Sweden
Category archives for Sweden
Fresh New Site, 5000 Years Old
Posted by Martin R on September 2, 2009 People in the Lake Mälaren area were on to Neolithisation immediately, with agriculture and stock breeding and pottery and sedentary life, when the package became available around 4000 cal BC. But then they said “oh, screw it” and spent most of the the Middle Neolithic as seal hunters and fishers again. My Stone Age bros…
Phobos-bound Tardigrades Portrayed
Posted by Martin R on August 30, 2009 Stacy L. Mason is an Aard regular and a talented artist. Check out his awesome interpretation of the Swedish tardigrades that are going to Phobos! In other news, I have issues with the lyrics of the Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas podcast‘s theme song, a fine ska tune by 7 Seconds of Love. I’m gonna flip out…
First Interplanetary Travellers Will Be Little Swedes
Posted by Martin R on August 29, 2009 Phobos-Grunt (“soil”) is a planned Russian sample return mission to the Martian moon Phobos. It may launch in less than two months. On board will among other things be the L.I.F.E. experiment, a small canister full of hardy micro organisms, designed by the US Planetary Society. If all goes well, those microdaddies will go to…
Ladies of the Barrow
Posted by Martin R on August 27, 2009 I’m writing this on the train home from Lidköping on Lake Vänern in Västergötland province. I’ve spent a pleasant day discussing an interesting fieldwork project with colleagues. Gothenburg PhD student dynamic duo Anneli Nitenberg and Anna Nyqvist Thorsson have been working for years on the island of Kållandsö, famous mainly for Läckö Castle, and now…
Stjernsund Manor
Posted by Martin R on August 24, 2009 [More blog entries about Sweden, photography, manor; Närke, Askersund, foto, herrgård.] My part-time employers, the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, sometimes receive rather hefty donations. This is how they came to own Stjernsund manor near Askersund in the province of Närke / Nericia. (Don’t confuse it with Christopher Polhem’s early industrial centre Stjärnsund in Dalecarlia.)…
Breaking and Making Bodies and Pots
Posted by Martin R on August 18, 2009 My dear friend and fellow archaeo-blogger Åsa M. Larsson of Ting & Tankar has sent her PhD thesis off to the printers! This she has done with her supervisor’s blessing, which in Sweden means that she is for all practical purposes a PhD now. The viva is just a ritual and your committee can’t influence…
Tern Island
Posted by Martin R on August 8, 2009 [More blog entries about sweden, nature, photography; skärgård, foto, stockholm, natur.] Tärnskär (“Tern Island”) is a low seal-like grey cliff on the outer margin of the Stockholm archipelago. My buddy Dendro-Åke only goes there when an eastern wind is blowing, because if your engine dies and there’s any other wind, you end up on the…
Swedish History Reenactors in Canada
Posted by Martin R on August 4, 2009 From Aard regular Christina Reid (she started commenting less than a week after the blog opened, bless her heart!), a few pictures from Mid-summer Eve at the Scandinavian Cultural Centre in Burnaby, British Columbia. Tina and her hubby are active in the Reik Félag reenactment group. And her brother is the singer of Viking/Tolkienian metallers…
Medieval Stockholm
Posted by Martin R on August 2, 2009 I just finished reading Nils Ahnlund’s 1953 history of Stockholm up to 1523, which marks the end of the Middle Ages in Swedish historiography. Its 538 pages of text offers less concrete detail than an archaeologist might wish for, and I soon lost track of everybody named Anders Jönsson and Jöns Andersson, but it was…
I’ve Made News in Västergötland
Posted by Martin R on July 29, 2009 My recent talk in Trävattna parish hall, Västergötland, was covered by two regional papers. Rune Torstenson has kindly scanned the items for me. The headlines read “Power once originated in the mead-hall” and “Searching for ancient power-wielders”. To read the articles, click on the images.
