Vreta cloister ruins

About a week ago I was in Östergötland while there I visited the cloister ruins of Vreta kloster.

Vreta cloister was founded in the ca 1110 as a Benedictine nunnery by King Inge the younger and his queen Helena. It is the oldest nunnery in Sweden. In 1162 it was converted into a Cistercian nunnery. The ruins and the church give us a chance to revisit the middle ages. Unfortunately the church and the museum were closed when I visited it so there are no indoor pictures from the church or pictures from the museum.

A reconstruction of how the area might have looked at its prime.

The cloister was excavated between 1916-1926 and the church was renovated between 1914-1917. Her are some pictures of the cloister ruins and the church.

 

Convent workroom

 

The Parlour

 

The inner garden

 

The kitchen

 

The oldest wall with “Opus Spicatum“

 

Close up “Opus Spicatum“

On part of the oldest wall one can se traces of a building style called “Opus Spicatum” a way of laying bricks in a pattern often referred to as looking like herringbones. This part of the wall might be as old as the 11^th century and is part of a wall surrounding the oldest church at this spot.

 

Pictures of the cloister church

 

The cloister church has gone through many phases, it has grown and been added on, as there is no plaster on the building one can identify several of these changes.

I recommend a visit; it is a beautiful and interesting place well worth a detour.

Magnus Reuterdahl

Time seems to fly when you’re busy

The last few days I’ve tried to update my PhD application, this time it’s Uppsala University who has a spot open. As I have had my head filled with other projects as well as my day time job I am not sure if it gotten it any clearer or better than my last one, though I would like to hope so. Anywho it’s away!

Magnus Reuterdahl

 

Brunneby medieval church

Brunneby medieval church is a beautiful little church that does not seems to be medieval at a first glance. The church was erected in the 14^th century and abandoned in 1826 and restored in the end of the 1970’s.

Though both the interior and exterior of today isn’t all that medieval there are several visible signs that tell tales of its medieval past such as the Romanesque window recesses…

Window recess on the south wall

Window recess on the north wall

…and the traces of the southern Romanesque portal…

 

…and parts of the medieval paintings on the west and north walls.

Paintings behinde the altar

 

Paintings at the northern wall

An interesting thing is that the roof stole is open, which I for one think is a treat.

The environment surrounding the church is a bit unusual, one feels almost as one is stepping into a garden of sorts rather than a churchyard as the church is situated within Brunneby manor that also holds Brunneby Musteri (a place that makes must, juices, marmalades etc), see here (Swedish link).

A very nice little church in a nice environment! By the way Brunneby church, manor and musteri is situated in the province of Östergötland by the canal Göta kanal.

Originally this post was intend for the Four Stone hearth blog carnival # 40 (that went on-line may 7^th) at Remote central, though due to lack of time the post wasn’t published until today. Check out the carnival though cause’ there are a lot of interesting links to various blogs on archaeology, anthropology etc, etc.

Magnus Reuterdahl

No worries

Testimony has been a little low on posts recently due to a harsh workload at the moment, no worries though I have a few posts coming up next week.

Magnus Reuterdahl

The speech of Neanderthals

Through the a Swedish forum for discussions concerning archaeology, Arkeologiforum, I found this newsflash:

Do you want to hear how the Neanderthals talked? In an article in NewScientist one can read about the research and results made by Robert McCarthy, an anthropologist at Florida Atlantic University. He has found that the Neanderthals voices were not as guttural as has been believed but more nasal and shrill. Here you can listen to McCarthy simulate an “E”.  

Magnus Reuterdahl

A Seminar concerning castles and ancient fortresses

Tomorrow (Friday 18th) I plan to attend a seminar about castles held by the Swedish Association for castle studies (Link in Swedish). The program promises some interesting seminars such as:

Professor Ulf Näsman will talk about ancient fortresses on the southern part of the Island Öland and the societies that built them.

One example of these ancient fortresses is Ismantorps borg, read more here.

Next in line is Fil.Dr. Anna Lihammer will speak on the subject Trelleborgar in their context. Trelleborgar: Trelleborgar are large round ancient fortresses of a type mainly found in Scania and Denmark dated to the Iron Age.

 
Fil.Dr. Peter Carelli will speak of the castle of Helsingborg during the middle ages. The castle is a made out of a large tower, dated to the 13^th century. Link to a picture here.

And finally Mats Sandin and Tom Wennberg from Gothenborg city museum will speak of the excavations at the middle age castle Älvsborg.

I will take some notes though not so detailed as those concerning the Osteological Associations seminar. I might have missed someone’s title or gotten it wrong, if so please contact me.

Magnus Reuterdahl

Proud to be one!

A few days ago, on the 10th, the spade had given testimony for one year. During the first 365 days I’ve posted 148 posts and have had more than 12500 visits. I feel pleased with my first year with the spade. I missed my birthday with a few days but better late than never.

 

I use this opportunity to share some photos I haven’t shared before. One of my big interest is Ostoeology so this time around it got to be photos of bones, in this case craniums.

 

As I went through my digital photos I found these pictures that I took as I worked at the Osteoarchaeological Research Laboratory (OFL), Stockholm University, in preparing a move from the royal castle Ulriksdal to the Wallenberg laboratory in 2005.

 

The photos of these craniums have been taken for different reasons. These are examples on how disease can leave traces on bone. On this skull we see what osteosarcoma, a type of malignant bone cancer, looks like.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This photo where taken as an examples of a discrete trait, in this case so called inca bones or os incae. Discrete traits are traits that often are more common among certain populations. The inca bones have been named so as they are more common amongst the Incas of South America. Inca bones are small bones that are developed within the sutures of the skull.

 

Continuing with sutures; a suture that normally closes during childhood is sutura frontalis, on the forehead, but in some cases it is visible beyond that.

 

 

As you can see on this child cranium the forehead (os parielate) is divided into two pieces though the sutura frontalis has began to close.

 

 

This a an adult cranium where where one can see the sutura frontalis.

 

Other marks are from a trauma of diffrent kinds. In this case it is a healed injury, probably from a sword or an axe.

 

 

The edges of the injury are soft and rounded, this shows that the individual has survived the injury.

In the collections, at that time, were also a few mummies. Here is one of them, today these are at the university of Uppsala.

 

 

Through the bones and other remains of prehistoric or historic humans we as archaeologist/osteologists comes very close to the individuals we work on. The skeletons hold many answers on living conditions, health and in some cases what the individual did for a living. I see it as a privilege to be able to work on such materials and to be able to find out more about what their life might have been.

 

 

Lets hope for an interesting year with lots of archaeology and osteology!

 

Magnus Reuterdahl

The exterior of the dome of Linköping and then some

In my last post I showed parts of the interior of the dome now to the exterior.

The history of the dome of Linköping begins before the dome; it probably is predated by a small wooden church, maybe built during the 11^th century. The first stone church was built during the first half the 12^th century. The foundation of this church was excavated in 1915-1916. During the beginning of the 13^th century the bishop Bengt (1220-36) started to make expansions. He built a new chancel as well as a transept nave. These parts are still a part of the dome as well as the altar. Since the church has been rebuilt, added to and renovated. A dome can be seen as a constant work in progress, though these days there are mostly renovations and changes of the interior design.

 

One interesting detail is the sundial, it can be found on one of the exterior pillars of the chancel.

It is dated to 1512 and one of the oldest in Sweden. As you can se in the photo below it is a square with lines and inscriptions to help the watcher to read the time.

 

Just northwest of the dome is a reconstruction of a labyrinth, a.k.a. a trojaborg.

 

Just southwest of the dome is Linköping castle. The oldest parts of the castle are dated to the 12^th century and it is one of the oldest profane buildings in Sweden. The oldest parts are a small basement and a small two-storey house, both made out of limestone, they are dated to the first half of the 12^th century (of which I have no pictures…).

 

Magnus Reuterdahl

 

Runes, graffiti, marks and inscriptions in the dome of Linköping

In the dome of Linköping as in many old churches one can find a lot of inscriptions. Some are carvings for graves or memorials others in the form of graffiti or stone cutter marks. Here are a few of the inscriptions and marks me and my fiancé found as we visited the church last Sunday.

For me runes are the most fun and we found a runic inscription. It is located to on the right side of the stone fundament that encloses the altar section.

 

 

 The runic inscription can be transliterated into kuts, kauts or possibly knuts. The second rune might be a bindrune, the rune stave is used for more than one run, in this case A+U or N+U. I don’t know the signum of this inscription as I haven’t found it in the database of runic inscription: samnordisk runtextdatabas.

Update number 1, 2008-04-14.

I’ve got word that no runic inscriptions from the Dome of Linköping are published in samnordisk runtextdatabas as yet, this does not means that they are unknown just not published in the sources currently used such as Sveriges Runiskrifter (The Runic inscriptions in Sweden) or in annuals like Fornvännen etc.

Update number 2, 2008-04-15.

I would like to thank Jan Owe at Arkeologiforum.se for getting some answers for me. Jan Owe works on, among other things, updating and I belive maintaing the runic database samnordisk runtextdatabas which is a great tool for those of us who are interested in runic inscriptions.

Jan Owe has just read the books Sveriges kyrkor (the churches of Sweden) number 200 and 201 that concerns the dome of Linköping. In these there are no references to the inscription “kuts/knuts/kauts“. But Jan Owe has come across a notation about the inscription at Runverket (the Department of Runes at the National Heritage Board, aka RAA). In this it is mentioned that the u + a/n-rune is not an intentional bindrune but most probably an u-rune. The a/n line isn’t as deep as the other lines and therefore probably not intentional.

Jan Owe also is also kind enough to point out that I missed a few runic inscription in the dome, that will be added to the database. I’ll have to search for these the next time I am in Linköping. 

These two inscriptions are probably stone cutter marks.

As I mentioned previously there is also a lot of old graffiti and here is a selection of graffiti from the 17^th and 18^th century.

 

I’ll end up with an inscription which at least seems to be of Hebrew or Arabic decent. If any one knows please send let me know.

 

Magnus Reuterdahl

Gunillaberg

The last stop was at the manor Gunillaberg just outside of Bottnaryd, Jönköping County, Småland.

 

The manor building was built somewhere during the second half of the 17th century by Johan Prinz (1592-1663). Johan Prinz is perhaps best known for his time as governor of the Swedish colony New Sweden, Delaware, USA during 1642-1653. He later on became commandant for the castle of Jönköping (1657-1663) and county governor for Jönköping County (1658-1663).

 

The manor is built in the Karolin style, named after the Karolin era, 1654-1718 during the regency of King Karl X Gustav, Karl XI and Karl XII. On of the trait of the style are the strict symmetries.

The left wing

The main building is more or less unchanged and it built by timber. There are also many interesting details indoors, as the hand painted tapestry from the 18^th century. The two wings were built in the 18^th century.

A beautiful older farm building at Gunillaberg.

The sundial is from 1796 and made out of marble from Kolgården and was an edition by the owner at the time, Carl Axel Lilliecreutz.

 

A beautiful building that by the way is for sale.

Magnus Reuterdahl