Niklas Eriksson

About me

Niklas Eriksson (b. 1976), Associate Professor at the Dept for Archaeology and Classical Studies at, Stockholm University, Specialized in Maritime and Nautical Archaeology. 

A substantial portion of my research has concerned shipwrecks. In the dark, cold and murky waters of the Baltic Sea hulls of sunken ships can remain intact for centuries, like still standing buildings on the sea floor. I have studied these remains with inspiration from scholars from different disciplines who study houses, castles, landscapes and similar environments, focusing on division of space, movement patterns and everyday practices. Among other things this resulted in the Doctoral thesis Urbanism under Sail: An Archaeology of fluit ships in Early Modern Everyday Life, published in 2014.

After defending my thesis I had a first postdoc-position in the project Ships at War - Early Modern Maritime Battlefields in the Baltic, that was financed by the foundation for Baltic and East European Studies and hosted by Södertörn University, which resulted in the monograpgh Riksäpplet: arkeologiska perspektiv på ett bortglömt regalskepp (2017, Nordic Academic Press) among other things. The book describes the Swedish history writing that concern the losses and defeats during the Skanian War (1675-79), and how these perspectives have affected maritime archaeology in general and the archaeology of the ship Riksäpplet in particular.

During 2017-18 I had my second postdoc-position, this time at CEMAS – The Centre for Maritime Studies, which is cooperation between Swedens Maritime and Transport Museums and Stockholm University, and this was followed by a two year research position at the Dept for Archaeology. During this period I studied the early modern maritime landscape along the sea routes in the Stockholm Archipelago, with the intention to learn how the Swedish state staged and organised the landscape in order to control movement of ships, goods and people. It resulted in the monograph Stormaktsskärgård: marin landskapshistoria utmed farlederna mot Stockholm (2022, Nordic Academic Press).

I have also been involved in and published many different maritime archaeological surveys such as Gribshunden (1495) Mars (1564), Resande mannen (1660), Svärdet (1676), ’The Ghost Ship’, Anna Maria, ’The Bellevue Wreck’ and others. I also have a genuine interest in palaeography and archival sources, which has lead to the identification of the ’Dalarö Wreck’ as the Swedish ship Bodekull.

Since 2021 I am employed in the Research Programme The Lost Navy, hosted by CEMAS an financed by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (see also  Vrak - The Lost Navy – Diving Deep into an Unwritten Maritime History). The Programme runs over six years and my main focus will be to write a Monograph on the History of Swedish Naval Architecture 1450-1850, but there will be reason to do other studies as well.

Other ongoing are the investigations in the waters outside Asine in Greece (Asine revisited – A maritime archaeological project at Asini - Stockholm University (su.se)) and I am also involved in the survey of a well-preserved wreck of a fluit ship in the Gulf of Finland (“The Swan” – 1636 – Badewanne.fi)

Selected publications, see also https://su-se.academia.edu/NEriksson

Monographs

Eriksson, N. 2022, Stormaktsskärgård: landskapshistoria utmed farlederna mot Stockkholm, Lund: Nordic Academic Press.

Eriksson, N. 2017, Riksäpplet: arkeologiska perspektiv på ett bortglömt regalskepp, Lund: Nordic Academic Press. (refereegranskad via Kriterium). ISBN 9789188168795

Eriksson, N. 2014. Urbanism under Sail: An Archaeology of fluit ships in Early Modern Everyday Life, Södertörn Doctoral Dissertations 95. ISBN 9789187843020

Peer-reviewed papers and book-chapters

Eriksson, N., 2021, Baltic and east European shipbuildinginfluences in the Swedish Empire: tracing local and inter-regionalshipbuilding traditions from the armedvessel Bodekull, built 1659-1661 and sunk 1678, In: Giulia Boetto, Patrice Pomey, Pierre Poveda (eds.) Open Sea, Closed Sea: Local and Inter-Regional Traditions in Shipbuilding: Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Symposium on Boat and Ship Archaeology, Marseilles 2018, Marseille: CNRS Editions, 2021, s. 51-56  

Eriksson, N. 2021, The Bellevue Wreck: A recent study of a large, late medieval shipwreck in Dalarö harbour, Sweden: a possible hulk? The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, 50:1, 116-129 DOI: 10.1080/10572414.2021.1945897

Eriksson, N. 2020. Figureheads and symbolism between the medieval and the modern. The ship Griffin or Gribshunden, one of the last Sea Serpents? The Mariner's Mirror, 106:3, 262-276. ISSN 0025-3359, DOI: 10.1080/00253359.2020.1778300

Eriksson, N. 2020, Sveriges äldsta skeppsritning: en utredning och ett tolkningsförsök, Forum Navale, 76, s. 14-45, ISSN 0280-6215

Eriksson, N. 2019, How large was Mars? An investigation of the dimensions of a legendary Swedish warship, 1563-64, The Mariner's Mirror, 105:3, 260-274, ISSN 0025-3359, DOI: 10.1080/00253359.2019.1615775

Eriksson, N. 2018, A New View of the ‘Edesö Wreck’: identifying the Swedish naval vessel Bodekull, built 1659–1661 and sunk 1678 from written sources, The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, vol 47.2: 391–404. ISSN 1057-2414, DOI: 10.1111/1095-9270.12297

Eriksson, N. 2018, Invasionsfartyget som blev en mjölskuta: identifieringen av ”Dalarövraket” som flottans fartyg Bodekull (1661-1678), Forum Navale, 74, s. 12-52. ISSN 0280-6215

Eriksson, N. 2017, The ship Riksäpplet and the introduction of English naval architecture in Sweden in the 17th century, Post-Medieval Archaeology, vol. 51:2, 309-331. ISSN 0079-4236, DOI: 10.1080/00794236.2017.1371376

Eriksson, N. & Rönnby, J. 2017. Mars (1564): the initial archaeological investigations of a great 16th-century Swedish warship, International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, vol 46:1, s. 92-107. ISSN 1057-2414, DOI: 10.1111/1095-9270.12210

Eriksson, N., 2015, Fragment av stormaktens försvarspolitik: Skulpturerna från regalskeppet Riksäpplet, sjösatt 1661, I Finskt museum 2013-2015, s. 173-189. ISSN 0355-1814

Eriksson, N., 2015, Lodging in a fluitship; the material setting of everyday life on board Anna Maria of 1694, Journal of Maritime Archaeology, 10:1, s. 45-63. ISSN 1557-2285, DOI: 10.1007/s11457-015-9134-3

Eriksson, N., 2014, The Edesö Wreck: the hull of a small, armed ship wrecked in the Stockholm archipelago in the latter half of the seventeenth century, International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, 43.1, s. 103–114. ISSN 1057-2414, DOI: 10.1111/1095-9270.12039

Eriksson, N., 2014, Seglande halsgavelhus: om skulpturer på flöjtskepp i Sverige och Nederländerna under tidigmodern tid, Historisk tidskrift, 134.3, s. 385-408. ISSN 0345-469X,

Eriksson, N., 2013, Sailing, sleeping and eating on board seventeenth century ships: Tapping the Potential of Baltic Sea shipwrecks, with regard to the Archaeology of Space, In: Adams, J. & Rönnby, J. (eds. ) Interpreting Shipwrecks: Maritime Archaeological Approaches, Southampton: Highfield Press, s. 97-109. ISSN 1650-433X

Eriksson, N., 2012, Recording a large Three-dimensional ship-structure – thoughts rendered from the Dalarö-wreck project, In: J.C. Henderson (ed.) Beyond Boundaries. The 3rd International Congress on Underwater Archaeology, IKUWA 3, London 2008. RGK, s. 193-198. ISBN: 978-3-7749-3800-7 

Eriksson, N., 2012, The Lion Wreck: a survey of a seventeenth -century Dutch merchant ship – an interim report, International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, 41.1, s. 17-25. ISSN 1057-2414, DOI: 10.1111/j.1095-9270.2011.00319.x

Eriksson, N. and Rönnby, J. 2012. ‘The Ghost Ship’. An Intact Fluyt from c.1650 in the Middle of the Baltic Sea, International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, 41.2, s. 350-361. ISSN 1057-2414, DOI: 10.1111/j.1095-9270.2012.00342.x

Eriksson, N., 2010. Between Clinker and Carvel: Aspects of hulls built with mixed planking in Scandinavia between 1550 and 1990, Archaeologia Baltica, 14:2, s. 77-84. ISSN 1392-5520

Other, proceedings, book chapters etc

Eriksson, N. 2021. The architecture of the early modern sea routes into Stockholm, I: Ekström, S. & Müller, L. (red.) Facing the Sea: Essays in Swedish Maritime Studies, Lund: Nordic Academic Press, s. 15-40. 

Eriksson, N. 2020. Skisser, modeller och schampluner: spåren efter de första skeppsbyggnadsarkitekterna, I: Linderoth, A. (red.) Fredrik Henrik af Chapman: myt & verklighet, Karlskrona: Marinmuseum, s. 33-47. ISSN 1404-0581

Eriksson, N. 2020. Between lion figureheads and lions of fashion, I: Almqvist, K. & Helbaek Tirén, S. (red.) The imagery of the sea: figureheads and symbols, Stockholm: Bokförlaget Stolpe 223-231, ISBN 9789198523799

Eriksson, N. 2020. Byggnadsarkeologi på havets botten: Om rumslighet och vardagliga praktiker ombord på tidigmoderna skeppsvrak i Dalarö hamn, I: Edberg, R. & Eriksson, N. (red.) 2020. Aktuell marinarkeologi: Texter från ett seminarium på Vasamuseet och Sjöhistoriska museet, Stockholm, 13–14 maj 2019, Stockholm marine archaeology reports 8, Stockholm, s. 71-82 ISSN 1401-0275

Eriksson, N. 2020. Carving out a claim to power: Symbolism on seventeenth-century ships. In Forsberg, A.-M. (ed.) Vasa’s Sculptures – A Story of Power, Stockholm: The Vasa Museum, p. 43-60.

Eriksson, N. 2019. Heroes, Cowards and Their Shipwrecks: Thoughts on the Maritime Archaelogy of the Scanian War (1675-1679), In Rönnby, J. (ed.) On War on Board: Archaeological and historical perspectives on early modern maritime violence and warfare, Huddinge: Södertörns högskola, 2019, s. 73-96, ISSN 1650-433X

Eriksson, N. 2017, Riksäpplet (1676): resurrecting a neglected wreck, In Litwin, J. (Ed.) Baltic and beyond: Change and continuity in shipbuilding: Proceedings of the Fourteenth International Symposium on Boat and Ship Archaeology, National Maritime Museum, Gdansk, s. 39-48.

Eriksson, N., 2016, The architecture of a great 16th century warship: results from the initial surveys of Mars (1564), Proceedings from IKUWA V, Carthagena, s. 824-836, URN: urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-26499

Eriksson, N. 2015. Archaeology of complete ships: on the potential of well-preserved wrecks of 17th century merchant fluyts in the Baltic Sea, In. Tripati, S. (ed.) Shipwrecks around the World: Revelations of the past, New Delhi: Delta Book World , 2015, 176-192, ISBN: 9788192624440

Eriksson, N., 2014. Det stolta skeppet, I. Arnshav, M. (red.) Svenska sjömanstatueringar, Stockholm: Medströms bokförlag, 2014, 73-87

Eriksson, N. 2012. Vad ryms i begreppet halvbildning? I Burman, A & Sundgren, P. (red.) Svenska bildningstraditioner, Göteborg: Daidalos, s. 155-167, ISBN: 978-91-7173-386-3

Eriksson, N. 2008. An early “half carvel” in the Northern Baltic, Maritime Archaeology Newsletter from Denmark, ISSN 1902-0708, Vol. 23, nr 1, 4-9. ISSN 1902-0708