The AREA project 2007-10-15 Professor Jarl Nordbladh Göteborg university Department of archaeology and ancient history Box 200 SE 405 30 Göteborg Sweden The SCIENTIFIC REPORT for AREA IV, year 2, September 2006 August 2007 The Department of archaeology and ancient history and its activities (http://hum.gu.se/institutioner/arkeologi/) Since January 1st 2006 the department consists of two different disciplines, Archaeology and Ancient history. The education on ground levels is separated, but research seminars are hold together. Traditionally, education and research within the archaeological discipline have focused on theoretical and social/critical features in combination with socio-economic and anthropological issues. Special emphasis is placed on Northern Europe and the Nordic Countries, from the earliest traces of human activities through Medieval and modern, historical times. Other European (Sicily, Spain, Hungary) and non-european (Mexico, Argentine, Brazil) archaeological areas are also being studied in some research projects. In Göteborg, research is aimed at working with the analysis of concrete, archaeological problems (especially those of social and economic nature) throughout time, as well as theory and methods, the history of archaeology and archaeological praxis (at museums, in heritage conservation, and elsewhere). In addition there is considerable interest in rock art research and in the reciprocal relationship between archaeology and the history of culture, society and societal development both in the Nordic Countries and internationally. Research activities are sometimes carried out in collaboration with the National board of Antiquities and other cultural institutions in western Sweden. In addition to the regional research programs the department has been part of several interregional projects between Sweden, SE Norway, Denmark and Italy, and at the moment the department is coordinator for a Training research network within EU. Lately the education has also enrolled in the field of heritage and cultural resources management. There are also plans to create a national research, conservation- and archive centre for rock art, in close relation to local museums and rock art landscapes in the west of Sweden. For the moment an inventory of all rock art documentations available is carried out. On a wider scale there are plans to create an Academy of Heritage, to integrate all such activities on the west side of Sweden and promote collaborations crossing faculty boundaries and archaeological, ethnological and historic institutions outside the Academ. As the faculty has an ambition to reach the general public, ongoing research is presented at special occasions called the Humanistic Days, where research students and researchers
present their views on current issues. These arrangements, which are very well attended, is a mean to reach potential students but also to give back to society new knowledge in popular forms. The Department has three major series of publications, called GOTARC, which present volumes on symposia, congresses, annual meetings and workshops as well as doctoral theses and formal excavation reports. News from the department are published in the journal Arkeologen and the students have their own voice in Gasten, which reflects the education, excavations and more comprehensive studies, which are related also to ground levels. For the activity area of archaeology in west Sweden, there is a common journal, IN SITU, which reflects both academic and rescue archaeology but also scientific problems connected to the field of archaeology. Research issues AREA (The Archives of European Archaeology) has made it possible to investigate in the history of archaeology with particular respect to questions about the interplay between national, regional and local identity; that is how archaeological results of research have had an impact on notions about identity and how such notions in their turn have governed the research results and their uses in society. A great deal of the sources is made up of nonprinted materials, which are difficult to reach and survey partly unknown to the archaeologists and to the public. The Swedish project aims at a vitalization of the archaeological documents in different forms, which can be found in archives, libraries and museums store houses, with an enormous potential seldom realized by the professional archaeology. Not least in the eyes of the history of archaeology there is much to do about analysis and understanding of earlier archaeologies, which too often have been characterized as unsystematic and non scientific. However, the task is not primarily an evaluation of earlier trials of research but rather how understanding has been reached and established not only for the single object, construction or monument, but also for their biographies through time. By this is expected to gain an insight into how archaeologies at different periods are integrated in different apprehensions of what constitutes the very discipline and how its system of references are built and maintained. As archaeology by tradition has been very nationalistic in approach, there is a new effort to relate different countries and cultural institutions to each other, to bridge over earlier borders and to bring out individuals, who were doing archaeology on wider geographical and political basis. At certain times archives have been split and by the information technology of today there is a possibility to re-establish old collections with electronic aid. The database, created by the AREA network is not yet fully in function, but hopefully it will be well established during this phase and before 2008. There is a great interest in such a database, very usable for both research and education. Not the least as an international network, which could connect what has been separated or isolated by earlier (but still interfering) nationalistic approaches to the discipline. Organization of work The task group in Göteborg has been rather limited, with at most 4-5 persons included, but on different scales of engagement. A change has appeared, as drs Gillberg and Jensen now are living close to the capital, where dr Jensen is now working directly and daily within the national archives of archaeology, called ATA, where dr Stefan Östergren was the former head, now assisting the AREA project with his life experiences of handling a large archive.
This smaller group of professional archaeologists, has also the ambition to inform the colleagues at the department and also colleagues nationwide of the progress of the project. Also, experiences are taken up within the academic education, generally and within a special course on archives. In the beginning AREA tried to enrol research students and today at least 4 of them are full members of Academia. It is also possible to observe that the dissertation at the department nowadays have included extensive research histories. Drs Åsa Gillberg and Ola W Jensen have been investigating the praxis of archaeology, with focus also on technological inventions used in the field work. In this case the documents have been rather scarce, so here interviews with some of the pioneering persons have been carried out. Gillberg & Jensen also organised a session at the EAA meeting in Krakow, in September 2006, on The practise of Archaeology. This session is planned to be collected in a volume, which now is edited. Dr Gillberg is also deeply involved in the problem area of biographical writing. In 2007 dr Jensen started a new job at the National Board of Antiquities and his close relation to the centre of heritage in Sweden and his research commissions will be of importance to the AREA project. Both these researchers are very talented in handling archives to get the necessary documents out for observation. Drs Gillberg and Jensen have had their economic support through the National Research Council. Dr Elisabeth Arwill-Nordbladh has been working within the field of biography, especially on the life and work of Hanna Rydh, the first female archaeologist taking a doctor s degree in Sweden (in 1917), but never able to have a fully paid position within archaeology. Many archives have been consulted, and also contacts with dr Rydh s family have been established and for the moment there are plans to reconnect her archaeology with present day archaeology in India, where she had an excavation project in the 50ties. This study will probably be finished in the beginning of year 2008. Some smaller grants have been obtained, but also part of dr. Arwill-Nordbladh s university employment has been possible to utilize for research. Two shorter papers on dr Rydh are so far published. At the moment she has submitted for peer review an invitied article on biographies of pioneering women archaeologists, for Reviews in Anthropology., Trent University Canada. Ph.lic. Stefan Östergren, now retired from The Antiquarian-Topographical Archives, which is the central archive for archaeology in Sweden, has been given valuable and critical advice as to the archive work and the structure of the database. Research student Tony Axelsson is working on a virtual exhibition on older documents from surveying and excavations of passage graves of Vestergötland. Prof. Jarl Nordbladh has been coordinating the project work and researched some themes within the history of archaeology, such as the use of pedagogical models, the establishment and use of the scientific illustration, the development of early congresses in archaeology, and controversies related to the restricted access to archaeological materials played out by the official authorities against what was said to be too enthusiastic amateurism. For the moment he is engaged in the life of documents within society, how they were made, collected, disseminated, archived, lost and published. The case study is concentrated on an early excavation of a passage grave, from 1805 and how the knowledge were diffused even to German and French journals rather quickly, using networks which changed a little later, by professionalism and the congresses. It is rather astonishing to see, how much the development
of archaeology went parallel with war times, which a history of archaeology seem to have avoided, in favour of methodological arguments. None of the members of the working group is a fulltime researcher on the project. Exhibitions In Göteborg a virtual exhibition is in preparation to show how megalithic monuments were approached, documented and imagined during the 18 th and 19 th centuries. A rather rich but dispersed collection of documents has been analyzed, put together and made into a theme, which will be ready for show during the coming phase of the project. Tony Axelsson is handling the data work, but is for the moment occupied with finishing his dissertation. Specific activities, training After the establishment of AREA, there has been an institutional wish to incorporate knowledge about how to deal with the documentary side of archaeology, how to use archives and how to search for new information in old materials. Every term ground level students are introduced both to accessible archives in Sweden and also to archives, exhibiting institutions and field archaeology, in order to understand the logics of document production and the flow and storage of notes, related to archaeological observation. Teachers: Jarl Nordbladh (now retired), Åsa Gillberg (now in Stockholm) and Elisabeth Arwill-Nordbladh and dr. Per Stenborg.. Attending congresses and meetings At the UISPP Congress in Lisbon in September 2006, Jarl Nordbladh presented a paper concerning the earliest scientific meetings and how archaeology made its way through the natural history congresses. In September 2006 Jarl Nordbladh attended a symposium on rock art and the history of rock art research, at Smålands museum, Växjö. Also in September the EAA annual meeting in Krakow was visited by Åsa Gillberg, Ola Jensen and Jarl Nordbladh. Gillberg & Jensen had organized a session on the practices of archaeology, including their own papers, to which Nordbladh was giving comments and reflections. In November Nordbladh took part in a conference in Uppsala, discussing map production and use in many humanistic disciplines. In February 2007, AREA had a meeting in Rome, attended by Åsa Gillberg, Ola Jensen, Elisabeth Arwill-Nordbladh & Jarl Nordbladh. In March 2007 Nordbladh attended a symposium, organized by UCLA in London, on early history of archaeology. In May Nordbladh attended also as a session leader the 150 years Celebration of the National Museum of Copenhagen and the time before Thomsen. Finally AREA held a meeting in Freiburg, in July, attended by Nordbladh, Gillberg, Jensen and Stefan Östergren. Published papers during Year 2 Gillberg, Åsa: Archaeology on the Air: radio and archaeology in Sweden 1925-1950. In: Current Swedish Archaeology, Vol 14, 2006, pp. 25-43. Gillberg, Åsa & Jensen, Ola W: Compressed Air Technology in Swedish Archaeology - an example of the social construction of technology in practice.
In: Current Swedish Archaeology, Vol 14, 2006, pp. 47-66. Gillberg, Åsa & Jensen, Ola W: Processes of Professionalisation and Marginalisation: a constructivist study of archaeological field practices in Sweden 1870-1910. In: Arkeologins många roller och praktiker, pp. 9-32. Archaeology@Lund, vol. 1. Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Lund University. http://ask.lub.lu.se/archive/00031192/01/nordictag inlaga.pdf Gillberg, Åsa: Västsvenska arkeologer I radion. In: FYND. Papers in press Arwill-Nordbladh, Elisabeth: Review of Breaking Ground. Pioneering Women Archaeologists. Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press 2004, 571p. Twelve Timely Tales. On Biographies of Pioneering Women Archaeologists. Reviews in Anthropology.Department of Anthropology, Trent University, Peterborough, Canada. Nordbladh, Jarl: A Scandinavian view of the beginning of congress times. From the XVe UISPP congress in Lisbon 2006. Nordbladh, Jarl: Observing the past and making it visible. On the use of images in archaeology. Conference on the Scientific Image. Royal Society Göteborg. Nordbladh, Jarl: The Shapes of History. To give physical form to archaeological knowledge. In Fabrics of the Past. Historical perspectives on the material culture of archaeology. Ed. Nathan Schlanger. Berghahn Books, Oxford & New York. Nordbladh, Jarl:Introduction and editorial work on the volume of the conference: Histories of Archaeology: Archives, Ancestors, Practices. Archaeology in the light of its history. N. Schlanger & J. Nordbladh, eds. Berghahn Books, Oxford & New York. Nordbladh, Jarl: Odin in Paris. Time table In general, with the limited economic means, the project is developing according to plans and personal. Archival inventories are done according to the chosen themes, and new finds are lifted to the research surface. As autumn is almost passed, September 2006 was a very hectic period with several congresses and meetings Much of this work was prepared for during the first year of the project. A few manuscripts have been finished during the year, including the conference volume from the meeting on histories of archaeology, held in Göteborg in the summer of 2004. We are eagerly waiting for its realisation as a volume. Costs The first year is not in full balance, as the costs for travelling and visits at several archives have been paid for by other organizations and business meetings. This has been possible through careful planning and a low budget policy. As prof. Nordbladh for the coming years is
more and more leaving commissions because of retirement, these opportunities may be reduced considerably. Expected problems for Year 2 Prof. Nordbladh now retires, is allowed to use the department as a working place with reserved space to finalize the project in 2008. Drs Gillberg and Jensen have leaft the department for a new engagement in Stockholm, but will hopefully continue to join the project as their archaeological specialities fit very well with the overall vision of the project. One advantage is the coming nearness to the central archives in the capital. Dr. Arwill-Nordbladh will hopefully finish her biography of Hanna Rydh, depending on available funds. Conclusions The Swedish project is going on well. The work will change from an inventory phase to more analysis, text writing and publishing. Predicted innovations in job localization would be possible to overcome by personal meetings in relation to archive work. There is still much to do generally within the total AREA project to make the database work fluently and give the project members a good help in finalizing the individual and partner s parts. Also it should be stressed, that the central directory of the AREA project with all their assistants have been very helpful and productive. We all owe them much gratitude. Contact coordinate For this last period of AREA IV, professor Jarl Nordbladh will be the main responsible, and with the following addresses: Göteborg university Department of Archaeology and Ancient History Box 200 SE 405 30 Göteborg, Sweden J.Nordbladh@archaeology.gu.se Home telephone: +46 31 16 11 26 Telephone: +46 (0)31 786 46 12, secretary +46 31 786 46 14 Fax: +46 31 786 5182