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Aardvarchaeology

Martin Rundkvist's blog. Archaeology, skepticism, Sweden. And books and music and stuff.

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Runological Report on the Hogganvik Rune Stone

Category: Archaeology

Runologist James E. Knirk has published a report on the recently found Hogganvik rune stone. His transliteration is[?]kelbaþewas:s(t)^ainaR:aaasrpkf aarpaa:inanana(l/b/w)oR eknaudigastiR ekerafaRHis translation isSkelba-þewaR's ["Shaking-servant's"] stone. (Alphabet magic: aaasrpkf aarpaa). ?Within/From within the ?wheel-nave/?cabin-corner. I NaudigastiR [="Need-guest"]. I, the Wolverine.So...

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5th Century Rune Stone Found

Category: Archaeology

Inscriptions in the early 24-character futhark are rare. And when you find them, their messages are usually not straight-forward.

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Copulation Music

Category: Music

Some of the most intensely loved musical styles have names that mean "copulation music".

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Marsh Meringue

Category: Language

Here are two pieces of convoluted Scandy and English etymology that converge in my head.

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Current Archaeology 232

Category: Archaeology

Current Archaeology's July issue offers a lot of good reading, of which I particularly like the stories on human origins (see below) and garden archaeology at Kenilworth Castle.

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Makin' A Lastin' Impression

Category: Humour

A lesson in Swedish from the mall at Sickla. Last = noun from the verb lasta, "to load". In = in Fart = noun from the verb fara, "to travel", cf. "wayfarer" and "fare thee well". Load-in-travel. Delivery entrance....

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Ancient Power Nodes

Category: Archaeology

Anglophones find it really funny that one of Sweden's oldest towns is named Sick Tuna.

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Ola Wikander and Fictional Beings

Category: Language

Essentially, they're the same guy: a storm god called "the Lord".

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Never Say Please To Mother

Category: Language

In Chinese, polite figures of speech mark a distance.

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Gratuitous "Of" In US English

Category: Language

Hear ye, Americans! When you put that gratuitous "of" there, you sound like demented hillbillies!

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Gnome Poop Insane

Category: Humour

Conversing with a friend recently, I mused, what could be the background to the expression "batshit insane"? My friend suggested that it might have something to do with having bats in the belfry. I then wondered what the Swedish equivalent...

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Commanding English

Category: Humour

So you're the principal of an English-language high school in Stockholm, Sweden. And you decide to put some serious money into an advertising campaign in the city's subway. Now, you want to express what we in Sweden call att...

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Names of the Close Horizon

Category: Language

Two farmsteads in a parish can't have the same name, because that would lead to confusion.

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Dong, Bong & Gong

Category: Humour

I take a childish pleasure from the fact that Shanghai International Airport is named Poo Dong -- snigger, snigger. Now, reading about tea, I find my scatological spot tickled further by the Poobong Tea Company in Calcutta. Poo bong. Stick...

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"Sapiens" Is Not A Plural

Category: Biology

It is an adjective ending in an S, just like erectus, afarensis and neanderthalensis.

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Swedish Pitfalls

Category: Language

Swedish has many subtleties to keep furriners from learning the language of glory and heroes.

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Georgia and Georgia and the Georgics

Category: Language

Noreen Malone at Slate explains why Georgia and Georgia are both named Georgia. Basically it's:George means "ploughman" in ancient Greek Saint George dies in AD 303 Part of Central Asia (Georgia) becomes associated with the saint for unknown reasons Crusaders...

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Snow White Engrish

Category: Humour

Looking closer at this cover of a Chinese pirate edition of Disney's 1937 animated feature Snow White, we find a couple of fine Engrish phrases. "Latinum Edition" is pretty good. But wouldn't you agree that "Still the Fairest of...

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The Secrets Behind Names

Category: History

The names that dot the landscape once meant something about those places.

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Sing Gibberish to the Lord

Category: Humour

I've posted a fine example of Ansiktsburk song lyrics before: listen to a song in a language you don't understand, and try to imagine that it is actually sung in your own language though with a funny accent. Then...

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My Kid's an Anglophone Spaceman

Category: Children

"People will breathe using space suits, and at home they will have air inside their houses."

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Daycare Sociolects

Category: Language

A dialect is split into sociolects, that have to do with social class.

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Tech Note: Diacritic Characters

Category: Blogging

I've twiddled some knobs behind the scenes.

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Danish Rubber Goat

Category: Archaeology

I'm a big fan of Danish archaeology. In my opinion it is the best in Scandinavia, both regarding the sites they have and what they write about them. This love of Danish archaeology has been a strong incentive for...

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Genes and Peoples

Category: Archaeology

I disagree with Razib's interpretation of some interesting genetic studies over at Gene Expression.

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English-Speaking World Catches On To Ansiktsburk Lyrical Method

Category: Humour

Scandy readers will be very familiar with this. As we learned from "Hatten Är Din", "Ansiktsburk", "Fiskpinnar" and other Turk Hits back in 2000, you can get wonderfully absurd results if you listen to a song in a foreign language...

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The Star of Al-Qaeda

Category: Language

Does Al-Qaeda have its own star in the sky?

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Mistranslations of the Third Kind

Category: Humour

It says here that the hero is wearing a piece of cod!

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Picking Nits in English

Category: Language

Don't even get me started on how bad native English speakers are at faking King James Bible grammar.

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Carl Michael Bellman's Butterfly

Category: Books

At Haga, the butterfly can be seen making its green home...

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With the Varnishing Ahead, I'm at My Shavings a Lot

Category: Language

Almost all Swedish words for civilised matters have recently been borrowed from Continental languages.

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Helico-ptera

Category: Language

What you need to do is look at words like Pteranodon, Diptera and "helix".

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Strawberry Parking Lot

Category: Language

The naming of Swedish places has long been regulated by the authorities.

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Speaking of Meat in Post-Conquest Britain

Category: History

The elite talked about meat in French at the dinner table.

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Ubuntu Slip of the Tongue

Category: Language

It's actually quite heartwarmingly naïve in its complete lack of political correctness.

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Ophistokont

Category: Biology

Something that forms the basic element of a snake-like thing, maybe?

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