Anna Sörman Researcher

I studied to become an archaeologist at the Department of Historical Studies, University of Gothenburg (2007-2011), with a masters degree in Nordic archaeology specialising in development-led archaeology. Thereafter followed doctoral studies at the Department of Archaeology and Classical Studies, Stockholm University (2011-2018), resulting in the PhD thesis "Casting Spaces: The spatial, social and political organisation of metalworking in southern Scandinavia during the Bronze Age". After the completion of my PhD I worked briefly as a field archaeologist at Arkeologikonsult AB. Previously, I have also participated in fieldwork in France and Iceland. Since January 2020 I mainly work with research.

During 2020-2022 I run the research project "Mediterranean Bronze and Närkish Iron"/"Changing metals, changing times" together with Karin Ojala. This research is focused on developing our understanding of the societal changes during the transition from Bronze Age to Early Iron Age. This project is financed by the Berit Wallenberg Foundation and the Allan Wetterholm Foundation.

Since December 2021 I am a Wenner-Gren Fellow at international research at the university of Nantes, France. During 2021-2024 I am working on a comparative study of the Bronze Age depositions in Northwestern France and Southern Scandinavia. The project is titeled "The power of pieces - Fragmented metalwork in the sacrificial economies of Bronze Age Europe". One of the main focus is to understand the value of various bronze objects and why metalwork so often was treated and deposed in the form of fragments an incomplete parts.

The thesis 'Arenas of crafting: The spatial, social and political organisation of bronze casting in southern Scandinavia during the Bronze Age' studies how the production of bronze objects was organised, based on a spatial analysis of the phsycial casting places. This reserach builds on a new, extensive survey of casting debris recovered from excavations in Sweden and southern Scandinavia. Through contextual analysis of finds of crucibles and moulds, in combination with a critical review of traditional terminology, the physcial and social contexts of casting are reconstructed. The thesis provides new perspectives on the spread of bronze technology in society, degree of élite control, the role of production in strategies of power, and ties between metalworking and the ritual sphere, primarily during Late Bronze Age.

• Technologies and craft organisation as window to social structure.

• Settlement pattern, landscape use, and organisation of space in the Bronze Age-Early Iron Age.

• Political structures, social inequality, and the construction of social prestige, and identity.
• Bronze Age bronze deposits and values structuring the fragmentation, selection and deposition of metalwork.
• Archaeological method and critical perspectives on preconceptions in fieldwork and research. The interplay between development-led archaeology and academic research.