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Martin Rundkvist's blog. Archaeology, skepticism, Sweden. And books and music and stuff.
Dr. Martin Rundkvist is a Swedish archaeologist, journal editor, public speaker, skeptic, atheist, lefty liberal, bookworm, and father of two.
Category: Archaeology
I'm at the 11th Nordic Bronze Age symposium, which for the first time includes a bunch of Baltic colleagues as wall. Everybody's very friendly and the atmosphere is informal.
Posted by Martin R at 4:31 PM • 7 Comments •
Category: Travel
Next week, 29-31 October, I'll be in Helsinki for the Nordic Bronze Age symposium. The organisers have been kind enough to ask me to chair one of the sessions, but I'd love to meet up with some Aard readers too....
Posted by Martin R at 12:08 PM • 8 Comments •
Category: Children
We spent Friday afternoon and evening walking in the sunshine, eating like kings, listening to some pretty far-out and eclectic music and playing the Swedish 70s board game Marinattack.
Posted by Martin R at 10:12 AM • 5 Comments •
Category: Skepticism
The Amazing Meeting London 1 was a top-quality event. The only way it could have been even better is if they'd included a few more interactive bits, workshops & stuff.
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 6 Comments •
Category: Skepticism
I'm at The Amazing Meeting London, an Old World instance of the skeptical conferences organised by the James Randi Educational Foundation. (Or more correctly, I am waiting for breakfast at my threadbare Bayswater hotel, where I sleep in a...
Posted by Martin R at 3:00 AM • 4 Comments •
Category: Travel
I've been called in to help my friend Arne, retired art historian, whack a manuscript into shape. So the other day I drove down to the manor on Vikbolandet and spent 24 enjoyable hours there, writing and chatting and...
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 0 Comments •
Category: Travel
I type this in the hotel lobby while waiting for the train just across the street that will take me to Brussels. The conference closed at 13, I had sandwiches with my colleagues and then set out again for...
Posted by Martin R at 10:44 AM • 8 Comments •
Category: Archaeology
Sculpture fragment from the Cathedral of St. Lambert in Liège. Today's bus excursion took us up the river Maas/Meuse into Wallonia, Belgium's Francophone part, where our first stop was Liège. The city looks pretty crummy, I'm afraid, with a...
Posted by Martin R at 1:48 PM • 1 Comments •
Category: Travel
Yesterday's paper sessions offered eleven presentations. I almost fell asleep several times. This was not mainly because four of the papers were in German and French which I have a hard time understanding when spoken quickly. The main reason...
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 11 Comments •
Category: Travel
A funny intermezzo caught me Saturday on the train from Brussels to Liège. Across the aisle, two young pretty lesbian couples were seated. And they spent most of the ride necking furiously. I suppose that as a het male I...
Posted by Martin R at 2:42 AM • 5 Comments •
Category: Travel
I like to travel light. My luggage for a five-day conference stay in the Netherlands barely fills a small back pack. Apart from what I wear and carry in my pockets, I've got:Netbook computer + charger Smartphone charger Camera +...
Posted by Martin R at 12:30 PM • 10 Comments •
Category: Travel
Dear Reader, if you are in the Netherlands, in England or in Finland and you either a) want to meet me, or b) want to avoid meeting me, I have some important information for you. I am planning to visit...
Posted by Martin R at 5:02 AM • 7 Comments •
Category: Travel
Greetings from Chester, founded in AD 79, whither I'm come to accept a position as Visiting Research Fellow with the university's archaeology department. Inclement weather delayed my flight, but the taxi driver who took me into town was a clement...
Posted by Martin R at 12:11 PM • 4 Comments •
Category: Travel
Next week I'm going to Chester in England to visit the archaeology department there and accept a position as Visiting Research Fellow. I'll be in town from 2 to 6 February. Any Dear Readers in that neck of the woods...
Posted by Martin R at 1:27 PM • 8 Comments •
Category: Travel
Paddy K is hiking in Scotland without any portable internet connection. He just texted me a request for the coordinates of the Bridge of Orchy. He's currently in Inverardran, about 20 km SSE of the bridge. People in the...
Posted by Martin R at 1:52 PM • 2 Comments •
Category: Art
74 snaps from my recent visit to Orkney.
Posted by Martin R at 3:24 PM • 5 Comments •
Category: Travel
I'm in Kirkwall on the Orkney islands for a conference on maritime societies in the Viking and Medieval periods. It's a lovely sunny evening, which is apparently a rare and precious occurrence around these parts. The dialect is also something...
Posted by Martin R at 4:29 PM • 9 Comments •
Category: Travel
Took a walk around the local geocaches, ended up trapped for half an hour in a nightmarish retirement community. Endless identical white single-story houses with garages and immaculate lawns, the streets deserted in the baking January afternoon. I was...
Posted by Martin R at 4:51 PM • 16 Comments •
Category: Travel
Descending toward Ft Lauderdale airport this morning, I was shocked by the expanse of suburban sprawl stretching to the horizon below me. A huge drained swamp, all flat, covered by an intricate pattern of canals and streets and plots...
Posted by Martin R at 1:21 PM • 3 Comments •
Category: Travel
I just popped out for a burger at Arbee's, and I chose a seat with a good view of the full moon riding high over a Shell gas station. On the wall of the station was a large luminescent...
Posted by Martin R at 6:53 PM • 9 Comments •
Category: Travel
Above is a candid pic by Nathan L. Walls, showing yours truly at Saturday's hum & soc sci session. The teeshirt is from the Swedish Skeptics and reads "I am skeptical" in an obscure North-European language. Yesterday's highlights wereAn...
Posted by Martin R at 8:54 AM • 6 Comments •
Category: Travel
A good thing about jet lag is that it gets you up in the morning. I awoke at five, played around with the computer, showered, breakfasted and was outside at half past seven. It's a brisk, cold sunny morning...
Posted by Martin R at 8:30 AM • 3 Comments •
Category: Travel
I'm back in the US for the first time since 2002. Before that, the last time was in 1978, when I had lived in Greenwich, Connecticut and gone to Kindergarten for two years. Everybody's way fatter than I remember them....
Posted by Martin R at 10:11 PM • 2 Comments •
