Arkeologi & Historiebloggen

Lyssna till berättelser om livet bakom arkeologin, om lägerliv och expeditioner i annorlunda miljö. 
Avsnitt 197

“Den där känslan av att öppna upp kistlocket och stirra ned på ett ansikte som inte sett dagens ljus på fem tusen år – det är någonting annat än arkeologi som kickar igång då. Det är både stort och något märkligt över det. Man känner doften av förruttnelse trots att kistan varit stängd i fem tusen år. En luftmängd som varit inkapslad och inte har sipprat ut – man drar ett andetag från forntiden…”

I’m sure you can recall the feeling of a newly cleaned desk. Papers that were previously stacked in special hoards or in certain localities, are now mixed into a few clean stacks. Any valuable and specific material is now gone forever. 

I felt that I wanted to touch upon this shortly, because it is bothering me. The desktop on my computer screen is hopelessly cluttered with various files and documents - well, for me it’s not a disorder but rather convenient. I know exactly in which corner or area on the desktop to retrieve an ongoing document. Finalized works are on the other hand stored in organized files elsewhere. I never understood the idea of a wallpaper on the welcoming screen. It’s not very welcoming for me or for anyone passing by - glancing on my screen. A long time have passed since I had a clear visual of that beautiful wallpaper image. So, why isn´t there a simple button to make a clean interface shift to the clutter when you need it? 

I know that Apple in their last update brought something called “Stacks”. Well, I don’t need stacks and I don’t want it due to the reasons above. So why isn’t there an option in-between where you can have a clean interface and at the same time have a convenient separate working space? This is how the human mind works and obviously a problem – otherwise Apple wouldn’t have invented “Stacks”, right? And no – I don’t want to have any third parties apps to solve this. It slows down the machine and it doesn’t activate automatically. 

Most of us can better remember a certain locality by its geography and localization in reference to the visible area surrounding it. We don’t refer to imaginary stacks when retrieving an address or recognizing a face. In a flash we instead compare a mouth or a tree in relation to surrounding features. This is also relevant for the times when you try to retrieve a certain text in a book. In such case - what do you do? First you estimate where you read it according to depth – that is, how far inside the book. Then you remember the specific text section by its location relative to any nearby illustration or the placement on the page. High, low, in the middle or to the left or right? After a while you usually find what you are looking for. This is how a cluttered desktop works and this is also why it is hopeless to regain something you read on a tablet where no three dimensional option is available.
Just saying.

Richard Holmgren

Problems when structuring chaos in relation to archaeological finds – listen to my essay in “OBS”, Swedish Radio P1 (in Swedish only) 

Richard Holmgren, Andreas Liljegren, Artem Domogirov, Ekaterina Zimina & Konstantin Keller

Read about the results and experiences from our Swedish-Russian Dyatlov Pass Expedition of 2019. The aim was to ski through the valleys and eventually camp in the legendary Dyatlov pass – this in the trails of the devastating ski tour made by the Dyatlov group in 1959.

Our venture was set to experience the same time period and days as Igor Dyatlov's team and to pitch the tent on the slope of Kholat Syakhl, the first of February 2019, 60 years after the incident. 

Click below for a summary of our 2019 expedition and
the new theory to the 1959 case

Skiing in the trail of the Dyatlov group - watch our short film. 

For the interested Swedish audience - click the link below for various media presentations in the wake of our 2019 expedition 

Dyatlov Pass Expedition 2019 Gallery