Excavation documentation

2019-07-17

The Alvastra project is nearing the end

We are spending the summer going through everything that has been produced and editing texts so that they can be published on the digital platform which we hope to launch this autumn. Very embarrassingly, when going through all the material stored in various places, I found a text that should have been published in this ...
2018-05-02

Upside down or the right way up?

If you wanted to cut out a block of peat containing archaeological remains and place it in a wooden box for transport to a museum for excavation indoors, how would you do it? Would you cut out the block, make a wooden box of the correct size and then place the box upside down over ...
2018-03-26

State keeps Alvastra pile dwelling finds

Compiled report   In Sweden all archaeological finds belong to the state. The state can decide to transfer the ownership of archaeological finds from the state to another institution if that institution is capable of  preserving archaeological assemblages. When an excavation has been reported,  it is the National Heritage Board that decides who is to ...
2016-12-01

From the Middle Neolithic to the Middle Ages

Textile fragment during excavation.  Photo: Nathalie Hinders, SHMM We already know that the Dags mosse mire was not only used during the Middle Neolithic. The material traces of these post Stone Age activities are by no means comprehensive but they do exist. The radiocarbon analysis of human bones revealed one individual from the Early Roman ...
2016-09-12

A new book

When Mats P. Malmer started new excavations at the Alvastra Pile Dwelling between the year 1976 and 1980 the excavation area was divided up into four trenches – the Eastern, the Western, the Middle and the Investigation trenches. Investigations in these trenches were directed by four different archaeologists – Mats P. Malmer (Eastern), Hans Browall ...
2016-03-21

Alvastra archives

Mats Malmer excavating the Eastern Trench at Alvastra pile dwelling. Photo: Stockholm University.   Mats Malmer directed the excavations at the pile dwelling in 1976-1980. At the time he was professor of archaeology at the University of Stockholm but he came from the University of Lund where he was professor from 1970 to 1973. He ...
2016-02-11
6

What’s in the Alvastra box? Part 2

  Fig. 1. The peat block before investigation. Photo Hilde Skogstad, SHM  Introduction On 15 July 1930 a block of peat was cut out of Dagsmosse mire and put into a wooden box with a nailed on lid. Apart from the date (in fact two dates occur on the box 15/7-30 and 30/6-30), archaeologists also ...
2015-12-17
2

A digital platform about a wooden platform

The prehistoric causeway as it enters the wooden platform from the southeast. Illustration: Mats Gilstring The causeway as it is reconstructed today. Photo: Nathalie Dimc, SHMM We have now created an adress and an introductory text for what will become a kind of site archive for all those who are interested in conducting research into ...
2015-08-28

The full picture

Photograph: Stockholm University For technical reasons the photograph that introduces our blog has been severely curtailed. Here is the full version of the picture taken during the excavations from 1976 to 1980. It shows all four trenches that were investigated during this campaign. The eastern trench is in the foreground. Behind it is the middle ...