Talking About Heyerdahl On Norwegian Radio
Category: Archaeology
Here I go again, bad-mouthing Thor Heyerdahl to his countrymen.
Posted by Martin R at 4:59 AM • 4 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, chairman of the Swedish Skeptics Society, atheist, lefty liberal, bookworm, and father of two.
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- Bengt Gabrielsson on Digging at the Finnestorp War Booty Sacrificial Site
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- Martin R on 17th Century Pastoral Novel
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- Martin R on 17th Century Pastoral Novel
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Blogroll
Norway:
Kon Tiki Airport Restaurant
Category: Archaeology
Last time I passed through Oslo airport I discovered this Kon Tiki-themed restaurant with a faux Ecuadorian stele.
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 7 Comments •
Tricking the Devil In 17th Century Norway
Category: Norway
The vicar Søren Sode had the Black Book, and with its aid he could both bind and unbind the Devil.
Posted by Martin R at 1:59 PM • 7 Comments •
Sheep In Cabbage
Category: Food
I am making fårikål, a dish whose name has a kind of brutal literality, meaning "sheep in cabbage". It doesn't ring quite so harshly in Swedish, as we have no separate word for mutton, using the same word for...
Posted by Martin R at 10:51 AM • 19 Comments •
Speaking Schedule Oct/Nov
Category: Archaeology
Wednesday 5 Oct. 17:00. About Fisksätra before the 1970s housing development. Fisksätra shopping centre, HAMN project office. Thursday 13 Oct. 10:00. About Bronze Age sacrificial sites. Uppsala, Engelska parken, Thunbergsvägen 3, Dept of Archaeology. Monday 17 Oct. 18:30. About pseudoarchaeology....
Posted by Martin R at 6:03 AM • 0 Comments •
Norway's McVeigh Murders
Category: Norway
The killer targeted the Norwegian Labour party and is an Islamophobic opponent of a multi-cultural society. I am a Labour voter and a member of a multi-cultural family.
Posted by Martin R at 9:14 AM • 79 Comments •
Recent Archaeomags
Category: Archaeology
Roman sites in the UK and 19th century sites with imported Classical sculpture have local living micropopulations of Mediterranean land snails!
Posted by Martin R at 3:50 PM • 5 Comments •
Thor Heyerdahl and Hyperdiffusionism
Category: Archaeology
Thor Heyerdahl could not accept the idea of independent inventions, of convergent cultural evolution. His thinking wasn't just diffusionistic on the small-to-middle scale. Every one of his boat trips was designed to show that hyperdiffusionism was possible.
Posted by Martin R at 10:41 AM • 43 Comments •
Two Queenly Careers
Category: History
One thing that really gets me about these people is how briefly they lived, how little education they had and how young they were when they did the deeds that wrote them into history.
Posted by Martin R at 1:46 PM • 18 Comments •
Hogganvik Runestone Re-erected
Category: Archaeology
Now the runestone stands again, the site has been cleaned up, and the public is free to come see the most important early runic document to surface in many decades.
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 4 Comments •
Skeptics' Conference, Oslo, Norway, 29-31 October
Category: Norway
There's not much detail available yet about the event, but I for one have written an Oslo trip onto my schedule for the last weekend in October. See you there!WWW: www.kritiskmasse.no Facebook: www.facebook.com/kritiskmasse Twitter: twitter.com/kritiskmasse[More blog entries about skepticism, Norway;...
Posted by Martin R at 4:02 PM • 0 Comments •
Antiquity's Spring Issue
Category: Archaeology
Spring has reputedly reached certain areas way south of where I still shovel snow daily, and with it comes Antiquity's spring issue.
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 2 Comments •
Beautiful Vendel Period Jewellery
Category: Archaeology
I have mixed feelings about this paper now. From a scientific point of view, I'm very proud of it. But from a career-strategical point of view, however, I have to say that it was a failure.
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 25 Comments •
New Dendro Dates and Provenances for Norwegian Ship Burials
Category: Archaeology
Exciting news about two less-well-known ship burials from the Avaldsnes area in Rogaland on Norway's west coast: dendrochronology shows that they are the earliest dendro-dated ship burials in Norway.
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 3 Comments •
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...
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 11 Comments •
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.
Posted by Martin R at 9:56 AM • 11 Comments •
Norwegian Ghost Mine
Category: Archaeology
It's a copper mine that was worked from 1723 until shortly after 1945. This is one of the coldest parts of Norway, which means that the wooden structures don't decay much through microbial action -- they mainly just erode.
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 3 Comments •
Kuhnian Huns
Category: Archaeology
A veteran scholar appeals to Thomas Kuhn's old theory of paradigm shifts in order to evade criticism of her work.
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 23 Comments •
Norwegians Grade Archaeology Journals
Category: Archaeology
While ERIH recognises three impact grades, the NDS has only two grades.
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 6 Comments •
European Science Foundation Grades Journals
Category: Archaeology
Grade A means global readership. Grade B means international readership. Grade C means national readership.
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 10 Comments •
Genius on the Edge
Category: Music
Yes he is extremely lewd, yes he is psychedelic, yes he has a plastic synth sound...
Posted by Martin R at 8:33 AM • 3 Comments •
Mad as a Potter from Lead Stalactites
Category: Archaeology
"Inside the tinned food we found so much lead, that it hung like icicles inside the cans".
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 8 Comments •
Jenny-Rita Næss Honoured On-Line
Category: Archaeology
Around the time when a senior academic retires, she will, if she's lucky, receive a Festschrift. The word is German and means "celebration publication": typically, it's an anthology put together by her colleagues and students. The contents of a...
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 0 Comments •
Geophysics Locate Royal Halls at Borre
Category: Archaeology
Even the stones in the bottoms of the post holes are visible!
Posted by Martin R at 2:36 PM • 2 Comments •
Book Review: Kroik, Hellre Mista sitt Huvud
Category: History
This book is at heart an ethno-political tract.
Posted by Martin R at 1:21 PM • 36 Comments •
A Century of Fornvännen Free On-Line
Category: Archaeology
The first 100 volumes of Fornvännen are now available freely on the web!
Posted by Martin R at 3:38 AM • 2 Comments •
Medieval Soapstone Quarry
Category: Archaeology
An entire hillside is covered by curious circular scars where people have obviously extracted stone.
Posted by Martin R at 4:53 PM • 7 Comments •
Oseberg Skeletons Exhumed
Category: Archaeology
Ideas diverge about who was who.
Posted by Martin R at 8:50 AM • 9 Comments •
Professor Steve Steve Studies Norwegian Archaeology
Category: Archaeology
The professor is studying a Roman/Migration Period large-scale iron production site.
Posted by Martin R at 2:34 PM • 2 Comments •
Grim Lords of Black Metal
Category: Humour
Satan laughing spreads his wings, as TV comedian Ozzy Osborne used to sing.
Posted by Martin R at 8:50 AM • 10 Comments •
Going to Trondheim
Category: Archaeology
The Sachsensymposium is the main conference for archaeologists working with post-Roman, pre-Viking Northern Europe.
Posted by Martin R at 12:49 PM • 11 Comments •
Beachcombing the Shores of Time
Category: Archaeology
Over at my buddy Frans-Arne's blog Arkeologi i Nord I found a great quotation from Norwegian archaeologist and anti-Nazi politician Anton Wilhelm Brøgger (1884-1951):"Det vi vet er så uendelig lite mot det som er hendt. Arkeologen er som den som...
Posted by Martin R at 11:23 AM • 3 Comments •
Brief Mountain Summer
Category: Biology
Everything hurries to bloom and procreate before the cold and snow returns.
Posted by Martin R at 8:50 AM • 7 Comments •
No, That Norwegian Guy Was Not an Inca Indian
Category: Archaeology
The find demonstrates the existence of this skeletal trait among 11th century Norwegians as well.
Posted by Martin R at 1:39 AM • 14 Comments •
Norwegians Dig Rock Art
Category: Archaeology
People before have quit digging when they reached the edge of the carved panel.
Posted by Martin R at 8:50 AM • 0 Comments •
Karl Hauck 1916-2007
Category: Archaeology
An old sorcerer has passed away.
Posted by Martin R at 8:50 AM • 0 Comments •
You Can't Grok Its Multiplicity
Category: Archaeology
Even heavily codified religions, such as Judaism or Christianity, aren't coherent.
Posted by Martin R at 9:05 AM • 18 Comments •
Book Review: Cambridge History of Scandinavia
Category: Archaeology
There is very little archaeology here.
Posted by Martin R at 9:05 AM • 18 Comments •
Queer Theory of Ancient Gods
Category: Archaeology
"What needs to be considered is the agency of the objects ..."
Posted by Martin R at 9:05 AM • 1 Comments •
Scandinavian Attitudes to Nudity
Category: Sweden
Scandinavians are unusually cool about nudity in certain well-defined situations.
Posted by Martin R at 9:05 AM • 27 Comments •
Journal of the North Atlantic Announced
Category: Archaeology
A new peer-reviewed intercontinental archaeology journal has just been announced.
Posted by Martin R at 2:26 PM • 0 Comments •
Oscarian Archaeology Journal On-Line
Category: Archaeology
An item of particular interest to Scandinavian archaeologists and historians at Project Runeberg is an almost complete run of Antiqvarisk Tidskrift.
Posted by Martin R at 8:04 AM • 0 Comments •
Classic Norwegian Finds Pics On-line
Category: Archaeology
One of the founding fathers of Norwegian archaeology and place-name scholarship was Oluf Rygh (1833-1899). In 1875, he became Scandinavia's first professor of archaeology. One of the most enduring parts of his legacy is his 1885 book Norske Oldsager,...
Posted by Martin R at 1:33 PM • 7 Comments •
No Career Available in Scandinavian Archaeology
Category: Archaeology
A recurring theme in my blogging of the past year (e.g. here: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4) has been that a degree in Scandinavian archaeology (BA, MA or PhD) is almost entirely useless from a career perspective. The...
Posted by Martin R at 7:31 AM • 9 Comments •
Two New Norwegian Boat Graves
Category: Archaeology
Ship burials are rare and signal royal status: Sutton Hoo, Oseberg, Gokstad, Borre, Tune. Burials in smaller boats, large enough for only three or four pairs of oars and useless on the high sea, are far more common (though...
Posted by Martin R at 2:35 PM • 2 Comments •
