Bricks and staves

As I worked in Skallsjo parish in Lerum I took the time to visit the ruins of Skallsjo old church. It is well cared for and situated on high flat surface.

The oldest part of the church is from the 13^th century, and then ca 10 x 18 m, in 1685 it was enlarged and ruins measures ca 24 m.

The church was abandoned in 1863 when the new church was consecrated.

In 1896 a decision to tear the then the decrepit church was taken, though obviously a lot still stands.

In 1936 -37 the ruin was restored and some archaeological excavations were made.

A nice stop.

On the way home I made a stop at Hedareds stave church from the 16^th century (dated through dendrocronologic testing), according to the info sign 1506. 

This is the last midlevel Stave church still standing in Sweden, in Sweden the middle ages ends in the 1520’s so it’s close to be a historic Stave church.

Unfortunately the church was locked so I couldn’t see the inside, but even so a nice stop.

Magnus Reuterdahl

A prolongation of employment

It seems I’ll stay for at least another month ’til the end of April as I got offered a prolongation of my employment at the County Administrative Board in Norrbotten.

So perhaps I’ll see a Norrbottnian spring as well as a winter. It’s been nice to have had a real winter; with lots of snow and cold temperatures. Down south where I’ve spent most my winters the winter is more of a period of grey; a perpetual mix of fog, rain, sometimes snow and thaw.

Later this month I’m going to Thessaloniki (Θεσσαλονίκη) in Greece for a few days, if anyone has tips of must visit sites in Thessaloniki please write a comment.

Magnus Reuterdahl

I am open to suggestions!

As it looks now; the coming Monday will be the start of my last month in Norrbotten County, at least for this time.  So in about a month I will be back in Stockholm – this has both pros and cons, it will be nice to come home but I will miss colleagues, work and newly acquired friends.

So it is high time to start job hunting. Luckily there are some openings, a few museums are looking for staff for the upcoming season and a couple of substitutes and also there are a few ads regarding employment at a couple of County Administrative Boards and at an archaeological entrepreneur.

This also means that it is time to update my CV and write something smart about myself. I’ve begun to contacting a few selected museums, archaeological entrepreneurs and County Administrative Boards that I would like to be associated with or work with.

This time around I’ve also turned to the international market and applied for a job at Museum of London; which could be very exacting.

In other words, I am open to suggestions! (Preferably regarding archeology or osteology).

Well I’ve got a month left of employment so I’ll know what to with my time, and luckly I also got a few days of vacation to use before March 31^st; This will be used for among other things a trip to Thessaloniki in Greece at the end of the month.

Magnus Reuterdahl

Drawin frozen in time?

This is a memorial post on Darwin; He would have been 200 years old if evolution allowed it, as it didn’t this post is in remembrance of him as a scientist and person. The theory of evolution was perhaps not a work of a single mind but it was presented by one man who had the guts to stand up for his beliefs though ridiculed by some of his pears. Ridiculous as it sounds he still is by some!

Caricature of Charles Darwins theory of evolution, 18th cent.

I’ve never understood the fear of being related to apes or other animals, I rather look at it as George Eliot (1819-1880); “If Darwin’s theory should be true, it will not degrade man; it will simply raise the whole animal world into dignity, leaving man as far in advance as he is at present” . This said I don’t doubt Darwin’s theory, though it can be and has been evolving since it was first told/printed.

In spirit of this, this post is more about theories and ideas in general than on Darwin per se. A theory flourish, evolve and is criticized and this is the very soul of a theory, it thrives as long as it’s being questioned, used and tested. Thereafter it becomes a footnote or a parenthesis in science history. This led me to think of a few articles I’ve read the last few months on UNESCO’s decision that traditions and customs are to be classified as world heritages. The aim is to find representative traditions and customs that we want to protect and preserve.

What would happen if theories and ideas were to become classified as world heritages? It isn’t all that farfetched; the idea of making an immaterial or intangible world heritage isn’t new. A few years back the idea of making Carl Linnaeus (Carl von Linné) into a world heritage was set in play, or rather the heritage of Linnaeus. Besides protecting and preserving buildings, parks etc the aim is also the environment where one can find traces of Linnaeus’ research. It might include plants and animals that are still present in the countryside, in gardens and in places where Linnaeus’ disciples made their collections. In other words a world heritage concerning Science and Technology.

Linneaus Rashult

What would happen if this is applied on ideas or theories? To protect and preserve!

Would an idea or a theory suddenly be untouchable/unchangeable if it became a world heritage? Would it be submitted to committees regarding what or how the theory should be interpret or used?

I don’t much like the idea of making traditions and customs into world heritages. It is the protect and preserve part I am questioning; I feel this is the something that rather belongs in an ethnographic/anthropological museum.

For example;

In Sweden there is talk about making the process of fermented herring a world heritage; I ask how? There are more than one way to produce this, such as diffrent local customs. Who will decide what the proper way? There is a risk of freezing the tradition or stopping it from evolving and in so making it stagnate and in the end perish. Evan worse if say a tradition as Midsummer’s eve would become a world heritage. The customs are changing, the people celebrating it are changing and probably the reason for celebrating is changing over time?  If this became a world heritage what would to protect and preserve mean?

I see traditions and customs as evolutionary phenomenons. It is the task of museums, journalists, authors and researchers to record how, why and when we do things so that the knowledge isn’t lost. I don’t see any gain in petrify these with the risk of making them stagnate or become obsolete and foreign to those living with them. If they do not change with time and with the users they will wither and fade. I belive that this is as true concerning ideas and theories as well, they need to be used and misused, to go where no man (or ape) has gone before.

Happy Birthday Mr Darwin, where ever you are, and may your memory be used, misused and evolving.

Magnus Reuterdahl

Door to Door

I’ve taken up the habit of walking through the rows of church cabins in Gammelstads Kyrkstad (church town) during the weekends. The silence and void of people makes you flinch at sudden movements or sounds and it is easy to let your thoughts wander. When I walked around the other day I noticed something I hadn’t before. A repeating pattern of some sort, I realised that most doors wore a resemblance. Certain normative symbols appeared every other step; triangles, squares etc. So I started to make a small survey in my head, grouping them according to appearances. I also took some photos of them. Now I did not look at all doors nor did I pass all cabins so this is quite summarily but it still gave a result; I identified four groups of doors.

The most usual one is the one with triangle at the top and standing panel on the bottom(ca 20)

The second group is a more classic door with X numbers of panels(ca 15)

 

Then I found a couple of doors with a fish bone pattern(2)

 

And one with a rounded archway(1)

As you can see the frequency show that some are more common than others. The cabins in them self are often quite simple, the red painted panels are from the beginning of the 20th century, but the outer doors and the window frames are more elaborated.

When one looks in between the cottages there are those who have a more old-fashioned appearance as well as some walls that have no panels.

There is a kind of beauty in those ruff edges and weather-beaten walls that has stood the test of time just as it is a bit ghost like as no one lives in them. They’re empty, silent, closed in by walls of snow and deserted ‘til the next church festival or festivity.

Magnus Reuterdahl

The Open Air museum Hägnan

Gammelstad (Old town) is a church village, more about the church and the church village can be found in previous posts here and here, dates back to the Middle Ages. Some of the oldest known parts of the village was placed where the open-air museum Hägnan (the fence) now resides or very nearby.

 

Within this area excavations have dated constructions to the 14^th century and forth. It is believed that a chapel mentioned in texts from the 14^th century that later on was turned into a church (1374), was situated in the near vicinity. According to the sources the vicarage was placed nearby the church and within Hägnan the vicarage was placed during the 16^th century. In 1558 it was turned into a Kungsgård (a royal farmstead) and in 1563 turned back to be a vicarage again. There are also a couple of C14 datings to the 12th and the 10th century but I haven’t found out exactly were these were made, though probably within Hägnan.

 

Within the Open air museum are buildings that are in its original place as well as buildings that has been moved there later on. It visit gives a view into the Norrlandic farmsteads and its developments.

 

This village store is one of newer buildings; it was originally situated in Kalix and is from the early 19^th century, then added to and rebuilt over time. Today a village store in style of the 1920’s is in place, it is open during tourist seasons.

 

A loft shed from the 18^th century, at the time the buildings formed an inner farm square. When they became obsolete many were torned down and today only 8 are still left within Norrbotten.

 

An interesting feature is an open building, where one can study how the house skeleton and see construction details.

I recommend a visit if you are in the vicinity of Lulea, the church, the church village and the Open Air museum is a full days worth of cultural activity.

A view toward Gammelstad and Nederlulea church from the NW edges of Hägnan.

Link to Hägnan Open Air museum (In Swedish)

Magnus Reuterdahl

The Nature Reserve Storforsen

Last Saturday I made a trip to the Nature Reserve Storforsen, some miles north of Älvsbyn.

Winter is on its way; the weather was fine but it was cold as you can see on the pictures below the night frost was still clearly visible at 2 p.m. and small pools of water had frozen to ice.

 

 

Storforsen or the grand rapids are the biggest rapids in the Nordic countries and it is a might sight. On the way to the rapids one passes an area where the rapids once rushed is today a beautiful landscape of smooth slabs of rock and giants’ cauldrons.

 

 

The great rivers of the north are not just spectacular sceneries it is also part of the cultural heritage, along the watercourses people have lived and worked. They’ve been used for fishing and for transportation. Along the courses there are several traces of human activities; rock art, settlements, hearths, remains from log-driving etc. At this site a lot of old houses have been collected as an open-air museum. In the summertime one can visit the houses and get to see examples on how people have lived and worked since at least the 17^th century. There are also examples of different forest related industries such as tar-production.

 

Two of the buildings, these were built ca 1920-30.

A tar pile, on the roof massive amounts of chopped wood was placed and slowly consumed by fire and out through the pipe came the tar.

 

As I said before it was cold and I wasn’t really clothed for the occasion so the visits became a quick stop.

 

Magnus Reuterdahl

A weekend of no posts

No posts this weekend due to work on an application for a post-graduate study at the Archaeology institution, Stockholm University. It’s almost uncanny the way they always seem to coincide with the fact that I am working far away from home and my beloved (and in these situation much needed) books. Nevertheless I managed to produce something I hope is interesting and smart enough.

 I took a few breaks during the weekend and visited the nature reserve Storforsen (the grand rapids) and took a walk to Hägnan – an open air museum in Gammelstad. In Hägnan one can see, and when opened also enter, buildings from 18^th and 19^th century. The buildings are different kind of farm-buildings from different parts of Norrbotten and are arranged as different farmsteads. The environment is beautiful as are the buildings and I took a lot photos.

 I’ll post some pictures and little more info about these two excursions later on during the week.

 Magnus Reuterdahl

The story of Tengbom organ façade in St Nikolai’s Church

I can’t say that that I had any knowledge about this affair before I stumbled across this article on the National heritage board’s (RAA) webpage. By chance I opened it and found an interesting article regarding a subject I otherwise probably never would have stumbled upon; an organ façade and the fights concerning its restoration or not. In this case the reinstatement of Ivar Tengbom’s organ façade in St Nikolai’s Church Halmstad.

The article concerns the issues on the restoration, the history of the façade, about the church’s purchase and installation of a new organ even though Tengbom’s was considered a cultural heritage and legally protected and therefore was to be restored and reinstated. An interesting tale of a struggle between different interests.

Originally this article, written by Marianne Lundberg and Niclas Fredriksson both working at RAA, was published in Orgelforum (3 2007:3 p. 12-16).

 Well, read all about here;

Tengbom façade on St Nikolai’s Church in Halmstad; clarification (In English)

Tengbomsfasaden i S:t Nikolai kyrka i Halmstad– ett klargörande (In Swedish)

After reading the article, that is interesting from several angles, it strengthen my belief that we need a strong and alert, as in this case, Governmental supervision to ensure the cultural heritage in all its form.

Magnus Reuterdahl

Gammelstads kyrkstad (Church town) a world heritage site

Now I’ve gotten me a internet connection so hopefully I’ll be a little bit more active that I’ve been the last months.

As I currently live within a world heritage site I’ve walked around and taken some pictures. The parts that are easily accessible are the visible parts, in this case the church and buildings that make up the church town.

 

Lets start with the church that was built in the 15^thcentury, consecrated in 1492 or possible a few years earlier during the final years of the middle ages (in Sweden we normally say that middle ages end around the coronation of king Gustav Vasa 1523 or in connection with the reformation of the church to Protestantism). The church is known as Nederlulea church.

 

The baptismal font is most probably older than the church. As you can see it is two parts whereas I believe the top part (the font) is the older.

 

The frescoes in the chancel was found under the plaster and restored in 1909 and probably painted by the famous Albertus Pictor during the 15^th century.

 

This round stone is a bit of a mystery.

When first I looked at it I supposed it was grave stone from the Iron Age as it looks much like the circular stones that mark some graves in the southern and middle parts of Sweden. It is ca 45-55 cm in diameter. Then I noticed the markings and supposed that those were of Sámi origin. I’ve later larded that the stone is a bit of a mystery, it can’t be connected to a grave, though this is not impossibility, and the carvings are not Sámi.

If I’ve understood it right the common belief is that the stone has been placed in the church sometime during the last few hundred years and that the carvings have been made by someone to look like Sámi markings. Exacting isn’t it?

This church has like many others traces from several ages, the pulpit in Baroque style was mad in 1712 and painted in 1742.

 

The church town I s made up by about 500 wooden cottages. The oldest written source concerning the church town is from the 17^thcentury by Johannes Bureus who visited it in the year 1600. The cottages have been used and are still used for accommodation for churchgoers as they visited the church on church festivals, for example Christmas and Easter. This was also used by the state to collect taxes from the churchgoers who often lived far from the church.

 

The oldest part of the Church town is from the first half of the14^thcentury. I’ll get back to you with some pictures and some facts of the archaeological part of Gammelstad church town.

Magnus Reuterdahl