A busy day

Tomorrow I’m off to Kalmar and Kalmar County Museum for a five month tour, hopefully longer. So it’s packing and finding out what I need for my first week. On Wednesday I’ll be part of a Nordic TAG panel on social media and archaeology – I’ll have to give some thought to that as well.

I’ll be back with some pics and thoughts on Kalmar tomorrow

Magnus Reuterdahl

Day of Archaeology 2011

Found this on-line and urge all archaeologist and others within the cutural heritage trade to jump on the wagon and give evidence of what you do on july 29^th for Day of Archaeology 2011.

“Archaeologists taking part in the project will document their day through photographs, videos and written blog posts. These will then be collected on this website, which will provide a glimpse into a day in the life of people working in archaeology, from archaeological excavations to laboratories, universities, community archaeology groups, education services, museums and offices.”

Day of Archaeology 2011 read all about it here!

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The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities Bulletin N:o 15 & 19

Today I got a couple books I ordered; The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities Bulletin N ° 15 & 19. We have studied these books several times during our study on the Yangshao traditions and Johan Gunnar Andersson’s work in China but not felt the need to own them – until now. In connection with our current study of parts of the collections at the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities in Stockholm was also a need to precisely identify the specific sites and Johan Gunnar Andersson description of the digs and finds, and in these books are in many ways keys to this. The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities Bulletin N ° 15, issued in 1943 (reprinted in 1971) subtitled Research’s into the prehistory of the Chinese concerns finds from Yangshao and several other sites in Henan, Gansu and Shanxi and N: O 19 contains Prehistoric Sites in Honan by J.G. Andersson. A first problem is to transliterate the names of the settlements from the Wade-Giles transliteration (a method to transliterate Chinese into the Latin alphabet that was developed by Englishman Thomas Wade in the 1800s), used by Johan Gunnar Andersson to Pinyin which is more often used today.

More information on the Yangshao project is available at the project blog.

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Castle seminar

Today I am the annual castle seminar at the National Historic museum, Stockholm.

Bones on my mind

Time to go to the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities for another day searching in Johan Gunnar Andersson’s collections. I’m a part of the Yangshao project (Link to blog – most in Swedish som in English) – a project that aims to learn more about Chinese archaeology & prehistory in general and the neolithic Yangshao traditions in particular.

At the moment we look for bone materials (animal bones) collected during the 1920s at several chinese sites, most situated in the Gansu province. Most of the finds were collected by Johan Gunnar Andersson (1874–1960). This first basic re-search aims to identify the material, from what sites they are and to figure out questions that might give interesting results as well as be possible to do. The material is larger than we originally thought and hold several interesting finds; among them several neolithic dogs, bones from goat, sheep, cow and several different cervids – these can be used to study butchery age and give information on animal size. There are also a lot bone/horn artefacts; needles, scrapes, clubs, handles etc . I’ll get back to you with more information as we get it.

Two things I can show you are two find boxes. One of the things that hits you when you look through old materials is what was used to store the finds: cigarette boxes, film boxes etc. These are a lot more beautiful than todays:

We also found this great reproduction of the Bejing man (Sinathropus pekinensis) skull, made in England by R.F. Damon & company.

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An era has ended

Archaeological Haecceities tells me that one of the most important archaeologists of the 20th century has passed away, Lewis Binford (1930-2011). Binford was an American archaeologist that was one of the leading archaeologist behind the New Archaeology, a positivistic type of archaeology that emerged in the late 50′s early 60s. New Archaeology later led to what we call processual archaeology. His contribution is mainly within the theoretical part of archaeology and though it perhaps didn’t begin with the anthology New Perspectives In Archaeology (1968) – written together with his wife at the time Sally Binford, that was oneof the important early works of Binford.

I’ve read several of Binford’s books but I’ve never had the opportunity to meet him. I think it’s time to pick up my well read copy of New Perspectives in Archaeology and give it a re-read.

A great archaeological force has passed away and with that I feel an era has ended. New Archaeology has perhaps played out its roll a long time ago. But it was a vital force that changed archaeology at the time and has since influenced us archaeologist in one way or another – now you truly are a part of history, our history as archaeologist.

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I’m turning 4 :)

I started this blog four years ago. At the time I wouldn’t have dreamt that it still would be on-line 505 posts and four years later. Well this is not the end I’ll carry on for a while yet – so you’re welcome to tag along!

A big thank you to all who reads the blog and to all who leave comments – let’s hope the spade finds something really great this summer to give testimony about:)

Lets’s head on into the future with a song of a digging a hole in the ground

Magnus Reuterdahl

 

Theoretical osteological work shop

This Saturday I’ll attend a theoretical osteological work shop at the Osteological research laboratory, Stockholm University with the title: Att stå på flera ben (To stand on several bones).

The work shop will be led by Ph.D. Anna Källén and Ph.D. Ing‐Marie Back Danielsson who will address different aspects concerning different social contexts such as genus and ethnicity, critical perspectives.

It’s always interesting to meet other osteologists and to get forums for discussions about osteology and methods.

I will tweet during the workshop from ca 10.30 local time #ostworkshop

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Nordic TAG XI 2011

During Nordic TAG XI in Kalmar April 26^th to April 29^th I’ll be part of a panel discussion on social media – the problems, potentials, challenges & opportunities during the session Research and Outreach in the Digital Age – organized by Åsa M Larsson, Societas Archaeologica Upsaliensis, Sweden & Lars Lundkvist, Swedish National Heritage Board, Visby.

The speakers during the session is

• The Iron Age Shock Doctrine – a GIS analysis of property rights in the landscape – Daniel Löwenborg, Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University.
• Reconstruction of ancient landscapes – posibilities for research – Kari Uotila, Department of Archaeology, University of Turku.
• The Uppåkra Project: Digital Pipelines for the Documentation and Analysis of Archaeological Excavations in Three dimensions – Nicolò Dell’Unto, Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Lund University.
• Hvordan kan et stort, nationalt museum anvende sociale medier? – Charlotte S H Jensen, National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen.
• Digital Time Travels: A Collaboration Experience between Universities and Museums/Visitors Centres – Bodil Petersson, Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Lund University
• Dealing with the public and academic views of the Maya – Johan Normark, Department of Historical Studies, Göteborg University

I look forward to the session, the speakers and the panel discussion

Magnus Reuterdahl

 

Et tu Sator

Tonight I’m hitting old hunting grounds. When I grow up in Jonkoping and getting of age to spend my nights on pubs and clubs several nights were spent on the locally infamous pub Lilla Krogen (the little bar). As I recall it this was the place were people that were to drunk to get into other establishments or to young ended up. Local rock band Crut released a song called Balladen om Puben Lyckan (the ballad of the Pub Hapiness) that was about the bar (the song is avilable here as well as the song Jönköping, both in Swedish) 1979. On occasion it as had it’s peaks were its actually been popular but I really can’t say it was back then. Today it has been renamned to Ztyle and has transformed into a rockclub. Tonight I’ll be there to see Sator, a swedish punk/hardrock act who hit fame during the late 80′s and early 90′s playing a punkish rock that I really liked at the time, and still do. For me its the period between 1988 with the album Slammer! to the 1995 album Stereo via the albums Stock Rocker Nuts (1990), Headquake (1992) and Barbie-Q-Killers vol. 1 (1994) that is the peak period. All worth a listen.

Tonight they’re in Jönköping with a new album playing live at Ztyle – lets head bang

Magnus Reuterdahl