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Gingerbread Cult of Saint Lucy
A re-run from 12 December 2006. Tomorrow’s the feast-day of St Lucy, and my son’s school started off the celebrations a day early. So this afternoon, along with a lot of other parents, I had saffron...
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Wikileaks’ Non-Mountainous Non-Bunker
The current issue of Vanity Fair (#606, February 2011) has an interesting piece on the collaboration between Wikileaks, the Guardian and other old media. On page 110 we’re told that Wikileaks is...
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Two Museums in Minneapolis
Touching down at Minneapolis airport shortly before 19:00 last night, my wife and I were met by the charming Heather Flowers and Erin Emmerich from the Anthro Dept. They got us installed at our hotel...
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Church of Sweden Church Sold As Housing
In England and other countries, churches have long been deconsecrated and used as shops and for housing. In Sweden, this has previously only happened to nonconformist chapels – quite frequently,...
View ArticleNew Legal Definition of Protected Archaeological Sites in Sweden
In March of 2011, the Swedish government launched a state commission under County Governor Eva Eriksson to evaluate our legislation and national goals regarding the cultural environment. Yesterday the...
View ArticleProposed New Swedish Metal Detecting Law Misses Mark
As I’ve written before in a number of venues (e.g. Fornvännen and Antiquity), the current Swedish metal detector legislation needs to be changed. It is too restrictive in relation to honest amateur...
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Tern Island Again
Last week my dad and his wife took us to Tärnskär, “Tern Island” again like three years ago. This time we looked closer at the lovely glacial abrasion features on the island’s higher end.
View ArticleSwedish Landscape Surprises
Taking a hint from George Hrab’s stage show, I asked my landscape history students to write me a question each anonymously on a small note. Or rather, I asked them to ”Tell me something that surprises...
View ArticleRidiculous School Funding Drives
A perennial annoyance for me as a parent is the many odd ways in which schools force parents to organise the funding for trips and stays at camp collectively. The general idea is sound: it would not be...
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Saltsjöbaden Train / House Crash
Damn, I must have ridden those very train carriages thousands of times! The crash happened just four stops up the commuter train line from where I live. My wife and I went there this morning with our...
View ArticleDeservedly Forgotten Swedish Drink
Sweden used to have its own version of Irish Coffee: kaffekask. It was big in the 19th century and I believe it dropped from favour during our 1917-55 period of liquor rationing. Nobody seems to drink...
View ArticleSweden’s Main Contract Archaeology Units To Merge With Main Archaeological...
Contract archaeology is the current term for what used to be called rescue archaeology: documenting archaeological sites slated for destruction through land development. (Swedes sometimes fall for a...
View ArticleNot Great Impulse Control, Not Great Planning
Here are two pages out of this week’s Swedish crime chronicle, showcasing the rare beauties of the small-town criminal mind. Both remind me of the movie Fargo in different ways. The first one is...
View ArticleBetween Technocracy and Populism
I’m confused by this political science paper I’m editing. The guy wants to find a middle way for the EU between two kinds of authoritarianism: technocracy and populism. I understand the first word to...
View ArticleArchaeology Programmes At Swedish Universities Evaluated
The Swedish Higher Education Authority (Universitetskanslersämbetet) has evaluated our basic university programmes in a long series of subjects. The results for archaeology were published yesterday,...
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