archaeology
aardvarchaeology | January 24, 2007
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, "Norwegian Antiquities" (re-issued in 1999). Not because many read either the Norwegian or the French text in the book any more: Norske Oldsager is used to this day for its illustrations. Hundreds of beautiful drawings of exquisite finds, all reproduced through the late 19th century's signature printing method, wood engraving.
If I want to talk…
aardvarchaeology | January 19, 2007Scandinavian animal art starts in the late 4th century AD and goes through a long series of innovative styles until it's abandoned in the 12th century and a naive version of Continental Romanesque takes over.
One of the weirdest, funniest and most abstruse varieties of animal art is what Bernhard Salin called Style I. It was invented in Jutland about AD 450 and flourished for less than a century in its South Scandinavian central areas. Wilhelm Holmquist characterised it as the "style of dismemberment", and that pretty much tells you what it's about. Most Style I artwork comes down to us as…
aardvarchaeology | January 17, 2007
Dear Reader, welcome to the Four Stone Hearth blog carnival -- in science land! 4SH is about anthropology in the widest (American) sense: nothing human is alien to us, from Homo habilis bones via Early Medieval metalworking debris to on-line gaming subcultures.
Aardvarchaeology is my new blog, started only a few weeks ago. Before, I blogged at Salto sobrius, where you may have read entries about archaeology during 2006.
Anthro scholars are rare here at Scienceblogs, most of the others being specialised in natural sciences like biology. But I feel at home here. For one thing, my opinion is…
aardvarchaeology | January 17, 2007A 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 reason is that our labour market is over-populated at all levels, from the lowly shovel-wielder to the august professor. In my past posts, I've documented this in various ways.
Since getting my degree in 2003, I've applied for twelve academic jobs in Scandinavia, all requiring a PhD in archaeology. A number of temporary jobs have also been given discreetely to people already within departments…
aardvarchaeology | January 15, 2007The British Museum has purchased a set of 7th century golden garnet-studded sword hilt mounts from a metal detectorist who found them at Market Rasen, Lincolnshire, England, in 2002.
It's a funny find: the hilt has clearly been deposited in one piece with all the mounts held together by the tang of the sword, but there's no trace of the blade and no evidence for any ploughed-out grave. It seems to be a well-documented case of a contextless find. Unless there's a settlement there that isn't mentioned in the BM press release.
The interlace decoration looks non-animal-art from the pics and is…
aardvarchaeology | January 15, 2007Reader "Chez Jake" suggests that I might write a few "basics of archaeology" posts like other Sb bloggers are doing. I'd be happy to! Dear Reader, please tell me something basic you'd like me to explain about archaeology that isn't answered well by Wikipedia.
aardvarchaeology | January 14, 2007Since a 1997 change in UK law, metal detectorists in that insular realm are reporting ever more finds to the authorities.
David Lammy, the minister of culture, said that metal detetectorists who spend days scanning newly ploughed fields in the hope that a beep will lead them to buried treasure, are doing a huge service to Britain's cultural life.
"Metal detectorists are the unsung heroes of the UK's heritage. Thanks to the responsible approach they display in reporting finds and the systems we have set up to record them, more archaeological material is available for all to see at museums or…
aardvarchaeology | January 13, 2007
My buddy Hans asked,
Do you mean that no excavations are done on churchyards, even though they are from the Middle Ages? Why?
A Medieval Swedish churchyard abandoned more than about a century ago will be excavated with great care if threatened. For instance, this happened recently at the cathedral in Hans's home town of Linköping.
But at a churchyard that's been in constant use since the Middle Ages, as is true for most rural churchyards in Sweden, it is uncontroversial to dig new graves and destroy whatever's there. Why? Well, it's kind of like the farmer who's allowed to continue ploughing…
aardvarchaeology | January 13, 2007Chris O'Brien at Northstate Science gave a speedy reply to my questions of this morning.
It seems that any evaluation of whether the US has strong or weak site protection depends upon what standards are actually followed when a site is considered for the National Register of Historic Places. I wonder what sort of sites fall through the safety net in practice. (As for the NAGPRA protection of graves, that doesn't seem to be of much use to archaeology as it largely keeps my American colleagues from studying burial sites -- for reasons of political correctness and belated post-colonial guilt.)…
aardvarchaeology | January 12, 2007Chris O'Brien at Northstate Science has a great post comparing US and Swedish site protection rules, a response to my entry on who owns archaeological finds in Sweden. I'm definitely recruiting his entry for next week's Four Stone Hearth carnival. (To which all readers are invited to contribute.)
Here are some questions that popped up when I read Chris's entry.
What happens if a member of the public makes a clearly prehistoric find on federally owned land, without digging or damaging anything, and alerts the local authorities? For instance, a collection of lithics from the erosion slope of a…
aardvarchaeology | January 12, 2007
I wrote my PhD thesis about the largest prehistoric cemetery on the island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea. The place is named Barshalder and straddles the boundary between Grötlingbo and Fide parishes. The first graves are from the early 1st century AD and the last from about the year 1100. Some continuity! And the site measures two kilometres from one end to the other. One of Gotland's two great barrows is near the middle of its extent, now badly damaged by potato cellars. This barrow enters written history when a famous man passes it in the summer of 1741.
The earliest written mentions I…
aardvarchaeology | January 12, 2007
Something that may be the earliest known settlement site in the Americas has been found -- in Minnesota of all places. It's just a knapped-stone assemblage, no organics, so there can be no radiocarbon dates until they dig some more and get lucky. The find's position in the geological stratigraphy suggests a late glacial date, 14,000 to 15,000 years ago.
Thanks to Aardvarchaeology regular Mustafa Mond for the heads-up! Link.
[More blog entries about archaeology, Minnesota; arkeologi, USA.]
aardvarchaeology | January 11, 2007
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 never a majority rite). The most famous and richly equipped boat inhumations are 7th and 8th century burials in Uppland, Sweden at sites like Vendel and Valsgärde. But most boat inhumations are in fact Norwegian 9th and 10th century burials of middling to fair wealth. Two have recently been excavated in Rogaland county at on-going excavations at Frøyland farmstead.
The…
aardvarchaeology | January 10, 2007
Check out Lars Lundqvist's web site about the Slöinge excavations in Halland, Sweden! It's been on-line for ages and I only found it just now. All in English.
The above picture shows a tiny gold foil figure of an embracing couple -- possibly the divine ancestors touted by Vendel Period aristocrats. You find them in the post holes of the period's mead halls. If you wet-sieve, that is.
aardvarchaeology | January 9, 2007
I just came across a pretty far-out book. On 1 December, Isto Huvila passed his viva for the PhD degree in information science in Turku/Åbo, Finland. His thesis is entitled The Ecology of Information Work (available on-line).
"The study explores an interface between the human patterns of information use and the methods of structuring and organising information and knowledge. The issue is discussed with a reference to information work in the domain of archaeology. The study refers to the notion of virtual realities as a prospective basis for a knowledge organisation system and discusses the…
aardvarchaeology | January 7, 2007
As the first reader-submitted pic, my buddy Lars Lundqvist has sent me a snap of himself taken by Klas Höglund in October 1995. Lars is happy in this picture, the reason being that he's just found the object he's holding. It's a large plough-mangled Continental gold neck ring of the first few centuries AD, and it's part of the Vittene hoard.
The first part of the hoard to surface was a filigreed gold torque of the Celt-dominated final centuries BC. The finder took it home and hung it in the broom cupboard. Years passed before he finally got round to showing it to an archaeologist, our sadly…
aardvarchaeology | January 7, 2007
Linnea, one of the Salto sobrius regulars, asked two questions today on the Swedish archaeology mailing list that would be in my archaeology FAQ if I had one.
Who owns an archaeological find made by a member of the public?Is it legal to sell archaeological finds?
Here's how things work in Sweden, which to my knowledge has the world's strongest legal protection for sites and finds.
The first thing to note is that all sites known to the National Heritage Board are protected. This protection isn't tiered like in England: to explain to you Brits, let's say that a Swedish site automatically…
aardvarchaeology | January 5, 2007
The winter issue of Fornvännen (2006:5) came from the printers yesterday. Some of the boxes were all wet after some talented individual had put them in a puddle, but most were fine. Here's the contents.
Andreas Nordberg and Roger Wikell of Stockholm present observations from unexcavated 1st Millennium AD cemeteries south of Stockholm, indicating that there may be Migration Period chamber graves there. This challenges the prevailing impression that such graves for some reason avoid Södermanland, the province south of Lake Mälaren.
Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson, who recently got her PhD in…
aardvarchaeology | January 4, 2007Grrlscientist is showing this gorgeous picture of a snake that one of her readers sent her. She's actually running sort of a photo publishing service, giving her readers' photography a bit of exposure. I've got to try this myself.
Dear Reader, if you have taken a really good archaeology photograph that you'd like to share with your fellow readers, feel free to email it to me, along with information about the subject and how you'd like it to be credited.
aardvarchaeology | January 3, 2007
A rescue excavation at Torreby on the smallish Danish island of Lolland has turned up two wealthy inhumations of the 1st century AD. One is an adult female with silver and gold objects including a finger ring, two S-shaped bead-string hooks, a pear-shaped filigree pendant and a "beaker", as well as a large set of beads. The other is a boy of about 10 with spurs on his feet, a sign of hereditary status. Early Roman Period Lolland is known for the Hoby burial with two exquisite Mediterranean silver drinking cups sporting Homeric motifs in high relief.
I don't know much yet, but here's some…