The purpose of this paper is to study Uno von Troil's book Bref rörande en resa til Island MDCCLXXII as part of the transfer of knowledge about Iceland to Sweden and Europe during the late 1700s. On the basis of discussions on travel books and the image of 'the other', 'I will argue that von Troil, using the skills he already had access to, as well as the skills he acquired after his trip, provides a multifaceted picture of Iceland. At the same time, I will examine how von Troil conveys information about Iceland both to a Swedish and a European audience and illustrate his network relationships and career aspirations..

This essay is comparing two authors and the way they make use of and explain some of the archaeological methods and artifacts through their books.The first author is the Swedish archaeologist Stig Welinder, who has written Jordbrukets första femtusen år (The First Five Thousand Years of Agriculture). The second author is the American archaeologist and writer Adrian Praetzellis, who has written the book Death by Theory.These books are very different in some ways, but not in others. The main difference is that Death by Theory is belles-lettres while Jordbrukets första femtusen år is science.Both authors explain and in some way apply the use of the terms ?artifact? and ?ethnoarchaeology?, which is the two main subjects of comparison in this essay. The way they present these subjects, through their different styles of writing, is compared and discussed.