Burnt Mound Near the Sea
Category: Archaeology
The fact that the place is still an island means that it was way, way out 2600 years ago.
Posted by Martin R at 4:39 PM • 6 Comments •
Aardvarchaeology
Martin Rundkvist's blog. Archaeology, skepticism, Sweden. And books and music and stuff.
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Dr. Martin Rundkvist is a Swedish archaeologist, journal editor, public speaker, skeptic, atheist, lefty liberal, bookworm, and father of two.
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Fieldwork:
A Touch of Pitted Ware
Category: Archaeology
I found knapped quartz and basalt and granite (!) and a lot of small potsherds, one of which has the Pitted Ware culture's signature pits and comb-stamp decoration.
Posted by Martin R at 2:59 PM • 5 Comments •
Digging at the Finnestorp War Booty Sacrificial Site
Category: Archaeology
Silted-up lakes whose anaerobic peat deposits are full of vandalised military equipment taken from unfortunate invading armies of the Iron Age...
Posted by Martin R at 3:23 PM • 2 Comments •
Sättuna Fieldwork Report On-Line
Category: Archaeology
Check it out if you're into the Late Mesolithic!
Posted by Martin R at 8:22 AM • 4 Comments •
North Shore Battlefield
Category: Archaeology
I'm particularly interested in the pre-battle finds that are starting to accumulate.
Posted by Martin R at 11:37 AM • 2 Comments •
Sättuna Fieldwork Report Nearing Completion
Category: Archaeology
Finds and radiocarbon dates allow us to identify five phases on-site, two of them corresponding to the dates of the metal detector finds that occasioned the excavations.
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 0 Comments •
Sättuna Radiocarbon
Category: Archaeology
The people on this site avoided burying stuff that keeps, not just during one era, but over repeated use phases covering thousands of years. Drat.
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 8 Comments •
Djurhamn 2008 Fieldwork Report On-Line
Category: Archaeology
The results were actually a bit of a let-down after the sword I found in '07.
Posted by Martin R at 3:06 PM • 2 Comments •
Fighter Plane Ammo
Category: Archaeology
Cartridges are large chunks of brass, which would make them obtrusive even if they were just spheres.
Posted by Martin R at 12:40 PM • 16 Comments •
Sättuna Fieldwork Summary
Category: Archaeology
The dig closes eight days earlier than planned.
Posted by Martin R at 3:23 PM • 4 Comments •
Second-Worst Possible Fieldwork Result
Category: Archaeology
Like winning a year's supply of something you have absolutely no use for and cannot sell.
Posted by Martin R at 4:08 PM • 22 Comments •
Stripping a Field
Category: Archaeology
We finished machining away the ploughsoil today, and I reckon we've uncovered about 800 square meters. I have a permit for 1200 sqm, but I stopped here. The landowner doesn't want us to expand in the most interesting direction...
Posted by Martin R at 4:42 PM • 4 Comments •
Sectioning Anonymous Pits Again
Category: Archaeology
We may be dealing with traces of late-pre-Roman activity.
Posted by Martin R at 3:59 PM • 1 Comments •
Digging Starts at Sättuna
Category: Archaeology
Every little bit has fallen into place as planned.
Posted by Martin R at 2:54 PM • 11 Comments •
Queen Christina's Quarter Coin Again
Category: Archaeology
In their day they were the largest issue yet in the history of Sweden.
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 8 Comments •
33 Test Pits
Category: Archaeology
Today we dug and sieved our 33rd and last square-meter test pit at Djurhamn, and I took the gear back to the County Museum's stores. Unless a colleague with better early-modern pottery skillz than mine provides any surprises, it seems...
Posted by Martin R at 12:53 PM • 2 Comments •
Test Pitting at Djurhamn
Category: Archaeology
I wish one of those pits would strike a 16th century midden!
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 5 Comments •
More Djurhamn Tree House Ruins
Category: Archaeology
One tree house had an interesting piece of furniture: a gynaecologist's examination chair!?
Posted by Martin R at 3:32 PM • 2 Comments •
Continued Surveying at Djurhamn
Category: Archaeology
Working in the woods was weird because of the outlandish sounds from a colony of grey herons.
Posted by Martin R at 4:00 PM • 5 Comments •
Early Neolithic Golf Course
Category: Archaeology
Larsson borrowed a horse trailer from a relative and crammed the entire Skateholm fieldwork equipment into it.
Posted by Martin R at 5:14 PM • 6 Comments •
Mesolithic Seal Hunters On a Hilltop Near You
Category: Archaeology
Amazing to find all this insanely old material in a tract of completely nondescript woodland.
Posted by Martin R at 4:12 PM • 10 Comments •
Sacred Field of the Shining One
Category: Archaeology
Ullr is one of the old gods that were semi-forgotten in Snorri's day.
Posted by Martin R at 4:59 PM • 7 Comments •
Bits and Bobs
Category: Archaeology
Yesterday I did 5.5 more man-hours of metal detecting at the "Hall of Odin" site in Västmanland with Per Vikstrand. No prehistoric finds: just a piece of a 15/16/17th century brass cooking pot. Bob Lind's craziness is once more repeated...
Posted by Martin R at 4:12 AM • 18 Comments •
Sunny Fieldwork in Uppland
Category: Archaeology
The St. Olaf site was perfect for metal detecting today, recently harrowed and almost completely without vegetation.
Posted by Martin R at 5:31 PM • 0 Comments •
Investigating the Field of Saint Olaf
Category: Archaeology
The step from a hammer-wielding pagan god to an axe-holding Viking saint may not have been very great.
Posted by Martin R at 4:07 PM • 3 Comments •
Fieldwork in Kimstad and Kaga
Category: Archaeology
Frag of a brooch decorated with embossed silver foil. 5th century. Photograph Tobias Bondesson. Our site in Kimstad parish looked even better than I'd thought. This was one of many cases where I've come swooping in to sites that...
Posted by Friendly Scibling at 6:05 PM • 2 Comments •
Fieldwork in Tingstad and Östra Husby
Category: Archaeology
Frag of a lion-shaped badge with a rivet used to fix it to some surface. Photograph Tobias Bondesson. Another day of fruitful fieldwork, with friendly landowners and pretty good weather. We started out with 20 man-hours in the fields...
Posted by Friendly Scibling at 6:40 PM • 7 Comments •
Fieldwork in Hov and Vretakloster
Category: Archaeology
Polyhedrical weight. 9/10th century. Photograph Tobias Bondesson. (Martin here, posting from the hostel of Norsholm on the Göta canal, using my handheld and the cell phone network. To get the post on-line, my dear scibling Janet has kindly agreed...
Posted by Friendly Scibling at 8:17 PM • 8 Comments •
Djurhamn Fieldwork Mopup
Category: Archaeology
Rune Ehrsson brought a fine piece of Late Medieval or Early Modern pottery to show us.
Posted by Martin R at 5:21 PM • 10 Comments •
Djurhamn Sword Excavated
Category: Archaeology
I've spent the day getting the Djurhamn sword out of the ground.
Posted by Martin R at 1:54 PM • 41 Comments •
Six New Finds from Kaga
Category: Archaeology
We seem to be dealing with a magnate's farm established about AD 500.
Posted by Martin R at 5:05 AM • 6 Comments •
Magnetometry in Kaga
Category: Archaeology
The lower sensors pick up the planet's magnetic field plus any subsoil anomalies, while the upper sensors only get the planet's field.
Posted by Martin R at 4:16 PM • 10 Comments •
Harbour of the Sheaf Kings
Category: Archaeology
Djurhamn was its era's equivalent of a major airport.
Posted by Martin R at 4:52 PM • 12 Comments •
A Forest Fire on the Outermost Isles
Category: Archaeology
Ancient lithics scatters were everywhere, peeping out of the scorched earth.
Posted by Martin R at 8:50 AM • 11 Comments •
Saxophone Detector
Category: Archaeology
The others said I sounded like an irate wasp.
Posted by Martin R at 10:05 AM • 8 Comments •
Battle of Baggensstäket
Category: Archaeology
Different armies use different equipment, and in this case this shows even in the musket balls.
Posted by Martin R at 2:54 PM • 4 Comments •
Hoary Oaks on Heathen Barrow
Category: Archaeology
I write this sitting on a rock outcrop just east of the great barrow of Disevid in Heda parish.
Posted by Martin R at 9:08 AM • 1 Comments •
900 Years Ain't Old Enough
Category: Archaeology
The finds may mark the spot of a 12th century farmstead.
Posted by Martin R at 9:07 AM • 4 Comments •
Media Frenzy
Category: Archaeology
Two TV stations and one newspaper hunted us down to look at the find.
Posted by Martin R at 9:06 AM • 4 Comments •
Seven Brooches in Kaga
Category: Archaeology
Our Kaga site was very good to us today as well.
Posted by Martin R at 9:05 AM • 4 Comments •
Kaga Gold Foil Figure Model
Category: Archaeology
This is simply a mindblowing find, an instant classic.
Posted by Martin R at 2:27 AM • 20 Comments •
