Swedish Heritage Board: "We Have Abandoned All Scientific Ambition"

Is this the result of that pomo is accepted within archaeology in universities? It might maybe be a reason for that university archaeology is not seen as trustworthy as it once was? And then perhaps other alternatives are considered to be worth to also support?

It's actually the other way around. Po-mo reached academic archaeology and museology in the mid-80s. Many of the current directors at the heritage Board studied archaeology and museology at that time. They then brought this brain virus with them to their jobs. Po-mo is much stronger at the Heritage Board than it is in current academic archaeology.

Thank you Martin! This topic seems more clear now.

Looks like it's worse than I thought!

Sad, sad sad. Yes, we seem to be closer to Orwell's 1984 than I thought. Big Brother has found that there is no use to stick to truth and science. No, strength is obviously weakness and war is peace.

Thanks for the photo of the info-sign. The sign as well as the article in DN are a base for a lot of questions and thoughts. Some you have summarized, others you have illuminated or answered.

As I read the contents of the sign a few questions popped up in my head. One regards the sign; Is this the complete sign or is it just the Swedish part of the sign (or are there several signs in different languishes)? It seems strange to make a sign in only Swedish, nowadays they are almost always translated into at least English and German. Other questions regard the content of the sign. I made a post of it at Testimony of the spade.

Magnus Reuterdahl

There are currently no English-language signs, just four different Swedish ones. Number two is the one with Lind's model on it.

It is a pleasure to find out that the head of the NHB has much more quality than some of its limbs. It now seems so that it was not quite as bad as we thought for a while.

The current head of the Heritage Board leaves her sub-chiefs a lot of freedom to formulate the Board's policy.

Martin, I must confess something embarrasing. What are you aganst? The guy? Or that it could be something else that has been on the place before the shipmonument? That the stones might have been moved, or not have been moved?

Christian churches are very often buildt on old places for other religions. Christianity has picked up beliefs from other religions. The big Godess from Catal Huyuk reigned over humans and animals (represented by her lover/son) death and rebirth (8th thousand BChr). Maria with her lover God and God her son Jesus...
I think its nice that things happens, and I think it will create more interest in archaeology and also bring more jobs and money...

I mean that I don't understand...

Savon: My complaint is that the Heritage Board has mislead the public and shown a complete lack of respect for professional scholarship. They have presented amateur interpretations that were refuted years ago as equally worthy of belief as solid science.

Bob G Hund med den nya monsterhiten "Förvirring istället för arkeologi" ...

Haha! "Det skulle vara lätt för mig att säga att jag inte vet vad fan Ales stenar är, men det gör jag, tror jag"

Martin, det gläder mig dessa små ord, "tror jag"!
Vet du varför stället heter 'Ales' stenar?

Why the place is named "Ale's stones"? No, I don't recall why. Wasn't the name documented fairly early, in the 17th century perhaps? Probably having to do with folklore.

I went to check what The Swedish National encyclopedias homepage (http://www.ne.se pay site) have to say about Ales stenar.
Basically this is what I found. It says that it�s the biggest extant stone ship in Sweden, placed north of K�seberga, and that it consists of 59 stones. It also talks about the color contrast of the stones, it says that the bow stones are pale, and the stones in the beams are darker. It also talks about how it can have been some kind of solar watch, and that it probably have had some ritual importance, I quote:
�Den �r orienterad syd�st�nordv�st, vilket har tolkats som att den anlagts f�r att peka mot solens uppg�ng vid vintersolst�ndet respektive dess nedg�ng vid sommarsolst�ndet.�
I also quote:
� Ales stenar. Den stora, vackert bel�gna skeppss�ttningen b�r ha spelat en viktig roll f�r riter vid �rstidsv�xlingar, begravningar och m�ten mellan m�nniskor fram till kristen tid.�
(http://www.ne.se, 2007-07-26 kl 14.06 search word Ales stenar)
I try to translate the quotes�
Translation quote 1: It�s placed southeast-northwest, which have been interpreted as it have been erected to point towards the sunset at winter solstice and respectively the sundown at summer solstice.
Translation quote 2: Ales stenar. Big stone ship, beautiful located, which seems to have played an important role for the rituals made during season changing�s, funerals and in encountering between people all the way to Christianity.
The article also says that it have been restored in 1916 and 1956. Further it talks about that Ales stenar was mentioned already in sixteen century A.D, and about the researches made with geo-radar on the site in 2006.
I wonder is there any plausible explanation what this stone ships have been used for? Except for being a burial site, which is what I always heard, and have been thought. Some years ago my father died, I chose a nice tombstone for his grave, nothing that have any thing to do with religious beliefs, its just nice and something you recognize right away, what I mean is, must their be a religious purpose to everything?

Good archaeology searches for general patterns in as large datasets as practically possible. No professional scholar thus looks at Ales stenar in isolation: we ask questions about the class of large stone ships found throughout southern Scandinavia.

The current consensus is that late 1st Millennium stone ships were generally built as grave markers or memorials to dead people, and that some of them were then used as assembly sites. In all cases I am aware of, the ships share their sites with other prehistoric graves of unmistakable type.

The site is also called
"...Hesten, Urbans grav och Hedestenar."
according to Fmis

Thanks Martin, it makes sense.

This is not an isolated phenomenon of course. The Egyptian Pyramids have been under assault by lunatics for years - Hancock and co are simply the latest in a long and ignominious series of frauds and charlatans who try to strip-mine the everlasting seam of human ignorance and gullibility.

Incidentally, there is no reason why more modern monuments shouldn't be aligned to observable astronomical features, such as solstice positions, etc. As far as I am aware the sun still shone in the 1st millennium CE, and even the other day, I was out in the garden, trying to locate the sunniest spot for growing my veggies. Maybe next year I'll conclude that this spot was ordained and sanctified millennia ago, and I'll have a hard time refuting myself.

Baseless amateur speculation is fine as long as real scholars and heritage management officials don't lend it credibility or suggest that no truth is available in archaeology.

In todays Dagens Nyheter there are more critique towards the National Heritage Board (NHB). This time regarding the diminishing section within NHBs; National Rune agency. The article I signed by several professors, lecturers and authors.

Magnus Reuterdahl

Cool! Most everybody in the business feels that the Board has methodically stripped away all activities that anybody actually cares about from its agenda, leaving only jargon and ideology production.

Look at this, it is us...the Suitones, Sitones...
Klangstenar med skålgropar... Singing stones, just as one of Ales stones...
And now I will go out to my fire, bake bread, fry some meat and I will sing a song after the meal...have a nice ongoing evening!!!

Now it was as if the computer was in a haurry, so it did´nt take the adress. Here it comes:
http://www.svd.se/dynamiskt/kultur/did_16583358.asp