Category: Projects

Interested in the idea of ambassadors in Bronze Age trade networks?

My completed research project on the connections between female mobility and metal trade in Bronze Age northern Europe resulted in the idea of ambassadors. Here, ambassadors are seen as people, female as male, who connect social groups and establish and maintain networks. These networks involve the trade of metals and other goods, leading to an increasing exchange of people and, thus, knowledge. The exchange of knowledge is fundamental for social development.

For more, join my forthcoming lectures on this topic at:

  • the Kiel Conference 2023: Scales of Social, Environmental and Cultural Change in past Societies #KielScales23, Session 1, Monday 13th March 16.00.
  • and at the EEA Meeting in Belfast 30th August – 2nd September 2023, Session: #480, Metals and Metalworking I

New project about the Viksø helmets launched!

Start of 2022 the news around the world reported that organic material from one of the horns of the Viksø helmets could be scientifically C14-dated and make their use around 950 BC very likely. Not surprisingly for Danish archaeologists, these helmets come from the late Bronze Age. What is surprising, however, is that this new date marks the first published scientific analysis of these artifacts. In October 2022, the Danish Cultural Ministry announced the newly financed research projects within the humanities and the project Viksø re-investigated was one of them! Following, I will spend the next years creating an interdisciplinary biography of the Viksø helmets. A combination of a craft-technical analysis, the archaeometallurgical fingerprint of the helmets, and local workshops combined with a stylistic and iconographic examination of contemporary helmets will give us new insights into the helmet’s origin and meaning!