Ravlunda Cemetery Rebuttal

Posted by Martin R on September 5, 2011
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In 2009, geologist Nils Axel Mörner and Bob G. Lind (and a distinguished third author who was not consulted about having his name on the publication) had a paper published in Geografiska Annaler about the Ravlunda 169 cemetery. This was an outcome of the pair’s unauthorised digging at the site in 2007. The paper is a mess and shouldn’t have been accepted. Tellingly, the topic is archaeology and quaternary geology, while none of the authors is an archaeologist and the journal is about geography.

Now Alun Salt and I have replied to Mörner & Lind’s paper, also in Geografiska Annaler. At the publishers’ request I have agreed not to put the paper on-line, but anyone who wants to read it, just e-mail me.

Salt, A. and Rundkvist, M., 2011. Letter to the editor: Sunset on Heimdall’s stones. A view from archaeology and archaeoastronomy of the Ravlunda 169 Iron Age cemetery. Geografiska Annaler: Series A, Physical Geography, 93, 193-196. DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0459.2011.00428.x

In other news, my Mead-halls book has arrived from the printers!!! Photo evidence tomorrow, complimentary copies will be mailed shortly, and I’ll put the on-line ordering link on the blog as soon as I get it.

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  1. #1 birg
    September 5, 2011

    Congrats for the book!

    BTW, regarding nominative determinism, “Salt” is a good name for anyone writing a rebuttal (as in Swedish phrase for skepticism “ta det med en nypa salt”).

    Rundkvist? Possibly, if the rebuttal manifests in physical action. Thud!*

    (*also, the title of a rather good novel by Pratchett)

  2. #2 Martin R
    September 5, 2011

    Thank you! Though I believe there wouldn’t be much of a thud if you poked at a person with a round twig.

  3. #3 Carl Feagans
    September 5, 2011

    I just downloaded both papers from Wiley and look forward to reading them.

  4. #4 Jonathan Jarrett
    September 5, 2011

    Oh, congratulations on the book! I have just this minute or few sent off the proposal for the edited volume I mentioned so I am jubilant enough for several people just now, this was a good time to read your news!

  5. #5 Martin R
    September 5, 2011

    Cool Carl!

    Thanks Jon! And congrats!

  6. #6 Birger Johansson
    September 5, 2011

    “there wouldn’t be much of a thud if you poked at a person with a round twig”

    You could sharpen the point and use an atlatl, but it would be a bit harsh. Even if they have messed up an archaeological site.

    — — — — — —
    (OT) Rebutting attitudes about disabled people:

    “Handicapped Swede sets Alcatraz swim record” http://www.thelocal.se/35960/20110905/
    Viking DNA involved? Naah.

    — — — — —
    “Unique Roman gladiator ruins unveiled in Austria” http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-09-unique-roman-gladiator-unveiled-austria.html The Romans were assholes.

  7. #7 Elena
    September 6, 2011

    Congratulations on the book!

    I have not read either paper, but if the people doing the dig did not have permission to dig in the cemetery, I do not want a round stick, I want either the sharpened one or one with a big stone attached to the end.

    If you would be so kind as to email me the papers, I would appreciate it.

    When I find someone has messed up (desecrated) a cemetery, I get a bit heated. I have been poking around with my family tree for the last few days or so and I have people from less than a hundred years ago I cannot find markers for. I know they were put in place.

    This does not even include the thought of what someone who is not an archaeologist or anthropologist is doing messing around with (disturbing) mortal remains.

    Oh, and by the way, I have discovered I have a Swedish line in my tree. One of my great(many great)-grandmothers was from the New Sweden Colony established in what is now the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA area.