Sweden
Category archives for Sweden
Deservedly Forgotten Swedish Drink
Posted by Martin R on March 7, 2013 
Sweden used to have its own version of Irish Coffee: kaffekask. It was big in the 19th century and I believe it dropped from favour during our 1917-55 period of liquor rationing. Nobody seems to drink kaffekask anymore. A kask is a type of helmet like the ones worn by English bobbies. But that’s apparently…
Saltsjöbaden Train / House Crash
Posted by Martin R on January 16, 2013 
Damn, I must have ridden those very train carriages thousands of times! The crash happened just four stops up the commuter train line from where I live. My wife and I went there this morning with our camera. Details here. . Update 21 January: On the basis of first reports and information from a former…
Ridiculous School Funding Drives
Posted by Martin R on December 12, 2012 A perennial annoyance for me as a parent is the many odd ways in which schools force parents to organise the funding for trips and stays at camp collectively. The general idea is sound: it would not be fair to make the parents pay up front, because then the poorer families might not be able…
Swedish Landscape Surprises
Posted by Martin R on September 4, 2012 Taking a hint from George Hrab’s stage show, I asked my landscape history students to write me a question each anonymously on a small note. Or rather, I asked them to ”Tell me something that surprises you about the Swedish landscape you’ve seen so far”. This turned out to be a good teaching tool. I…
Tern Island Again
Posted by Martin R on July 28, 2012 
Last week my dad and his wife took us to Tärnskär, “Tern Island” again like three years ago. This time we looked closer at the lovely glacial abrasion features on the island’s higher end.
Proposed New Swedish Metal Detecting Law Misses Mark
Posted by Martin R on June 7, 2012 As I’ve written before in a number of venues (e.g. Fornvännen and Antiquity), the current Swedish metal detector legislation needs to be changed. It is too restrictive in relation to honest amateur detectorists. It is keeping them from a) making valuable contributions to archaeological research, b) saving finds for scholarship that are slowly turning to…
New Legal Definition of Protected Archaeological Sites in Sweden
Posted by Martin R on June 5, 2012 In March of 2011, the Swedish government launched a state commission under County Governor Eva Eriksson to evaluate our legislation and national goals regarding the cultural environment. Yesterday the commission delivered its report, in which a number of interesting suggestions are made for changes to the body of law that governs Swedish archaeology. The current…
Church of Sweden Church Sold As Housing
Posted by Martin R on April 28, 2012 In England and other countries, churches have long been deconsecrated and used as shops and for housing. In Sweden, this has previously only happened to nonconformist chapels – quite frequently, actually. But now, the first Church of Sweden church with a churchyard has been sold. Ãrja church near Landskrona in Scania is a neo-Gothic yellow…
Two Museums in Minneapolis
Posted by Martin R on April 8, 2011 Touching down at Minneapolis airport shortly before 19:00 last night, my wife and I were met by the charming Heather Flowers and Erin Emmerich from the Anthro Dept. They got us installed at our hotel and joined us for dinner at the food court of the monstrous Mall of America. (There’s a theme park inside…
Wikileaks’ Non-Mountainous Non-Bunker
Posted by Martin R on January 19, 2011 The current issue of Vanity Fair (#606, February 2011) has an interesting piece on the collaboration between Wikileaks, the Guardian and other old media. On page 110 we’re told that Wikileaks is “partly hosted on a server in Sweden that is lodged in a former nuclear bunker drilled deep inside the White Mountains”. This confused…
