Notices by Martin Rundkvist (mrundkvist@archaeo.social)

Here’s a reminder about one of the most important results of the past fourteen years of ancient DNA research. Northern Europe was overrun by plague-spreading steppe nomads less than 5000 years ago, causing an almost complete population replacement.

It’s a 1492 event. Everybody knows that us Northern Europeans aren’t the original inhabitants of North America. But we aren’t even the original inhabitants of Northern Europe.

#archaeology #dna #migration

I don't watch the video clips you post. Give me an article to read.

And we're digging! Already found the foundation of an 1800s barn and a lot of modern scrap metal.

What do you want to know today about Swedish contract #archaeology?

They told us in school in the mid-80s that we were heading towards trouble with the "greenhouse effect". This turned out to be correct and nobody should act surprised.

#climate #heat

Hey private enterprise enthusiasts. You believe that the public sector can save money by handing over utilities to companies, which are inherently more efficient.

Here's why this doesn't work.

You have to pay someone to monitor the private companies. Because they have no incentive to deliver what they promised. They always cut corners in the name of profit. And that monitoring eats the savings you hoped for. While you have no control over your utilities.

#capitalism

If you think I'm exaggerating, think about it.

What is the incentive for a private company to fulfil every detail of the contract?

Only your monitoring. If nobody can tell whether they have done what you paid them to do, then it is economically rational not to do it. Avoiding that expense goes straight to the company's annual profit.

#capitalism

I once read something astonishing about the Perstorp Ltd. chemical industries that has stayed with me.

For many decades, this business didn't make any profit worth mentioning. It didn't lose money either. But it wasn't publicly traded, and the owners made no demands for better profitability.

So for at least two generations, all this organisation did was make quality chemical products and provide jobs. Many would say that it was a spectacularly unsuccessful company.

#capitalism

I miss the Hartwell & Cramer "Year's Best SF" anthologies. They were on the techie "hard" side of the genre without going too far. The eighteenth and last one came out 13 years ago now. I'd be happy to buy something similar in 2026.

Whatcha think, @cstross ?

#scifi #books

Dance. Never learn to march!

#dance #peace

My wife took a three-day course where everyone embroidered family photographs onto heirloom textiles. She's been working on her piece for two years and now there's an exhibition. About 40 pieces. ❤️

#art #textile #embroidery #craft

@afewbugs @aral @dibi58
I'm interested in actual young people today, not in utopianism. Citizens don't pay university tuition in Sweden. Everybody gets student loans. My advice is to study something that will reliably get you an interesting job. Our higher education system won't tell you which programmes do that, and which will have you driving a bus or taking on more debt for re-training afterwards.

#Humanities

@JimmyB
I'm talking to the poor kids. Be smart. Get a marketable education.

You assume that it is valuable to the individual to study Latvian poetry. It is not. A degree in Latvian poetry is a self-inflicted handicap.

Sweden has a senseless proliferation of archaeology departments. There's one for every 1.3 million inhabitants here. In Denmark, that number is 1 per 3.0 million. In Poland, it's 1 per 4.1 million.

My firm belief is that a person without inherited wealth should only study courses that fit into a degree that will lead to a steady job. Otherwise you just go into debt and lose time needlessly. It's better to drive a bus without study debt than with study debt.

#academia #humanities #archaeology

I would like to see no bailouts at all after this crash please.

#aibubble

@donni
And they go through these crazes, you know? Suddenly nobody's having babies or 30-year parties any more, it's all just 50-year parties. Sheer conformism!

In the 790s, the Scandinavians put sails on their ships and went to raid their first literate area, England. Thus opens the so-called Viking Period, which is an artefact of written history.

Archaeology has demonstrated that before that time, the Scandies had been raiding *each other* at shorter range with rowing ships for at least 1100 years.

From Hjortspring c. 340 BC to Salme c. AD 750.

#vikings #history #archaeology

People have strange heroic ideas about the Viking Period. The reason is that they specifically read *heroic* literature, much of it written as historical semi-fiction hundreds of years later. It's like basing your ideas about the 1100s on Walter Scott.

Viking Period archaeology in Scandinavia is deeply unheroic. It concerns itself overwhelmingly with the non-Viking activities of farmers.

Most runestones deal with modest land inheritance.

#viking #history

"Viking" was a job, not an ethnicity. Most Scandinavians at the time were never Vikings, and only the short-livedest, unluckiest young men were Vikings for their whole lives. The aim of most Vikings was to buy a farm and get married.

#viking #history

Steam ship ride on our 27th anniversary! ❤️

S/S Mariefred was christened in 1903 and has serviced the same route ever since, and with the same #steam engine!

If only Lou Zocchi, the RPG dice maker, had lived to see this!

#ttrpg #pnpde