Unemployed again, that’s the life of an archaeologist. Though next year looks quite good – there are several big jobs in the loop so there are good chances of jobs as soon as the snow melts. Meanwhile there are a few job openings that I’ve applied for: one at the National Heritage Board (Riksantikvarieämbetet) and one at the County Administrative Board of Jönköping. There is also an opening at Kalmar County museum that I’ll send next week.
Besides that it’s time to sit down and write letters of interest to all the other museums, companies & institutions in Sweden that do archaeology. I also intend to prepare an application for a PhD study to be ready for the next opening.
If you see something that you think might be of interest to me or have a job offer – please send me a mail or write a comment.
As New Years eve is closing in there are still a few days of relaxing left. A perfect opportunity to do some reading.
I’m currently reading Barbara W. Tuchmans the First salut. A book on the American Revolutionary history; the 13 colonies vs. the Brits. This is a piece of history I know very little about so when I found this book in a sales basket I thought it would be good to read up on it. As I understand this book is written from a European perspective and one of the questions is how did England manage to lose the Revolutionary War?
It all starts with the `first salute’ by the Dutch owned West Indian port of St. Eustatius on November 16, 1776 in response to a salute given by the American brigantine Andrew Doria. This is perhaps the starting point of a formal recognition of American as an independent nation.
I’ll look forward to be better educated as I continue reading and will come back with one or a few posts on the subject.
As always I have a few other on-going reads and I’ve also started Lotta Mejsholms PhD thesis Gränsland: Konstruktion av tidig barndom och begravningsritual för kristnadet I Skandinavien (Borderland. Constructions of Early Childhood and Burial Rituals during the Christianisation in Scandinavia) from 2009.
Abstract:
The thesis explores the process of Christianisation in Viking and Medieval Scandinavia through the social constructions of infancy and the beginnings of human life, as expressed in the ideals and practices seen in written and archaeological evidence.‘Childhood’ is regarded as a social construction defined by, and therefore also reflecting, contemporary society…
Let’s sit in front of the fire and I’ll tell you all a Christmas story…
…this Christmas a Christmas gift found its way to it meant receiver, me, after collecting dust for 35 years. Let’s start this story from the beginning. I was born in 1974 and my grandmother on my father’s side passed away in 1975, so I never really got an opportunity to get to know her. Sometime during 1975 she bought me a Christmas gift that for one reason or another never got to me. My father kept it and after a while he forgot all about it until a few years ago. This Christmas we decided it was time to open the long delayed present.
I thought that it might be some kiddie stuff for a one-year old or so, so I wasn’t all that excited… but to my surprise it was something really cool. And with a second thought it was as good that my father did forget about it; it was a Nomura toys battery operated eight legged Space Pacer, in mint condition. The box has a few minor rips but is all in all in good condition. Here are a few pictures:
To the right in this last picture is a sketch portraying my grandfather, on my father’s side, by local artist Paddock, sometime in the 50′s or 60′s.
O most fortunate reader, wash your hands and thus take hold of the book, turn the pages carefully, keep your hand far from the page! Those who don’t know how to write think it is easy. O how hard it is to write: your eyes are burdened, your kidneys break, and all of your limbs get discouraged. Three fingers do the writing, but your whole body works. Just as a sailor wishes to arrive at his home port, so does a scribe long for the last line.
With this we start the 109th edition of the Four Stone Hearth. As I guess all bloggers out there notice from time to time, is that it’s sometimes easier and sometimes harder to write or to find inspiration – although not quite as hard as for the scribe in the text above.
This years last excavation proved that on hands archaeology also can be quite ruff. For me this year’s archaeological field season ended on December 17th(a new record for me). The last few weeks I’ve been working on an excavation of a grave field in the outskirts of Stockholm dated to ca 1000-1100 AD. This excavation has been tough due to the weather. The temperature has alternated between a few degrees plus (Celsius) and 19 degrees (Celcius) below zero. Add lots of snow and some rain to this and all problems that can be linked to changing weather; such as mud, deep frost, lots of snow and the fact that the sun is not up long enough. This is solved by planning; in the morning and afternoon you’ll work with documentation etc. The mud, rain and cold is kept at bay with good clothing and warm barracks. Snow and frost are fought with a little help from electric carpets and padded pressings.
This edition might be a little incoherent but the posts are of the highest quality so just bring order to the chaos and find the gems that suits you.
We’ll start off with a few tips on Christmas presents from Elfshots. Who has a post on artifact reproductions made for Parks Canada based on artifacts from the High Arctic and why archaeologists catalogue artifacts and on why its important to distinguish reproductions from actual artifacts.
John Hawks reports on a paper by David Reich and colleagues regarding the second “whole genome” of an apparently extinct population of Pleistocene humans: the nuclear genome of the Denisova pinky bone.
A hot cup of Joe contemplates on why science has become a no-no for the AAA.
What makes good popular science writing? Anthropolgy.net discuss this and presents three ground rules:
Get your facts straight.
Listen. Present all sides, particularly of contentious issues.
Tell a good story.
Anthropolgy.net wants to know what you think about popular science writing – so check in and share your thoughts!
Archaeology is a popular subject in movies, books and board games, though it seldom portrayed in a very realistic manner. Martin Rundqvist of Aardvarchaeology plays the board game Thebes and compares it to real life archaeology. You wanna bet it involves finding treausers?
On a smilar note is Seandalaiochts post Lego Archaeology kinda, that includes; youtube, lego & archaeology. While on youtube Steven Till recommends a medieval Christmas carol for all that like that old time feeling.
From popular to unpopular. Fear of the undead was and probably still is a reality and sometimes this can be read in the arcaheological records, e.g. in burials. There are several things you could do to protect yourself – such as burying special objects with the dead or placeing stones over thier heads and obviously in thier mouths. Here is a post on a find made in a mass grave of plague victims in Venice.
This is a present to you who forgot your Christmas reading at home, or need a good book tip. Time travelling presents Chapter 11 of Thomas McKenna book, Muslim Rulers and Rebels: Everyday Politics and Armed Separatism in the Southern Philippines (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998). According to the blog this is an incisive read that takes you to the world of the ordinary Cotabato residents and their reckoning with colonialism and internal politics.
Anthropology in practice pounders on what of yesterdays knowledge might have been lost over the centuries. In this case languages and especially a newly “found” previously unknown Peruvian language. You might think that lost languages are something of the past, well think a again. Globalization continues to absorb languages today, so much so that UNESCO has launched an initiative to help preserve languages in danger of extinction. An interesting post that discusses history as well as the present.
Johan Normark of Archaeological Haecceities discusses Sven Gronemeyer and Barbara MacLeod’s recent analysis of Monument 6 at Tortuguero and the actual content of the inscription:
It will be completed the thirteenth Baktun, it is 4 Ajaw 3 K’ank’in, and it will happen a ‘seeing’, it is the display of B’olon-Yokte’ , in a great ‘investiture’ .
Now as it stands here it could very well be part of the mad rantings from the Necronmicon, so it might very well be a danger to your mind if you continue to study it - Johan has and he explains the inscription here.
Returning to the mysteries concerning Christmas as Zenobia: Empress of the east wonders if we’re facing a Magus bubble this Christmas? Who followed that yonder star, the three Magi (aka Three Wise Men, or Three Kings) or the twelve kings of the Orient? According to the manuscript dubbed the ‘Revelation of the Magi’ it was the latter – if you want to expand the Christmas experience Zenobia got the story for you!
That’s all folks – the end – or almost the end lets wrap this up with a little help of the ghost of Christmas yet to come:
On the other hand join Walking the Berkshires in drinking a cup of eggnog and feel the true Christmas spirit chasing the images of Santa Claws away while getting yet another few last minute Christmas present tips.
Many thanks to all who sent in proposals or wrote posts for this the last edition of 2010.
The next ed. of 4SH (number 110) is planned for January 5th and has currently no host. If you are interested to host please mail Afarensis!
The Fourth Stone Hearth is a blog carnival that specializes in anthropology in the widest (American) sense of that word. Here, anthropology is the study of humankind, throughout all times and places, focussing primarily on four lines of research:
archaeology
socio-cultural anthropology
bio-physical anthropology
linguistic anthropology
Each one of these subfields is a stone in our hearth.
Four Stone Hearth is published bi-weekly, Wednesdays in odd-number weeks. If you would like to host the carnival, please write to Afarensis.
If you would like to submit content to the next issue of the carnival, please write to the keeper of the blog in question or to Afarensis. You are encouraged to submit other bloggers’ work as well as your own.
Seasonal greetings from Testimony of spade and to all bloggers present and otherwise in progress keep up the good work!
On Wednesday, December 22, Testimony of the spade will once again stand as host for the biweekly blog carnival Fourth Stone Hearth. The carnival specializes in anthropology in the widest (American) sense of that word. I.e. the study of humankind, throughout all times and places, focussing primarily on four lines of research:
archaeology
socio-cultural anthropology
bio-physical anthropology
linguistic anthropology
If you’ve written a great post you want to share on these or close-by subjects or if you’ve read something that you think more should read, send me an e-mail with the link to inventerare[delete_this][at]hotmail[dot]com or via the comment field.
The carnival is as always in need of hosts, If you would like to host the carnival, please write to Afarensis.
Currently I’m employed by Arkeologikonsult at the excavations of a grave field in Rissne, Stockholm. The grave field is from the late Viking Age or the early middle ages. The burials are mainly Christian, buried in coffins, but the graves have superstructures that are a relic of ancient burial forms, such as stone settings or mounds, and the dead are still buried at the farmstead grave field rather than at a cemetery by a church.
Tonight it is Christmas party at Arkeologikonsult in Upplands Väsby. Jolly cheers, beers and some wine mixed with Italian wine are promised. There is still one week left at the excavation at Rissne so a there are a few more snowy archaeology days left to look forward to.
In connection with the exhibition China’s Terracotta Army at the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, a seminar will be held in order to provide an in depth picture of the exhibited archaeological findings. Three Chinese archaeologists from Shaanxi province discuss several archaeological sites excavated in recent years, including the tomb complex of the First Emperor of Qin, as well as Han Yangling, the tomb complex of Forth Emperor of Han.
The seminar will be held in Chinese, with English interpreter.
Organizer: Östasiatiska Museet (the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities).
Co-organizers: Shaanxi Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau, Shaanxi Cultural Heritage Promotion Center, Oriental Ceramic Society of Sweden
Program:
9:30 Gathering, Coffee & Tea
10:00-10.30 Opening: Sanne Houby-Nielsen Ph.D. Director General, National museums of world culture. Eva Myrdal Ph.D. Deputy director, Museum of far Eastern Antiquities. Si Han Ph.D. Curator Museum of far Eastern Antiquities presents all speakers and the program
10:30-11.45 Research and Archaeological Findings of Emperor Qin Shihuang’s Mausoleum Complex and Terracotta Army, By Dang Shixue, Associate Researcher fellow of Terracotta Army museum
11.45-12.00 Discussion
12.00- 13.00 Lunch
13.00-14.15 Reproducing the Submerged Prosperous Empire — the archaeological discovery and preservation research of Han Yangling Mausoleum Complex, by Wang Baoping, Deputy Director of Xi’an Center for the Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage
14.15-14.30 Discussion
14.30-14.45 Coffee & Tea
14.45-16.00 New Fruits of Qin and Han Archaeology,
by Yin Xiaqing, Deputy Director of Shaanxi Provincial Cultural Relics Appraisal and Research Center
That this is so depends on the archaeological winter excavation I participate in the moment. Somehow the cold sucks out all the strength from ones bones and the soul is left like an empty and tired shell that can not manage to produce enough ideas for posts. Well it’s just one and half weeks left – then a period of unemployment, and hopefully some rest for tired muscles and joints, or in any case indoor jobs and warmth.
Detta inlägg finns tillgängligt på Svenska på min vinblogg Aqua Vitae.
It is once again time to begin with the Christmas chores, step one is to boil mulled wine. Last year I tried this recipe and it was so good that I’ll make this year too. The recipe comes from the book Östgötamat (2008) (Food from Östergötland county) and called Vallerstadsglögg. It is undated is probably from the late 1800s.
Glögg or Mulled wine, Chaud wine, glühwein etc. is a beverage, based on the wine (usually red) and or hard liquor, to which spices are added and served hot. The word Glögg came into the Swedish language during the 19th century and comes from the Swedish word glödga (= to heat over red heat) and during that century this drink got to be connected to the Christmas traditions in Sweden. The tradition to spice and heat wine is much older and known to have been done already in ancient Greece and Rome. This mulled wine is in other words a relic from Christmases past.
Take two bottles of porter and a bottle of beer (Pils) and boil with 2 pieces of cinnamon, 2 figs, 2 pommerans shell, 12 cloves, 12 whole cardamom seeds, 2 hg scalded almonds, 2 hg raisins, 3 hg sugar for about 15 minutes. I use ½-liter bottles and based on last year’s experiments I’ve chosen to increase the dose of cloves and cardamom (whole cardamom seeds) slightly to 20 each.
Allow the mulled wine to cool off and add a bottle of clear (unspiced) snaps, aquavit (75cl). I have chosen to use Brännvin special.
If you wish, you can heat a few hundred grams of sugar and pour this into the mixture. I would and will do so! At last pour a bottle of home-brewed wine of madeira- or sherrytype. I have no homemade -so I’ll use a bottle of Leacock’s Saint John Madeira.
Let the mulled wine stand well covered for a 24 hours, then remove the spices, raisins and almonds. The raisins and almonds are stored and served into the drink when it’s heated.
This mulled wine does not taste as our modern “traditional mulled wine” but more mature, darker, a bit malty with hints of dark brown sugar (though this is not included) and above all very Christmassy. It is almost as sweet as the modern mulled wine, but lacks the juice/lemonade- structure that is present in most modern mulled wines. This makes it a welcome break from all the Christmas candy and the juiciness of the modern mulled wines.
The recipe was originally recorded by Ruth Wallensteen-Jaeger (1903-1995) and published in Östgötamat by Inga Wallenquist.
If you are not inclined to make one quite as advanced you can try a simpler ditto: Julglögg (Christmas mulled wine) from Regna, that dates to the mid-1800s.
Calculate ½ teaspoon whole cardamom seeds to 2 dl clear (unspiced) aquavit or snaps. Tie the spices in a linen patch and heat up the booze with spice patch in. Remove the spices and add 1 ½ tablespoons syrup. Serve warm. Since this doesn’t require as much preparation, I thought to do this on Christmas Eve.
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.
