Archeological investigation

Archeology can be really exciting. Being an archologist seems to be, at the best of times, like being a sleuth of history. Like Sherlock himself they seem to be able to draw the most stunning conclusions from the smallest clues. I´m a bit envious, but honestly, I wouldn´t like to spend days on end in a muddy trench, finding next to nothing. Sweden is hardly "Time Team"-territory, after all. Not a lot of roman coins turning up in the gardens of everyone and his neighbour!

For swedish readers who think this sounds like good reading, I recommend Mats G Larsson. This book is called "Sveahövdingens budskap" or "The message of the swedish king". Larsson is on the hunt for a king from the 11the Century, Emund, the father of the viking Ingvar, who died somewhere around Kiev. He uses what little historical sources there are, and hunts for old rune stones, mostly destroyed and used for church buildings, castles and the like. And of course, he manages to reconstruct a rather convincing story, while educating the reader about the history of archeology, introducing you to a lot of excentric academics from the 16th Century onwards.

This is educational and fun, and for me, that always works.