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a fun database
Mar. 3rd, 2018 09:59 pmMany of my work hours on the second PhD project have been spent delving in the database of the Swedish Historical Museum. I had been sent a link to a database search showing the 300-some odd steatite objects in their collection when I first started my project, and I have been slowly working my way through that list, creating cards in Scrivner for the various objects (plus photos, when they are available), and sorting the cards into folders for each location, and importing the locations from the database into Google earth, so I know where the objects are located.
The new icon, which I plan to use for posts related to my Durham uni work, comes from one of the finds from Lappland It is a "täljsten kärl", or soapstone vessel, which was part of a collection of objects sold to the museum in 1947, and supposedly found in Nautasjaure (today Nautijaur), Jokkmokk parish, Lappland.
My plan for this part of the project is to have a thesis section summarizing all of the Swedish soapstone objects from the collection, and then focus in on the Viking age objects that I will (I hope) be analyzing.
Parallell with this I need to get my hands on either published compositions or actual bits of soapstone from all of the outcrops which were or could have been used as quarries back then and analyze them to see what their trace element compositions are, and how to tell one quarry from another based on composition, in order to have a hope of being able to determine where the various objects came from before they were transformed from a bit of rock in the ground to a useful object.
From where I sit right now, this project looks like it will be fun and fascinating, but I am somewhat concerned about getting it all accomplished before my funding runs out in four years, given that I still have to work half time, and would like to have a life, too.
The new icon, which I plan to use for posts related to my Durham uni work, comes from one of the finds from Lappland It is a "täljsten kärl", or soapstone vessel, which was part of a collection of objects sold to the museum in 1947, and supposedly found in Nautasjaure (today Nautijaur), Jokkmokk parish, Lappland.
My plan for this part of the project is to have a thesis section summarizing all of the Swedish soapstone objects from the collection, and then focus in on the Viking age objects that I will (I hope) be analyzing.
Parallell with this I need to get my hands on either published compositions or actual bits of soapstone from all of the outcrops which were or could have been used as quarries back then and analyze them to see what their trace element compositions are, and how to tell one quarry from another based on composition, in order to have a hope of being able to determine where the various objects came from before they were transformed from a bit of rock in the ground to a useful object.
From where I sit right now, this project looks like it will be fun and fascinating, but I am somewhat concerned about getting it all accomplished before my funding runs out in four years, given that I still have to work half time, and would like to have a life, too.
