4th annual archaeology seminar in Blankaholm

Michael Dahlin

This weekand we visited Blankaholm on the Swedish east coast for the Blankaholm seminars arranged by archaeologist and local resident Michael Dahlin, who is also the man behind the Swedish archaeology blog Misterhultaren.

All seminars are connected via the prehistory or history of the Swedish east coast, the themes are varied as well as the periods. All in all it was a very nice session with many nice meetings, new and old, and lots of information.

The previous three seminars are available in the books Forntiden längs ostkusten 1 (2010) and 2 (2011) (Ancient times along the east shores) both edited by Kenneth Alexandersson et al.

I will not go into detail on the seminars but only give a short recap of them to present what can be expected of the coming Forntiden längs ostkusten 3 and the 2012 seminars.

Day 1

The meeting started with a quick presentation of the seminars and Blankaholm by Michael Dahlin

Pierre Petersson

followed by a seminar by the same on the late Neolithic and Bronze Age settlements on the east coast of Småland. On surveys from the 30′s until today and future projects. The seminars continued by another Swedish archaeology blogger Pierre Petersson the man behind the blog AHIMKAR. In this seminar we move forward in time to the middle ages and thoughts on living conditions for the nobility and ordinary man. Pierre put forward an interesting example site Kläckeberga church, its surroundings and the findings that has been done via archaeological excavations etc. From the

Kenneth Alexandersson

middle ages we take a big leap back in time. Kenneth Alexandersson from Kalmar County museum presented the results from a settlement excavation just south of Kalmar airport. The expected finds was an Iron Age settlement but they found a Stone Age site dated to ca 9000 BP instead. After this we move north to the south of Norrland as Michel Guinard and Therese Ekholm presents the project Nordic Blade

Michel Guinard

Technology network which concerns the earliest habitants after the latest Ice Age. Two sites, one that has been situated in the inland and one by the coast are currently excavated by students and scientists. Larforsen is located in Hälsingland, dated to ca 7200 BC, and Torsåker in Gästrikland are several small settlements, dated to ca 8500-5000 BC. There are several specialists involved such as osteololgist Therese Ekholm who will study

Ludvig Papmehl-Dufay & Therese Ekholm

bones from the hearths looking at spices as well as dating. We return to Småland and hits the neolithics once again as Ludvig Papmehl-Dufay discuss the Funnelbeaker culture. The funnelbeakers are considered as the first real farmers in Sweden. Ludvig is working with materials from the island Öland in his post-doc research. Among them results from a settlement excavation at Resmo. The day ends with another fellow archaeology blogger Martin Rundkvist from Aardvarchaeology who spoke on projects done and projects to come concerning Bronze Age sacrifical deposits, in both wetlands and on human settlements, etc. His idea is to look for the sites found in the late 1800′s and first half of the 1900s and excavate these again. By categorize them due to location and natural features etc. create models to predict where to find new places. Almost all sites we know of today were found by framers while draining wetlands to create new farmland or working behind the plow seeing what it plowed up. This ended the sessions of day 1.

Martin Rundkvist

Day 2

Sven Gunnar Broström and Kenth Ihrestam

The day began with Kenth Ihrestam and Sven Gunnar Broström presenting their survey finds of Bronze Age rock art in Casmirsborg (MEM) some miles north of Västervik. During their latest surveys the number of known figures has increased from 13 to 175. They have found several large finds of ship carvings, people, foot soles, animals etc. From art to Claus Ruskas land transactions in the

John Hutto

Middle Ages. John Huttu described the way from middle class to the gentry, from the city to land ownership and what can be found in medieval diplomas. Tar production was probably a big deal during the middle ages – Veronica Palm from Kalmar County Museum and Västerviks

Veronica Palm

museum goes forward in time and tells a tale of a tar production site from the 18th century. The site was just outside of Målilla and excavated in 2010. Very nice findings and interesting results. Back to prehistoric times with Joakim Wehlin (sorry all pics were out of focus) who research ship settings on Gotland. There is a much larger material than I knew; in total 380 are known at Gotland whereof ca 100 are excavated. Joakim told us about an interesting excavation from this summer where they found a double grave in a small round stone setting just next to a ship setting. An interesting project to follow! Last speaker of the day was Rune Johansson who works as a nurse and are studying archaeology. He presented his thoughts on archaeology as a rehabilitation tool. As all people have a history most have a connection with the past and therefore it is a way to get people interested. There are also several things in archaeology that can be therapeutic, walks in woods, feeling artefacts, associations between artefacts and modern things, being part in projects such as digs etc.

Rune Johansson

I would like to thank all involved who made this a great weekend. I will be back

Magnus Reuterdahl

Quoted on Swedish radio

Testimony of the spade was mentioned and quoted on Swedish radio this morning, in the program P1 Morgon (Morning-show) or possibly in one of the morning newscasts at P1, in connection with discussions on exploratory archaeology and due to the proposition Increased competition in the mission (exploratory) archaeological field – some changes to the Cultural Heritage Act (DS 2011:6) the Swedish government sent out for consultation some days ago.

I haven’t heard it so I’m not sure what they quoted – and how – yet. If you know please let me know. I just found the text link from sr.se (in Swedish) – läs mer här and the radio link (download mp3) or click the link; Nyheter från vetenskapsradion (News from Scienceradio) at the linked page – it starts at ca 3.10 min and forth.

My original post, now updated, can be read here.

Magnus Reuterdahl

A new dawn for exploratory archaeology in Sweden – or will we crash and burn?

Updated 2010-02-25 (A Swedish version is on its way)

The other day the Swedish government sent a proposition Increased competition in the mission (exploratory) archaeological field – some changes to the Cultural Heritage Act (DS 2011:6) out for consultation (Link in Swedish).

The Ministry says that the starting point of the proposals is that they should promote competition and to clarify roles and responsibilities within  field (exploratory) archaeological.

According to the proposal the entrepreneur (ie the developer) – after the County Board has decided that archaeological work needs to be preformed – designate who will perform the work. This means a new order. Today it is the County Board who designates who should perform the archaeological work after opting out, after procurement or direct selection, who will do the job. The County Board also has the responsibility to oversee the plan of work and its costs, and perform oversight of the work and ultimately approve or disapprove of it.

The Ministry believes that the proposal means that the roles and responsibilities between the County administration, entrepreneur (ie the developer) and the archaeological institution or company must be clarified. Entrepreneurs will get clearer control over and responsibility for the process. The proposal will allow the County Board to place greater focus on designing clear decisions about archaeological work, such as the conditions based on the criterion of scientific quality, and strengthen and develop supervisory activities. The Ministry hopes that the proposal will lead to better conditions for fair competition within the exploratory archaeological field.

Personally I am ambivalent about this proposal. On one hand the current field archaeological market doesn’t work all that well today (this most seems to agree on) on the other we know what we have to work with. There are significant differences across the country how the County Boards works and there is a lack of transparency for those applying for archaeological jobs – and I guess also for the entrepreneurs.

In the current system, I think the County Boards have too much power in relation to the institution or company that will perform the archaeological work. They are involved in too many parts of the process – they write the decision, determining the cost, determine priorities, methods and scientific questions and supervise the project. In the end they seldom have the resources to do all this work. When it comes to priorities, methods and scientific questions I believe that this should be the responsibility of the institution or company doing the work to a greater extent than today. One result of this proposal is that it will become more transparent than today – which is needed.

The risk of this proposal lies in further pressure on prices at the expense of science – but if you look at other deregulations they have rarely led to lower prices. It will most probably lead to a situation where it will be more important to be on good terms with the entrepreneurs. This will place new demands on archaeological performers, the County Boards and the National Herritage board – there are several risks concerning this that should be discussed in depth. Due to this the County Boards may get too little transparency in the process of ensuring that decisions are implemented properly – they need to develop tools to ensure the quality of the work. There is also a risk that rogue firms seek to influence the archaeological firms or that rogue archaeological firms arise. Other problems include unexpected findings during an excavation or who to resolve issues between the entrepreneur and the archaeological excavator.

If this proposal goes through there are several issues that needs to be tended to, especially that of the County Boards roll, but also the National Heritage Board will have their hands full. I’m not sure if this proposal will be for the better or the worse – and much can happen before this goes in front of the parliament – but it will change the archaeological landscape of Sweden.

A quick update on my views on the prop. To make it work it is obvious that the decision part need to be strengthen, e.g. the decisions must be done in another way than today with a lot more detailed information on what the County Boards wants from the investigation or excavation. It also demands a way of certifying companies – e.g. the County Board can’t as today just ask for a letter of interest but must also clarify if the company is up to par. This will make it possible for companies that don’t reach the County Boards standards an opportunity to fix the problems or appeal the decision – which in a way will make the process more transparent. There is also a great need to give the County Boards better opportunities and resources to make oversight of the work, to control that it is done accordingly and fulfils the decisions. There is also need for tools for penalties or fines if the contracts are not done correctly or in accordance with the County Board’s decisions. This also requires that the National Heritage Boards get greater, or redistributes, resources for supervision of the County Boards and their operations.

I’ve noted that some makes comparisments with the situation in Holland, Great Brittan and Ireland etc. These are relevant if we see to the procurement process but there are several things that differ which makes these comparisments difficult, for example laws concerning land ownership, cultural heritage and building and planning processes. As I am fairly ignorant of the laws and processes concerning this in other countries I don’t feel that it’s appropriate to make detailed comparisons with them – at least not for me.

I’ll read it in depth during the weekend and come back to you with more thoughts!

Others that blogged about this is Fredrik Svanberg at Museum Nu (Blog in Swedish), the Swedish blogs En humanists väg till arbetslivet and Arkeologigruppen here and here.

Magnus Reuterdahl

A ship, a wreck? – an etching

updated

We are currently switching our bedroom with our study due to the fact that our library has grown and continues to grow. When you take things down from shelves and walls you will find things you forgot other things have been there so long that you become blind to them as this picture.

It is an etching by Erik Ekroth – a Stockholm artist. The motive is probably from Skeppsholmen in Stockholm with a view towards Södermalm. I haven’t found much information on Erik Ekroth, but he was born in 1883 in Boston, USA. He was educated at the Art Academy etching school, in Stockholm, and a pupil of Axel Tallberg (Wikipedia article on Tallberg in Swedish) and active in the Stockholm area. He did etchings for at least two works – in 1913 a collection of etchings was published in Bonniers månadshäften (Bonniers monthly booklets): 100 Stockholmskåkar (100 Stockholm houses) and HAGA. Tolf etsningar af E. Ekroth (Haga – 12 etchings by E.E). Text av Carl Forsstrand. 1918, printed in a mare 200 ex.

There is little economic value in this etching, but it is decorative and shows a moment frozen in time from the past. I’m no expert on ships and how they were handled at the turn of the century (19^th -20^th), but I got the impression that this is was an obsolete ship. Alongside this is part of the crew or possibly the owner, mayhap considering voyages done or the work at hand. I’ve been given information that this very likely is a row picture rather than a wreck.  Before the dry time, it is usual to turnover ships to inspect or repair the undersides. Thanks to Claes Theliander and Claes Pettersson for info!

Skeppsholmen is an island in lake Saltsjön in central Stockholm. Today four museums are situated on the island including the Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities. For Over 300 years until 1968 Skeppsholmen was used by the Navy. Many of the buildings on Skeppsholmen stems from this era.

Magnus Reuterdahl

R.I.P. Gary Moore

Another hero bites the dust. It might be a sign of age that your childhood heroes are beginning to die off. I found Gary Moore via Thin Lizzy where he did great work – his solo albums contains lots of great stuff but my favourite album with Gary was and is G-force from 1979. I played this album over and over and still returns to it now and then.

Magnus Reuterdahl

A few words on the CAA-Sweden work-shop on GIS-data 2011-01-31

Detta inlägg finns tillgängligt på svenska här.

Note this is not necessarily CAA-SE views but my own, although I hope they largely conform.

CAA = Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology

There are several good digital resources on the Internet. Two good Swedish resources are Fornsök and K-samsök (K-samsök is in Beta). These are open to professionals, scientists, students and others that are interested in the field. Fornsök is the National Heritage Board’s (RAA) database of ancient monuments. This allows you to search through the ancient monument ID number, property name, parish, municipality, etc., or based on keywords such as burial, stone setting, settlement, etc. you can also search using maps and then click on the point or polygon you are interested in. The system is primarily designed as a tool for administrators working with cultural heritage why some things may seem illogical. One example is the dating of monuments, most have no specific date, instead it says Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age. This is due to the fact that the monuments aren’t properly dated until an archaeological investigation or excavation is being done. K-samsök works in a different way. It is a kind of umbrella database where several organizations are linked to a portal. i.e. you seek in several data bases at once.

A database that is missing is a annual national database covering data of what exploitation archaeology has been done and GIS-data about it. This is something that can be an important tool for the city planning, for researchers, students, archaeologists and others concerned.

CAA-Sweden (CAA-SE) has drawn attention to this and is trying to find a basis for what such a database could be like and then to lobby for someone to start it up.

The Work shop focused on what needs to be done, what should be included and to identify those that could be a part in the work with and organizer of the database.

There are some local excavation records, some of which are available on-line, at the county administrative boards and / or at county and city museums. Among these are a number StadsGIS (CityGIS).

One suggestion that I think would be realistic is that like any registered ancient monument and archaeological find have a permanent searchable identity on the Internet so should also every archaeological excavation and context have it.

Some of the things to consider are:

• the Terminology
• Standards
• GIS data
• How to structure the data
• Who will use the databases and what needs do they have? What questions should be answered?

Furthermore a number of factors for success were raised:

• Voluntary, participation and transparency.
• Decentralized – excavator update information yourself
• Digger own investigation until it is reported
• Old surveys can be entered
• The system is simple
• the data can be quickly uploaded
• It is national

There were some questions raised whether the system should be mandatory or voluntary. Personal, I think it should be mandatory and entered in the RAA’s manuals and advices, and that it should be a part of the County Administrative Board’s decisions.

 

I believe in a solution based on a central database such as Fornsök. I also believe in a system with minimum requirements, which can be built on.’

It came forth that RAA and the county administrative boards are discussing a national excavation registry and a decision records, etc. within government Uppdrag 74, which started in 2009 or 2010 – I think that it is important to be sure to be a part of this or we risk a record created solely based on certain needs instead of building a database for multi purposes.

It was also raised that there already exists a number of systems that can be used for inspiration, or use, such as Inspire. However, there are more out there so these should be identified and studied. Here, I must admit that there were more mentioned but that my attention faltered – sorry.

It was put forward that it is important that from the outset to look at both technical solutions and on how a database should look. One suggestion was to create two work groups to look at this

We should also look at issues of licensing and copyrights.

It was submitted that it would be good to put forward the idea at the seminar regarding reports by RAA March 15^th-16^th.

Something that I liked was that there were representatives from so many different directions; from the universities, from museums and other archaeological institutions, from government agencies and provincial governments and others.

This is not a complete summary of what was raised, but some of the ideas I brought with me.

More on the work shop can be found at Digitala museer and SAU, both posts are in Swedish. Link to CAA’s webpage, CAA-SE is up at LinkedIn.

Magnus Reuterdahl

 

Några ord om CAA-SE work-shopen om GIS-data 2011-01-31

This post is available in English here

Notera att detta inte nödvändigtvis CAA-SE åsikter, men mina egna, men jag hoppas de till stor del överensstämmer.

CAA = Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology

Det finns flera bra digitala register som är användbara för såväl yrkesverksamma. Forskare , studenter och intresserad allmänhet, t ex Fornsök, Riksantikvarieämbetets databas över fasta fornlämningar. I denna kan man söka via fornlämningarnas id-nummer, fastighets beteckning, socken, kommun etc eller utifrån sökord såsom grav, stensättning, boplats m.m. man kan också söka via kartor och därefter klicka på den punkt eller polygon man är intresserad av. Systemet är dock i första hand gjord som ett verktyg för handläggare inom kulturmiljövården varför vissa saker kan verka ologiska. Ett exempel är dateringen, en lämning är i regel daterad till stenålder, bronsålder, järnålder alternativt historisk tid. Detta beror på att lämningarna först dateras i samband med arkeologiska åtgärder. K-samsök är en annan typ av sökverktyg där man istället för att ha en databas kopplar ihop flera databaser med en portal i vilken du söker i alla databaser på en gång, t ex fornsök, ett antal museisamlingar, bebyggelseregister etc. Bägge dessa är goda exempel på bra digitala resurser.

Något som saknas är dock ett arkeologiskt undersökningsregister, en nationell årlig översikt var exploateringsarkeologi sker. En databas där man kan hämta hem GIS-data. Detta är något som kan vara viktigt ur flera aspekter: för stadsplanering, för forskare och för undersökare m.fl.

CAA-Sverige (CAA-SE) har uppmärksammat detta och försöker hitta ett underlag för hur ett sådant skulle kunna se ut och därefter att lobba för att någon ska ta tag i det.

Workshopen handlade om vad som behöver göras och vad som bör ingå samt att identifiera vilka som skulle kunna vara huvudmän för registret.

Det finns en del lokala undersökningsregister, varav vissa är öppna sökregister, t ex på länsstyrelserna och/eller läns- och stadsmuseerna. Bland dessa finns ett antal StadsGIS.

Ett förslag som jag tycker vore realistiskt är att liksom varje fornlämning och registrerat fynd får en permanent sökbar identitet på internet borde också varje arkeologisk undersökning och undersökt kontext få det.

Några av de sakerna man måste tänka på är:

• Facktermer
• Standarder
• Mätdata
• Hur man ska strukturera datan
• vem ska använda databaserna och vilka behov har dessa? Vilka frågor ska besvaras?

Vidare framfördes ett antal saker som bör uppfyllas för att få det att fungera – framgångsfaktorer:

• Frivillighet, delaktighet och öppenhet.
• Decentraliserad – grävaren uppdaterar all information själv
• Grävaren äger undersökningen till den är avrapporterad – ”grävningens hemsida”
• Gamla undersökningar ska kunna läggas in
• Att systemet är enkelt
• Att det går snabbt att ladda upp data
• Att det är nationellt

Huruvida systemet ska vara tvingande eller frivilligt rådde det viss tvekan kring. Personlligen tycker jag att det bör skrivas in i Riksantikvarieämbetets handböcker och råd liksom att det bör stå i länsstyrelsens beslut.

Jag tror på en lösning som bygger på en central databas som fornsök, jag tror på att ett system med minikrav, som kan byggas på efterhand.

Det kom fram att Riksantikvarieämbetet och länsstyrelserna diskuterar ett undersökningsregister, ett beslutsregister m.m. under Uppdrag 74 som startade 2009 eller 2010- Här tror jag att det är viktigt att hänga på annars riskerar ett register skapas som endast bygger på vissa behov istället för att redan från början bygga in alla som kan komma att tänkas behöva det.

Det togs också upp att det redan finns ett antal system man kan låta sig inspireras av eller nyttja såsom t ex Inspire. Det finns dock fler så dessa bör identifieras och studeras. Här får jag erkänna att fler nämndes men att jag just då inte var fullt uppmärksam – sorry.

Det fördes fram att det är viktigt att redan från början titta på tekniska lösningar och på hur en eventuell databas ska se ut. Ett förslag var att skapa två arbetsgrupper som kan titta på detta.

Man bör också titta på frågor kring licensavtal och rättigheter.

Det fördes fram att det vore bra att föra fram tanken om ett undersökningsregister i samband med RAÄ:s rapportdagar 15-16 mars.

Något som jag tyckte var kul var att det var företrädare från så många olika håll; från universitet, från museer och andra undersökande institutioner, från myndigheter och länsstyrelser m fl.

Detta är inte en komplett sammanställning av vad som togs upp utan lite av de tankar som jag tog med mig.

Mer om workshopen finns hos Digitala museer och SAU. CAA-SE hittar du på LinkedIn

Magnus Reuterdahl

Runica et Mediævalia 2010 editions

New books on my reading list, from Runica et Mediævalia:

Det senmedeltida Stockholm – en språklig och kulturell smältdegel (The late medieval Stockholm – a linguistic and cultural melting pot). Stefan Mähl. Sällskapet Runica et Mediævalia Lectiones 9, 2010.

Bebådelsebilder. Om bildbruk under medeltiden (Annunciation pictures. About use of pictures during the Middle Ages.). Mia Åkestam. Runica et Mediævalia Scripta mimora 19. 2010.

S:t Sigfrid besjungen. Celebremus karissimi, ett helgonofficium från 1200-talet (Songs on S:t Sigfrid. Celebremus karissimi, a saint officium from the 1200s). Edition och kommentarer av Ann-Marie Nilsson. Runica et Mediævalia Scripta maiora 6. 2010

Magnus Reuterdahl