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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.
December 31, 2010
Category: Books
Looking for a good book? Here are my best reads in English of the past two years. 2009The Colour of Magic. Terry Pratchett 1983. Lavishly ornate humorous fantasy. Dancing with strangers. Inga Clendinnen 2003. On contacts between the first English...
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 13 Comments •
December 30, 2010
Category: Gaming
Yesterday my buddy Swedepat showed up at 13:30. (That's his name to help distinguish him from Irish Pat.) I hadn't been able to find a third or fourth gamer on short notice. But our plan was to try out the...
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 2 Comments •
December 29, 2010
Category: Poetry
One of the songs my old band played was a tune that Anders had written to a poem by Hermann Hesse. It's in his 1927 novel Steppenwolf and treats one of the central themes of the book, the idea...
Posted by Martin R at 6:07 PM • 9 Comments •
December 28, 2010
Category: Skepticism
The Swedish Skeptics' annual awards for 2010 were just announced.
Posted by Martin R at 5:43 AM • 3 Comments •
December 25, 2010
Category: Humour
When I turned 25 my friend Sanna gave me a little poetry anthology that I have since treasured. Kathryn & Ross Petras's Very Bad Poetry (1997) is a lovely read. One of the versifiers most voluminously represented there is W.T....
Posted by Martin R at 5:38 PM • 20 Comments •
December 23, 2010
Category: Archaeology
Good archaeology mags have accreted on my shelf.
Posted by Martin R at 11:02 AM • 7 Comments •
December 22, 2010
Category: Archaeology
Head on over to Skeptikerpodden and hear their long interview with me about the Swedish Skeptics Society, ending with some views on archaeology.
Posted by Martin R at 3:00 AM • 10 Comments •
December 20, 2010
Category: Books
I want to buy unprotected e-books from on-line book stores for about half of what a paperback copy costs on-line. I don't want to "borrow" the files, and I don't want to pirate them. But nor do I want to get ripped off.
Posted by Martin R at 2:44 PM • 12 Comments •
December 18, 2010
Category: Archaeology
Peter Prinz is quietly making fun of my whole profession here. Because in Thebes, archaeology's goal is not to find out about the past. It is to become as famous as possible by finding "treasures" among the ruins of past civilisations.
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 13 Comments •
December 17, 2010
Category: Archaeology
Dendroanatomical measurements have not only proven the wreck to be the oldest known to date along the Bohuslän coast, but have also shown that the trees involved grew in western Germany or Belgium.
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 15 Comments •
December 16, 2010
Category: Blogging
Today is my fifth birthday as a blogger! (Here's my first entry from 2005.) Five years, that's 13% of the time I've been out of the the womb so far. I had no idea that I'd be doing this....
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 16 Comments •
December 15, 2010
Category: Music
Junior, who is a digital native and knows way more about current net fads than I do, turned me on to the multi-talented Neil Cicierega and his band Lemon Demon. Excellent synth pop that should hit the sweet spot of...
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 1 Comments •
December 14, 2010
Category: History
How is the Royal Library celebrating this milestone in Swedish historiography? Well... By terminating the Swedish Historical Bibliography project!
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 6 Comments •
December 13, 2010
Category: Children
We really need a Candle Maiden in deep December when we're still a week on the wrong side of the solstice.
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 13 Comments •
December 10, 2010
Category: Archaeology
I can't say that it would be better if everyone who likes football took up historical humanities instead. Both football and historical humanities are fun and of no practical use.
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 35 Comments •
December 9, 2010
Category: Archaeology
It's made of sandstone or a similar rock, and to my eye it's pretty clearly modified by human hands, though it may originally have originated as a fossil cavity of some ancient mollusc.
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 26 Comments •
December 8, 2010
Category: Archaeology
"Cabinet believes that there may be reason to question whether the current general ban on metal-detector use is entirely appropriate, and is therefore prepared to re-evaluate the extent and design of the ban."
Posted by Martin R at 12:22 PM • 8 Comments •
December 6, 2010
Category: Archaeology
The purported site of Phaëton's chariot crash is most likely illusory, as the Chiemgau Impact Hypothesis is not accepted by geological consensus.
Posted by Martin R at 2:02 PM • 12 Comments •
December 4, 2010
Category: NOIBN
My old buddy, Aard regular Hi33y, spotted something worth taking a picture of Tuesday night in Birmingham. Not only have I apparently been canonised, I am also the owner of a Brummie rag market! Yesterday at Landvetter airport near...
Posted by Martin R at 4:37 AM • 4 Comments •
December 2, 2010
Category: Travel
I was at a Viking Period workshop in Birmingham until Wednesday noon. A sudden, major and sustained snow dump on the area south of London meant that I couldn't go home the way I had planned: train to London, train...
Posted by Martin R at 11:40 AM • 10 Comments •
December 1, 2010
Category: Archaeology
My main impression of the book is that in writing it, Wengrow was motivated more by a need to produce a book-length piece of text than by any ambition to tackle well-defined questions in a structured way.
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 10 Comments •
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