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.
It's been almost a year since the last de-lurk. Aard has hundreds of regulars, thousands if we adopt a generous definition of "regular", and most of you are lurkers -- quiet readers who don't say much. So, everybody, please comment away, as briefly or verbosely as you like, and do consider telling us a little about yourself! Also, questions and suggestions for blog entries are much appreciated.
And note that re-de-lurks are much encouraged! You see, I have no way of knowing if a lurker ditches Aard. So let me know you're still around.
Comments
Another de-lurk already?
I'm Andrew, and I'm a re-enactor from Australia. Also a skeptic, photographer, gamer and podcaster, not necessarily in that order.
Posted by: Arthwollipot | January 19, 2011 8:47 AM
I can't remember if I did this last year or not!? I'm Sara, an Anthro student at PSU, a research assistant with Puts Lab, and a writer with various freelance contracts. Great blog.
Posted by: Sara C | January 19, 2011 8:58 AM
[delurk]
Hi.
[relurk]
Posted by: Cuttlefish | January 19, 2011 9:19 AM
I'm Deborah. I've never done this and I have the "epic temperament" so I'll take up more lines. I have Anthro degrees and I've done fieldwork at archeological sites here and there, the most interesting on Baffin. The majority of my career, however, I've spent as an editor for various anthro/archeo publications. I work at the state Archeological Survey in Arkansas (USA). I also dabble feebly in Tolkien-related scholarship and write—(unpublished) novels about vampires that are WAY better than that sparkly thing, and when feeling harassed far less or far more than usual, may attempt the occasional poem.
Posted by: Deborah | January 19, 2011 9:23 AM
Hi. I'm a worn-out old software man, now earning an enjoyable living as a cabinet-maker and antique-restorer. My wife and I live on top of a mountain in Cyprus, as does my 101 year-old father who has to be forcibly restrained from showing card-tricks to visitors.
Posted by: Clam | January 19, 2011 9:42 AM
I think I may have delurked before, but I'll pipe up again.
I'm an instructional technologist at a midwestern US university who occasionally blogs about it at Audiovisual Diary but I also occasionally venture off topic.
Posted by: Nick Dvoracek | January 19, 2011 9:48 AM
Physicist in New Hampshire. As you might guess from my name, I have Scandinavian (mostly Danish in my case) ancestry, but all of my grandparents were born in the US.
Posted by: Eric Lund | January 19, 2011 10:21 AM
De-lurking, on my birthday even!
I'm no one special, just a layperson interested in archaeology, history, Tolkien, and language.
Posted by: Dayna | January 19, 2011 10:35 AM
Retired information specialist, mostly public health but previously oceanography. Artist. Reader in the sciences. Near Boston, Massachusetts.
Posted by: stillwaggon | January 19, 2011 10:55 AM
I am a lay-person interested in anthropology living in Northeast Indiana, USA. I think I did this last year, cannot remember. I really liked the pieces you have posted about the deserted/deteriorating buildings/homes. I usually read your blog every day, along with PZ Meyers, John Hawks and Gene Expression. I also am a member of several anthropology groups on Yahoo and occasionally forward interesting posts to them.
Posted by: Elena | January 19, 2011 11:12 AM
@Elena
Hi lurking neighbor! I'm from Northwest Indiana.
Posted by: Dayna | January 19, 2011 11:25 AM
I have asked questions here before. I am an information archeologist, we are sometimes called that because we try to find out how we can connect disparate data, in different data systems, into valuable information.
Hill Castles(fornborg) is a subject with a lot of opinions but less of clear knowledge, it seems. Can your clarify this?
I also like list and ask if it is possible to make that of what you see as the ten most valuable archeological findings during the last ten years in Scandinavia?
Posted by: Thomas Ivarsson | January 19, 2011 11:31 AM
Unemployed Biologist in Northern CA--since I don't get to practice much, except for those "home experiments" on my husband and kids (kidding!), I live vicariously through you and others who blog about science.
Posted by: NeCole | January 19, 2011 11:39 AM
Hehe, jag har väl kommenterat någon gång då och då, men är nog mest "lurk", vilket ju blir mycket roligare på svenska *fniss*
Posted by: Monica S/Gealach | January 19, 2011 1:06 PM
I'm a historian and librarian (and ex-archaeologist) in northern New York. I just discovered Aardvarchaeology recently when someone shared your post on post-modernist historiography.
Posted by: Joshua | January 19, 2011 1:33 PM
I'm a Canadian PhD student in soil science working in the Arctic. I would list a number of fields higher on my list of interests than Archaeology, but that's not to say I don't find it very interesting. Mostly I read (and occassionally comment) here for the Swedish culture and Swedish news side of things. I don't have any particular connection to Sweden (besides being infatuated by a woman from Stockholm - Hi Ylva!) but I like seeing a different perspective on things, and reading a blog that doesn't spend 1/2 its time on American politics.
Posted by: TheBrummell | January 19, 2011 1:37 PM
Hi.
Posted by: cicely | January 19, 2011 1:45 PM
'Lo.
This is my second delurk. I look forward to many more.
Posted by: Riman Butterbur | January 19, 2011 2:16 PM
Welcome to Aard everybody! Great to know you're here!
Happy birthday, Dayna!
Thomas, can I clarify what about hillforts? Their function? Easy. It varies from one hillfort to another and from one phase in a fort's use-life to another. Next question! (-;
I like the stuff everybody's doing here. I wonder if some selection effect may be operating, so that Aard's regulars somehow are people with interests similar to my own. Hmm...
Posted by: Martin R | January 19, 2011 2:46 PM
Just a person in Virginia interested in European archaeology, who's taken advantage of business trips to Europe to look at and photograph megalithic sites and rock art in Ireland, France, Denmark, and Sweden. The business travel has dried up lately, though, so any further trips will have to be on my own nickel.
Posted by: Michael Warhol | January 19, 2011 3:35 PM
Electrical engineer, green building professional and subsistence gardener in Bellingham, Washington. I've always been interested in archeology, to the point of taking several college classes. I'm particularly interested in European archeology. I get a chuckle sometimes from "new green building" approaches that were already well known in the Dark Ages.
Posted by: Hamster | January 19, 2011 4:51 PM
I remember delurking quite some time ago, so I'll delurk again.
I'm an archaeologist working on iron-age themes, mostly in Germany but also a bit all over Europe. I'm interested in swedish archaeology because I have family living in Sweden.
Posted by: murmel.jones | January 19, 2011 5:32 PM
De-lurked some time back. Re-delurking now. Been a steady reader in between. Too much fun. Not to mention curious info. Thanks for your persistence. --ml
Posted by: Martin Langeland | January 19, 2011 6:14 PM
Located in Kansas, USA...background in biological anthropology with interests in archeology, Tolkien and geeky games. :)
Posted by: Michelle | January 19, 2011 6:47 PM
Master's student at University of Colorado at Boulder, in classical archaeology. Basically fascinated by all archaeology of any region and era, so why I decided to go into the one where I'd need to learn ancient Greek and Latin is a good question. This is one of many archaeology (and other) blogs that I at least scroll through on my RSS feed.
Posted by: Sol | January 19, 2011 8:31 PM
Hi, former journalist, American expat and long-time lurker. I check Aard almost every day.
I'm a Master's of Islamic Studies student living in Melbourne, Australia.
Posted by: stefan | January 19, 2011 8:56 PM
Long-time reader, first-time de-lurker. Very much a lay-person, worker in many trades but a master of none here in Canada. I lived with Archeology/Anthropology students when I was in university, and have always wanted to live in Scandinavia at some point in my life, so this blog is a perfect intersection of two interests I'm not in a position pursue myself.
Posted by: Melvin Parris | January 19, 2011 9:16 PM
Hello, I am a Canadian filmmaker who works mainly as a writer/producer of television documentary. I'm fascinated by sciences and history, so of course archeology falls into my range of interests.
Posted by: 24fps | January 19, 2011 9:29 PM
I've never been swept up in a de-lurking before. You got me.
It was bound to happen. I visit this and a number of the other blogs daily. And I'll confess, I'm a 'borg, being equipped with an LVAD, the same model Cheyney just got, though I got mine while they were still experimental; happily, I escaped from the lab. Don't tell me resistance is futile.
The business with Cheyney getting one like mine, well, it makes me want to bathe.
Some are born to be 'borgs. Some just get the implants.
Resuming lurk in one,two...
Posted by: JB | January 19, 2011 9:54 PM
Hi, I am archaeologist from Lithuania, currently in the gap year between bachelor and master studies. I really enjoy your blog, keep it up ! ;)
Posted by: Daumiz | January 20, 2011 6:05 AM
Previously frequently commenting fellow Swede (but in Life Science) who has slid into lurking now de-dittoing!
The posts I like best, and would like to see more of, are those which throw new light on or give context to archaeological discoveries. I also like the ones explaining the tools and methodology of archaeology to those of us interested but not skilled in the art. Errmm -- I mean "science", of course, Martin!
Posted by: Thinker | January 20, 2011 7:09 AM
Hi, I'm Italo, faithful reader from Brazil, research agronomist and Brazilian ScienceBlogger.
Posted by: Italo M. R. Guedes | January 20, 2011 10:07 AM
I'm a physical anthropologist and skeptic, as well as an avid people watcher and long-time lurker on the blog. Keep up the interesting posts!
Posted by: Constance | January 20, 2011 3:40 PM
Another year, another de-lurk. I'm another archaeologist (osteologist, even) and have read your blog for quite some time. As in real life, I often listen, but rarely speak.
Posted by: Lena | January 20, 2011 5:44 PM
If I do not comment for 12 months, will I be eligible to "de-lurk" in 2012?
Posted by: CherryBomb | January 21, 2011 1:32 AM
Better de-lurk daily.
Posted by: Martin R | January 21, 2011 1:49 AM
Hi, I am an environmental scientist from South Africa, considering postgraduate studies in Archaeology, which has always interested me. Have been lurking for about a year
Posted by: Leone | January 21, 2011 7:56 AM
Wow, an African reader! Cool! I bet your university is dying for a guest lecturer on the Vikings. (-;
Posted by: Martin R | January 21, 2011 9:03 AM
That was what I would like to hear Martin. Why are these constructions called forts or borg(Swedish) when that seems to define them as defense primarely?
Posted by: Thomas Ivarsson | January 22, 2011 4:52 AM
To my mind, most of them do seem to have served a fortificatory purpose for most of their use-life. We call anything consisting of walls around a hilltop fornborg, "ancient fort", because it's convenient to have a blanket term for them. Looking closer, some of them seem more like "ceremonial precinct enclosures", but that's a minority of the cases.
Posted by: Martin R | January 22, 2011 5:03 AM
Gooday Martin, I am a a peach farmer from "the most remote capital city in the world" who enjoys the cognitive dissonance of lurking around the scientific blogoverse after a hard day in the field. {Perth Western Australia}
Posted by: SunO | January 22, 2011 8:19 AM
Amazing! When archaeology finally ceases to support me at all, can I come over and and be your farmhand?
Posted by: Martin R | January 22, 2011 8:37 AM
Delurking, as requested. Just to mention that I m incredibly jealous of you guys seeing and hearing the Maestro in person.
Posted by: Bruno | January 22, 2011 4:45 PM
I don't know about Maestro, but I'd happily accept a speaking gig in Belgium. I was there in 2009, as a matter of fact.
Posted by: Martin R | January 22, 2011 6:04 PM
Delurking in hopes that I will remember to relurk :) Live in Oklahoma. Usually my mental days revolve around Facebook, menial community college classwork and celebrity gossip sites. Interested in pursuing Anthro degree, but not sure which sub field yet.... probably not archaeology because I have a highly developed spiritual side. Haven't found that it jives well with scientist-types. Recently traveled four hours one way to go to IKEA.
Posted by: Brittany | January 23, 2011 6:47 PM
I think I delurked last time, but I'm not sure.
Well, I'm from Indy. I'm a computer programmer who studied history in university. Someday, I'd like to use my programming skills to help in the fields of history and/or archaeology, but I've not found a good opportunity thus far.
Posted by: jay | January 23, 2011 8:05 PM
Brit, I'm glad you don't find the blog's poorly developed spiritual side off-putting.
Jay, if your job pays reasonably well, maybe you could work four days a week at it and devote the fifth to historical study?
Posted by: Martin R | January 24, 2011 4:56 AM
Hmmm....not sure if I'm a regular or a lurker...
Somewhat over-the-hill failed Canadian biologist/wannabe archaeologist/SCA'dian/oil industry desk jockey....
I started looking at Aardvarchaeology when just about every google search I did seemed to take me there anyway.
Lots of interesting lurkers on here, I'd like to hear from more of them...:)
Posted by: dogteam | January 24, 2011 5:17 PM
Well, I'm a totally regular lurker! I love hearing about European archaeology, since I'm studying and working with archaeology in the American Southwest, where we are bombarded with southwest prehistory, and not much else!
Posted by: erin | January 25, 2011 11:56 AM
I've only read a post here and there. It's nice to see an archaeology blog. :) I'm an archaeology student in the DC area preparing to graduate in May (yay me!) interested in the paleo-indian period of eastern North America.
Posted by: Squigit | January 26, 2011 5:46 PM
Hi! I did an archaeology degree (mostly Ancient Greece and as much medieval as I could manage), and now I sell books in Hay-on-Wye, the town of secondhand books. I'm also a re-enactor doing Medieval Welsh and I occasionally go into schools dressed as a Viking to show 8 year olds how to spin and weave.
Posted by: Lesley | February 22, 2011 3:10 PM
Wow, someone who actually lives in Hay-on-Wye!
I wonder if you can buy a Kindle there. (-;
Posted by: Martin R | February 22, 2011 4:09 PM