Newly found stone with runes from a medieval chapel at Sondum in the Faroes (hence I hesitate to refer to it as a rune stone - a grave context appears more likely at present…) 🥳🏺 www.tjodsavnid.fo/greinir/runa...

Rúnarsteinur funnin í útgrevstri á Sondum á Sandi — Tjóðsavnið

Í fornfrøðiliga útgrevstrinum á Sondum á Sandi komu fólk frá Tjóðsavninum í vikuni fram á ein rúnarstein. Rúnarsteinurin lá í gólvinum í einum bygningi, sum er givin fram í fornfrøðiliga útgrevstrinum...

tjodsavnid.fo

The images from Drammen, Norway, are harrowing. +100 homes destroyed, hundreds homeless, beloved pets dead (fortunately no people!).

What a day... driving from Stockholm to Gothenburg, I stopped by my old colleagues' excacation of a Viking Age gravefield, visited the infamous Rök Runestone, and took a swim in Lake Vättern, which separates the ancient provinces of Westrogothia and Ostrogothia. A land of wonder!

Visited the fantastic Velanda Runestone this past weekend. An unusually late heathen monument, dated to c. 980–1015 AD (when Christianity seems to have had a firm grip on the Westrogothian elites), with an inscription that ends: ᚦᚢᚱ ᛬ ᚢᛁᚴᛁ, Þur uiki — "Thor bless".

A curious initial 'b'(eatus) depicting a dragon eating a stag BnF MS Latin 8920; Lectionarium de tempore, pars aestiva; 12th century; Austria; f.134r @gallicabnf.bsky.social

#OpenAccess Fridell, S. (2026). Bidrag till Sparlösainskriftens tolkning. [Eng sum: Contributions to the interpretation of the Sparlösa inscription] doi.org/10.66449/for... Parallels are drawn to the Rök stone and its vision of Ragnarök. #Runes #VikingAge #Archaeology

I hate to be critical of fellow archaeologists — especially on Midsummer's Eve! — but in what way does two fairly small (0.5 m diameter) postholes located a whole 120 m apart empirically constitute anything resembling a structure or monument?

The Associated Press@apnews.com · 2mo ago

Archaeologists say they have discovered a structure near Stonehenge that may have served as a “prototype” for the monument.

Shocking news from Mörkö, with four people apprehended on suspicions of a severe antiquities crime — involving a hoard! You may remember this small island as the find site of the massive Early Medieval silver hoard I was involved with last year... www.svt.se/nyheter/loka... ⚱️🏛

Fornminnesbrott – fyra gripna av polisen

Fyra personer är misstänkta för grovt fornminnesbrott. Enligt Länstidningen ska brottet ha skett på Mörkö. Något som i så fall kan vara extra intressant då privatpersoner tidigare i år hittade en stor...

svt.se

💥 BREAKING #VIKING NEWS! Hoards of Vikings! Islamic Silver Found in Earliest Viking Coins Read all about this sensational new research in a breaking-news special #Vikings edition of A Whole Lot of History ⤵️ open.substack.com/pub/historyh...

BREAKING NEWS: Hoards of Vikings! Islamic Silver Found in Earliest Viking Coins

Hoards of Vikings!

open.substack.com

Ever heard of a duckhorse? Mallardhorse? 🐴🦆No? Well then, take a look at this 3D model I made of a medieval toy found in the Swedish town of Old Lödöse. It was excavated back in 1968, but only recently reinterpreted. Check it out here: skfb.ly/pKGtE 🏛⚱️

En medeltida leksak från Gamla Lödöse - Download Free 3D model by Lödöse museum (@lodosemuseum)

SWE: Detta träföremål (registrerat som LM-PB-00001) påträffades år 1968 vid en arkeologisk undersökning i den svenska medeltidsstaden Lödöse. Ursprungligen tolkades det som ett handtag, kanske till en möbel, men den har nu omtolkats som en möjlig barnleksak. Föremålet skapar en slags optisk illusion: från vissa vinklar ser det ut som en fågel (till exempel gräsand eller anka, med utsirad nacke, ögon och näbb), och från andra snarare som en häst (med man, öron, pannlugg, ögon och mule). ENG: This wood object (registered as LM-PB-00001) was found in 1968 during an archaeological excavation in the medieval Swedish town of Old Lödöse. Originally it was interpreted as a handle, perhaps belonging to a piece of furniture, but it has now been reinterpreted as a possible child’s toy. The object creates a form of optical illusion: from some angles it looks like a bird (for example a mallard or duck, with an ornate neck, eyes and bill) and from others more like a horse (with a mane, ears, forelocks, eyes, and muzzle). - En medeltida leksak från Gamla Lödöse - Download Free 3D model by Lödöse museum (@lodosemuseum)

skfb.ly

My book, "The Middle Ages in Computer Games" is out in paperback tomorrow (2 Jun). If you've been waiting to get hold of it, now could be a good time! boydellandbrewer.com/book/the-mid...

Made a visit to the Flyhov Rock Art Site today, by the foot of the mighty Kinnekulle plateau mountain. The largest collection of Bronze Age rock art in Västergötland and unusually far inland. Note the famed "Axe God". Freshly accessible, but still poorly painted-in. ⚱️

Wow! The, apparently, largest hoard of Viking Age silver coins ever found in Norway: ⚱️ www.sciencenorway.no/archaeology-...

Norway’s largest Viking Age coin hoard has been discovered: 'Truly exceptional'

The metal detectors searching for coins in a field in eastern Norway still haven’t stopped beeping.

sciencenorway.no

ON grjót occurs in many #Orkney #place-names such as Gruthamay Dike, Grutsheen Loch (North Ronaldsay) where the 2nd element is tjǫrn 'tarn' (nice & tautological!) & in Rousay with Knowe of Gruddo (where it compounds with ON haugr 'mound') & a lost place, Grudwik, with ON vík 'bay' (Marwick, 1947).

Dictionary of Old Norse Prose@onp.ku.dk · 3mo ago

Yesterday’s #Wordle: grjót (sb. n.): 98 cits, e.g. (I) stones, boulders, stony ground // (I) sten, kampesten, stengrund ‘þó kendi búzan hvárki grjót né grunn’ (GBp in Holm perg 5 fol) onp.ku.dk/o28927 #OldNorse

"Many young visitors to the tomb would leave the headache drug Ibuprofen on the tomb (Cao Cao had suffered severe migraines during his life)." 😭 ⚱️ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cao_Cao...

Cao Cao Mausoleum - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

It's supposed to be spring, so why did my trench fill with water and freeze overnight? Yes, that's an early 20th century drainage ditch — under ice.

Yesterday, a minor landslide occurred at Österhög on the island of Hisingen. The first images have now come out. No person hurt, but sadly a horse presumed dead.

"The Caliph and the Falcons": just out, by @medivalist.bsky.social and @samottewillsoulsby.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

The caliph and the falcons: a ninth‐century history from Iceland to Iraq

In the late ninth and early tenth centuries, an extraordinary number of falcons were given to the ʿAbbāsid caliphs in Baghdad, many of which were white. Gifts from competing dynasties in the northern...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Had a marvelous time today giving a fully seated lunch lecture at the museum about the Early Viking Age trading site of Köpingen, which has been completely unknown in scholarship abroad — I am to change that, with renewed fieldwork hopefully coming in autumn, pending funding! ⚱️

For #StandingStoneSunday, here is a 1920s self-portrait by Oscar Färdig, a rural autodidact photographer, my great great grandmother's brother. He is standing by the great Iron Age menhirs of Stenehed (appropriately meaning "Stone Heath", likely refering to the monuments). ⚱️

In "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms", ser Humfrey Beesbury is commemorated with a bee-filled casket. Unrelatedly, when we buried my beekeeper grandfather on Friday, a jar of honey and a string of bee-shaped lights were featured, and the old photo of him included a bee figurine. 🐝

My beloved grandfather, Sven Lennart Larsson, passed away a few days ago, after a short illness. He would have turned 90 this year. I'll miss him a lot.

Must admit — still confused by the Blue Sky feed. What do I do to get more archaeology and history into mine?

Had a great time today visiting the birthplace of my (unintentional) namesake — Igreja de Santo António de Lisboa. Immaculately Antonian vibes.

Today was my last day at Uppdrag arkeologi. Now awaits the Christmas holiday, and then, in January, I start my new position as archaeological project manager at Lödöse Museum (home to a true treasure — the remains of Old Lödöse, a lost medieval town: www.lodosemuseum.se/en/)

Really enjoyed presenting some of the results from our/my research project about Late Medieval and Early Modern maritime rock art/carvings/graffitos in the Stockholm Archipelago at the County Administration's seminar. ⚱️

Last week, for the first time ever, we excavated a "trankokeri", a tryworks where herring oil was produced, on Lilla Askerön. It was built in 1797. We revealed two complex brick oven structures, one of them very intact, providing new insights into the Bohuslän herring fisheries.

We at Kulturlandskapet work at a broad scale withing cultural heritage, archaeology, education, architecture and research. Follow us for news here on Bluesky and on our website: www.kulturland.se

Discovered #StandingStoneSunday and in honor of this day I’d like to share a drone photo I’ve taken of the Blomsholm stone ship/ship setting, located near Strömstad in Bohuslän, Sweden. The ship measures more than 40 m in length, and consists of 49 large menhirs. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blomsholm

The Hörningsholm Hoard! We have finally been able to go public with the find site of the treasure found recently south of Stockholm (made up of 24 000 12th century coins + a wealth of Viking Period jewelry). See the preliminary report (great photos!) here: online.fliphtml5.com/eapth/urqp/

43314-2025_Hörningsholm_PM

online.fliphtml5.com