Department of Archaeology and Classical Studies

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New Book: Birka’s Black Earth Harbour

The excavation of Birka’s Black Earth Harbour in 2015/16 is now published.

DNA analyses highlight kinship structures in early farming groups in Anatolia

An international research team with participants from Stockholm University has analyzed ancient DNA from human remains of the earliest Neolithic cultures from 10,000-8000 years ago in today's Turkey.

Picture of the linen wrap with the fetus. Photo: Gunnar Menander

A kinship relation found between bishop Peder Winstrup and a fetus in his coffin

DNA-analyses prove a kinship relation between bishop Peder Winstrup (1605-1699) and a fetus found in his coffin.

New article in The Conversation by Jens Christian Moesgaard

In the autumn of 2020, I was contacted by the field archaeology unit of the Swedish National Historical Museums, who are also known as the Archaeologists. They were excavating at a Viking-age settlement at Viggbyholm just north of Stockholm. During routine metal detecting of the site, they had located a very exciting find: eight silver necklaces and other silver jewellery along with 12 coins, everything delicately wrapped up in a cloth and deposited in a pot. In other words, a genuine Viking silver hoard.

New film on Birka

New film on Birka from the excavation in August 2020.

The coin from Normandy

Rare coin identified in Viking Age hoard

During the autumn of 2020, a silver hoard was found by the company Arkeologerna, part of the National Historical Museums, at a Viking Age farm in Viggbyholm, north of Stockholm. Jens Christian Moesgaard, professor of numismatics at Stockholm University, was contacted to help archaeologists identify the coins.

New dissertation - Maiken Hemme Bro-Jørgensen - Ancient genomics of Baltic seals

This thesis aims to study and describe the ancient populations of grey and harp seals in the Baltic Sea, and to present new methodological approaches for general use in ancient DNA studies.

Geographical map showing the locations of the individuals sequenced in this study.

Ancient DNA analysis reveals Asian migration and plague

Ancient DNA reveals a history of migrations, continuity, and diseases in northeastern Asia.

Iron and the transformation of society. Reflexion of Viking Age metallurgy

The Vikings put in a new angle as developing production of iron, which for an example, led to create preconditions for the building of societies.

Rött bokomslag med titel och en romerskrelief på.

Life and Death in a Multicultural Harbour City

In this volume includes 50 articles with numerous illustrations, written by international scholars active in the research of Ostia and Portus, the harbour city and the harbour area of ancient Rome

Grey seals lying on a sandy beach on the island of Helgoland in North Sea, Germany. Credit: Aikateri

How did prehistoric societies deal – culturally and economically – with environmental change?

The project propose a novel, cross-disciplinary study on how humans used culture as a means to handle sudden environmental change, and detect different patterns of human behaviour in prehistoric coastal societies in the Baltic Sea area.

New dissertation: Aripekka Oskari Junno

In this thesis, organic residues preserved in ancient pottery are used to reconstruct diversity and change in the foodways of Late Holocene hunter-gatherer communities in coastal northern Hokkaido (1750 BCE–1250 CE)

New Dissertation: Vasiliki Papakosta

This thesis aims to provide an understanding of the dynamics underlying the adoption of pottery by pre-agrarian hunter-gatherer cultural groups around the Baltic Sea.

New dissertation - Alison Harris

Alison Harrsi will defend her thesis, Palaeodiet and Infant Feeding in Coastal Arctic Settlements: Insights from stable isotope analysis of bone and dentine collagen and amino acids, on October the 13th.

New courses in Cultural Evolution

Are you a student in the humanities, social or natural sciences? Are you interested in a broad interdisciplinary perspective on cultural change? Then these courses are for you!

New book: The Scandinavian Early Modern World

Researcher Jonas Monié Nordin has recently published an essential book on The Scandinavian Early Modern World

New Book on Pastoralism and Landscape Change

Postdoctoral Fellow, Eugene Costello, has recently published an important new book, Transhumance and the Making of Ireland’s Uplands, 1550-1900.

Two burials at the Pittd Ware Culture Ajvide on Gotland. Left, a male in burial 54 placed on his bac

New insights into Stone Age cultural and social interaction

Researchers have investigated archaeological and genetic information to investigate cultural interaction and influences between the Battle Axe Culture (BAC) and the Pitted Ware Culture (PWC)

New dissertation - Marcus Fjellström - Food Cultures in Sápmi

The aim of this thesis is to highlight the heterogeneous cultural landscape in Sápmi through the study of food. By studying food and the choices of specific foodstuffs in Sápmi AD 600–1900, a greater understanding can be gained on the history of this area during the period.

Tatiana Richtman Feuerborn - Genomic Insights into the Population History of Circumpolar Arctic Dogs

The Siberian and North American Arctic have both borne witness to numerous migrations of humans and with them their dogs. This PhD thesis is based on whole genome data from 22 Siberian dogs and 72 North American Arctic dogs, in addition to 186 mitochondrial genomes Siberian and North American Arctic dogs.

The Battle Axe Culture in new light

In an interdisciplinary study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, an international research team combined archaeological, genetic and stable isotope data to understand the demographic processes associated with the iconic Battle Axe culture and its introduction to Scandinavia. The results show that the introduction of the new cultural manifestations was associated with movements of people.