News

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 ...
2016-11-11

Trenches Are A-Changin’

We can proudly announce that we have now started with regestering material from the Middle trench! Pottery from the Middle trench was the first material to begin to be registered. Only a few posts have been registered so far. My first observations are that the ceramic material from the Middle trench is much more fragmented than the material ...
2016-10-26

Awaiting a date

Now one of our textile fragments (see blog post from 11 February 2016) has arrived at the radiocarbon dating laboratory in Brussels. We will inform you of the date as soon as we get it so keep a check on this space.
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 ...
2016-09-02

One soil sample is all it takes

Parasitic diseases at the Alvastra pile dwelling By  Jonas Bergman, Archaeologists, Swedish History Museums Even after 86 years in dry storage (!), and almost 5000 years in the Alvastra bog, it’s still possible to find intestinal parasite eggs in relatively good condition from the culture layers of the Alvastra pile dwelling. After a brief preparation of ...
2016-08-28

The Alvastra project goes international

Dale R. Croes, Pacific Northwest Archaeological Services The Alvastra project has gone international. Just after Midsummer we attended a conference in what one of the participants described as beautiful Bradford, Great Britain. The Wetland Archaeology Research Project (WARP) was celebrating its 30th birthday with a meeting organized by the Department of Archaeological Science at the ...
2016-08-12

A trip to learn from a living legend

In April, I had the opportunity to be able to spend a week in Virginia, USA at the home of Dr. Errett Callahan, a master flint knapper, archaeologist and pioneer of experimental archaeology. Errett has long been one of the people I have looked up to for his skill and accomplishments within my field and ...
2016-08-03

Alvastra blog welcomes its first guest

      In Sweden the summer holidays are already starting to come to an end. All the members of our team will be back at work next week and we will start publishing blog posts to keep you updated on the progress of the project. In the meantime we have a guest post written by ...
2016-05-13

Another bead

Photographed from Montelius’ publication by Ola Myrin, SHMM. In this phographed version the scale is not 1:1. The bead is only 29 mm long and 19 mm wide. On the 29 September last year I wrote a blog post about the small bone bead found at the Alvastra pile dwelling. I said that I knew ...
2016-04-29

Hear ye, hear ye!

We are pleased to inform you that the flint material with find numbers from the eastern trench is now photographed and ready for you to look at. You can find all of the registered finds if you follow the link below or if you visit our website and browse your way to Sök i samlingarna! ...