Sweden
Category archives for Sweden
Medieval Genius Sculptor Vaporised
Posted by Martin R on December 3, 2009 Names are one of the things that separate historical and archaeological thinking from each other. History is full of people of whom little is known beyond their names and perhaps a royal or ecclesiastical title, yet still they are considered to be historical personages. Meanwhile, a dead person found in a nameless prehistoric grave can…
Gay Men Allowed to Donate Blood (in Theory)
Posted by Martin R on December 1, 2009 AIDS was discovered in gay men and the virus is more easily transmitted through anal than vaginal intercourse. For this reason, gay men (defined as “men who have sex with men”) have long been forbidden to donate blood in Sweden. Likewise, people who go to bed with a new hetero partner must wait three months…
New Book on the Early History of the Stockholm Archipelago
Posted by Martin R on November 9, 2009 In addition to the archive reports on my two seasons of fieldwork at the Late Medieval and Early Modern harbour of Djurhamn, I have now published a paper that discusses and interprets the results. It’s in a symposium volume from the Royal Academy of Letters, edited by my friend Katarina Schoerner and bearing the name…
Archaeological Namesakes
Posted by Martin R on November 6, 2009 I’ve been publishing stuff in Fornvännen since 1994. But making a vanity search in the journal’s on-line version, I found that I am not the first Rund??ist in Fornvännen’s history. My family name was mentioned once in those pages before I showed up. In 1935, Bengt Hildebrand published a bibliographical essay in Fornvännen titled (and…
Swedish Research Council Releases Funding Lists
Posted by Martin R on October 19, 2009 The Swedish Research Council just released the list of researchers who are getting funding this year. The following archaeological projects are on the list. Ingela Bergman: Trade, trade routes and Sami settlements — socio-economic networks in northern Sweden AD 1000-1500. Gunilla Eriksson: Individual relationships — cultural diversity and interaction in Neolithic Poland. Henrik Gerding: Lateres…
Anti-Monarchist
Posted by Martin R on October 13, 2009 Last night somebody googled the phrase “martin rundqvist republikan” and ended up here on my blog. Note the K: this person probably didn’t wonder if I’d vote for Sarah Palin. They wondered what I think about the Swedish constitution, which provides the country with a decorative king. Outside the US, “republican” means “anti-monarchist”. And yes,…
Marzipan Gold Hoard
Posted by Martin R on September 28, 2009 In 1995 a gold hoard was found at Vittene in Norra Björke parish, Västergötland. Its contents had been amassed over two centuries, and it was committed to the earth in the 3rd century AD. A fine book on the find and subsequent settlement excavations has recently been published and is available in full on-line. Below…
5th Century Regional Brooch Design
Posted by Martin R on September 15, 2009 Here’s a piece of fragmentology. In the 19th century a brooch (inset) was found at Vistena in Allhelgona parish, Östergötland. It’s a copper-alloy piece decorated with embossed silver sheet panels in the Nydam style, approx. AD 375-450. In 2008 a member of my metal detector team found part of a similar brooch at Sättuna in…
Velvet Bolete Orgy
Posted by Martin R on September 13, 2009 My wife and I made a short mushrooming excursion to Lake Lundsjön after lunch. Little more than half an hour in the woods garnered us only four species, but huge amounts of one: velvet bolete. We went home early simply because we didn’t need more mushrooms. I’m stewing them with cream. Never had shingled hedgehog…
Archaeological Fatherhood
Posted by Martin R on September 8, 2009 Back in April of 2008 I mused that strictly chronologically speaking, at 36 I was already a mid-career academic since I started working at 20 and retirement age is currently 65. I’m still years from the age when people get academic jobs in my discipline, 41, but anyway. Yesterday I had two experiences that opened…
