In spite of economics crises and a shortage of jobs 2009 been a good year for me and I’ve managed to stay employed through out the year as an archaeologist. I’ve also managed to a fair bit of blogging through out the year though it is been a little slow lately, I’ll do better 2010.
I wish you all a great 2010 filled with opportunities, adventures, discoveries and excavations.
Magnus Reuterdahl
It’s that time of year again; the holidays are a knocking. Got one more day of work on my hands and then I’m off till January the 11th. I’ll be spending Christmas in Karlskoga, the New Year in Stockholm and Twelfth night in Jonkoping. Evan though I’ll be travelling a lot I’ll try to squeeze in a few books that been collecting dust over the last couple of months and of course some well deserved rest.
Let’s hope Santa brings you all something you want or need, Merry Christmas!
Magnus Reuterdahl
About a month ago I worked on an archaeological preliminary investigation in Mellingeholm, just south of Norrtalje. Besides ancient monuments like graves, grave fields, settlements etc. There were also a lot of remains from the military, who used this area as practice field by the regiment Lv 3. Among the more memorable owns are these trenches (Frötuna 130 and 131) probably built in the 50’s.
The trenches are about 1,5-1,7 m in depth and ca 20-50 m in length.
Magnus Reuterdahl
At a small flee market I visit on and off on my way to lunch when in Östersund I found a couple of books or rather booklets on place-names by Gustaf Brynnel.
Gustaf Brynnel (1907-)
I didn’t recognize his name so I googled him but didn’t find all that much. He was a teacher working in Nacka outside of Stockholm and the booklets I found concerns the place-name Stockholm and the element stock (log).
Stock, Stocken, Stockholm – ett ortnamnselement i ny belysning. 1965 (Stock, Stocken, Stockholm – a new view on a place-name element).
Stockholm och andra stock-namn (Stockholm and other names with the element stock)(published by the author), originally published in Jordbrukarnas Föreningsblad (The farmers associations paper) nr 51-52, 1964.
Om ordelement stock i nordiska ortnamn och i fågelnamnet stockand (published by the author), 1965. (About the name-element stock in Nordic place-names and in the birdname stockand1 [anas boschas]).
I’ve only scanned through the pages; the author discusses what stock means. Does it mean log/s or does it refer to an area that is often flooded, Brynnel’s conclusion is the latter. As I understand the interpretation most believes in today is that it stems from the usage of log barriers in the waterfront.
I’ll return to these booklets as I have time to read them.
1)Stockand is according to the author a local name for Gräsand in Bohusläns county. Varaiations of the name can be found in Norway (Stokkand), Denmark (Stockand), Iceland (Stokkönd and Germany (Stockente).
Magnus Reuterdahl
Hello and welcome to Testimony of the spade.
My name is Magnus Reuterdahl and I am a Swedish archaeologist and osteologist. Most posts are connected to my work or my interests in general; Scandinavian archaeology, osteology, cultural heritage, literature and so forth.
On the blog Aqua Vitae (in Swedish) and Testimony of a wine (in English) junkie I blog on wine.
Contact; inventerare[at]hotmail[dot]com or via a comment.
