Profile
The Archaeological Research Laboratory at Stockholm University was established in 1976, in a late 19th century building, Green’s Villa, located at the centre of the Campus. In 1986 the University created a professorship, first as an adjoining position but later as a regular chair, in archaeology with scientific analysis. This label of the discipline is slightly different from the international one, i.e. archaeological science, and puts emphasis on archaeology rather than on the scientific techniques as such. This is not a coincidence. The application of analytical techniques in order to solve archaeological problems by archaeologists has been the trademark of the Archaeological Research Laboratory already from the start. The founder of the laboratory and first holder of the chair was Prof. Birgit Arrhenius, followed by Prof. Inga Hägg and Prof. Gustaf Trotzig. The chair is currently held by Prof. Kerstin Lidén.
The laboratory is a largely independent section of the Department of Archaeology and Classical studies. This is a rather young department formed in 2005. In connection with the creation of this department all its units, previously scattered all over and beyond the Campus, moved together into the newly renovated Wallenberglaboratoriet located in the western part of the Campus.
Teaching
At the Archaeological Research Laboratory teaching is provided on Bachelor’s and Master’s Levels as well as on the Postgraduate (PhD) Level. The laboratory also gives a number of special short-courses:
- Everyday life in the Viking Age
- Stone Age diet and dietary culture
- Scientific methods in Archaeology – applications and problems
- GIS applications in archaeology and geophysical prospecting techniques
Research
The research profile of the Archaeological Research Laboratory often lead to the application of several analytical techniques in each research programme as their focus is on specific archaeological problems rather than on any explicit scientific technique. As a result several of the laboratory’s personnel are often engaged in a number of projects. Examples are the now concluded research programmes Svealand in the Vendel and Viking Period, Gender and Diet in the Neolithic
and Forts and Fortifications in the Mälaren Region AD 400-1100, as are the research programmes currently running at the Laboratory:
- Us and Them – Cultural identity in the Middle Neolithic
- Bread for the dead, bread for the living… Cereal-based food in the Late Iron Age
- By House and Hearth – The chemistry of culture layers as a document of the subsistence of prehistoric man
- Tracing Ancient Vegetable Food – Chemotaxonomy of plant lipid residues
Editor: Gunilla Eriksson
Source: Archaeological Research Laboratory
Updated: 08/23/06