comments •
July 18, 2010
Category: Blogging
The 97th Four Stone Hearth blog carnival will run at Zenobia: Empress of the East on Wednesday. Submit great recent stuff to ">Judith, your own or somebody else's. Anything anthro or archaeo goes! The next open hosting slot is already...
Posted by Martin R at 5:15 AM • 0 Comments •
July 16, 2010
Category: Biology
I've been fishing, swimming and walking the shoreline around my mom's summer house for almost 30 years. But I have never seen an eel before.
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 6 Comments •
July 15, 2010
Category: Archaeology
Measuring twelve by two centimetres, its size is perhaps not very impressive, and there are many non-dildoish uses for which it may have been intended. But without doubt anyone alive at the time of its making would have seen the penile similarities.
Posted by Martin R at 2:32 PM • 43 Comments •
Category: Archaeology
Archaeology Magazine's July/August issue has a lot of Old World articles which made it particularly interesting to me. Nabataean mausolea in Arabia, Europid Bronze Age mummies in Xinjiang, the Neanderthal genome, Greek temples in southern Italy, the urban archaeology of Medieval Jewry and more.
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 10 Comments •
Category: Biology
I bought some insecticide. It looks like pale pink ice-cream sprinkles, and in fact consists mainly of sugar. But mixed into the sugar are two chemicals: one that makes the stuff taste awful to children and other large animals, and another that kills insects.
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 16 Comments •
July 14, 2010
Category: Archaeology
Bob G. Lind believes that the stone ship is a Late Bronze Age calendaric observatory, and he's run a loud and aggressive one-man presentation at the site for many years.
Posted by Martin R at 1:10 PM • 13 Comments •
July 12, 2010
Category: Archaeology
Next week I will work on an excavation in north-east Wales. The fieldwork concerns the site of a 9th century memorial cross, the "Pillar of Eliseg".
Posted by Martin R at 2:18 PM • 3 Comments •
July 10, 2010
Category: Bronze Age
I had two pages in the May issue of Sweden's equivalent av Scientific American about recent books on the Scandinavian Bronze Age. I was happy to publish there, but not very happy with the rushed chop job the contribution went through.
Posted by Martin R at 12:39 PM • 2 Comments •
July 9, 2010
Category: Blogging
In the past few days I have received four e-mails from Adam Bly, founder and proprietor of Seed Media Group and Scienceblogs. OK, they were group mail sent to all the SciBlings, but four e-mails from him is more...
Posted by Martin R at 3:11 AM • 5 Comments •
July 8, 2010
Category: Archaeology
Like everything else we make and use, gaming pieces form part of the archaeological record. Now I have seen a set of 20th century mah jong pieces go into the ground.
Posted by Martin R at 12:56 PM • 5 Comments •
July 7, 2010
Category: Blogging
I reacted to the news about the Pepsiblog debacle with a cynical smirk and a sinking feeling in my stomach. Though I am interested in health-related and environmental issues, they are not at the forefront of my blogging or my...
Posted by Martin R at 3:03 PM • 8 Comments •
Category: Blogging
The ninety-sixth Four Stone Hearth blog carnival is on-line at Testimony of the Spade. Catch the best recent blogging on archaeology and anthropology! The next vacant hosting slot is already on 4 August 21 July. All bloggers with an interest...
Posted by Martin R at 9:03 AM • 0 Comments •
Category: Archaeology
Still in the prototype stage, this technology will image underground metal objects in 3D.
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 7 Comments •
July 6, 2010
Category: Homeownership
My house. It's L-shaped; of its six walls, only these two lack windows. In January, a house near ours caught fire in the middle of the night and was pretty much burned out. A malfunctioning electrical blanket on a...
Posted by Martin R at 9:50 AM • 11 Comments •
July 5, 2010
Category: Blogging
The 96th Four Stone Hearth blog carnival will run at Testimony of the Spade on Wednesday. Submit great recent stuff to Magnus, your own or somebody else's. Anything anthro or archaeo goes! The next open hosting slot is already on...
Posted by Martin R at 1:57 PM • 0 Comments •
Category: Archaeology
Now the runestone stands again, the site has been cleaned up, and the public is free to come see the most important early runic document to surface in many decades.
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 4 Comments •
July 4, 2010
Category: Humour
My buddy Micke and his Japanese college room mate: "I'm Ken Nakamura. Ken means 'heresy'!" "Really? That's kind of... odd." "Yes! It means 'HERESY'! Rike when you are never sick!" "Ahaaa, you mean 'healthy'..." "Yes! Correct! What does your name...
Posted by Martin R at 3:33 PM • 9 Comments •
July 1, 2010
Category: Archaeology
Image by Joseph Hewitt of Ataraxia Theatre. Archaeology is a famously ghoulish pursuit whose practitioners are always on the look-out for dead bodies to gloat over. If we can't find a grave, then at least we'll try to get...
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 11 Comments •
