Hanna Jansson

Research project

The Viking-Age chamber grave phenomenon

– Housing the ancestors and arenas of remembrance

Supervisor:

Prof. Dawn Hadley

Dr. Steve Ashby

Funding:

Wolfson Postgraduate Scholarship in the Humanities

Summary of research project:

This project is an attempt to holistically map and discuss the varieties within the funerary phenomenon known as chamber graves during the European Viking-Age. Having long stood in the shadow of the contemporary and much researched boat burial tradition, the causes behind the rise and decline of the chamber grave phenomenon has hitherto been a neglected area of inquest among Western scholars. The project analyses over 600 Viking-Age chamber graves from eight different countries and addresses previous and new issues regarding migration, architecture and ideas about liminality.

Profile

With a background in contract archaeology, academia and heritage communication in both Sweden and England, Hanna holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Archaeology from Gothenburg University, Sweden. Currently enrolled as a PhD student focusing on Viking-Age funerary customs, her other main interest centres around how knowledge about the past is produced and presented to the public. During her master’s studies she founded a website (arkeloggen.se) dedicated to archaeology news and aimed at the general public. Through her work with the website she was invited to give talks to, among others, Swedish Wikimedia.

After completing her master’s studies, Hanna worked as a Research Assistant at Gothenburg University, before moving into contract archaeology where she also continued to participate in public outreach as Outreach Manager. Since 2017 Hanna lives and works in England where she’s held various positions within primarily research and heritage communications/marketing at for example English Heritage Trust and University of York. In 2021, Hanna was awarded generous funding through the Wolfson Scholarship in the Humanities to pursue a PhD in archaeology.

Research interests

Hanna’s research interests have always centred around the study of burials and funeral rituals. In her undergraduate thesis she studied the concept of ritual warfare during the Bronze age through multiple burials from sites where violent clashes between different groups had occurred. In her master’s thesis she studied a large 16th – 19th century burial material from the Swedish town Linköping in relation to the perceived rise of individualism during the early modern period. During this work she found that, rather than individualism, new types of social groups started to express themselves in new ways in 18th century Linköping. In her PhD project, she continues to study funerary customs and discuss the impact of Western thinking on how we perceive the past. Hanna also has a continued keen interest in public communication and how we can work towards making research and knowledge more accessible.

Publications and Awards

Academic Awards

Best Undergraduate dissertation award 2014. Awarded by the Antiquarian Society of Gothenburg.

Wolfson Scholarship in the Humanities 2021. The Wolfson Foundation

Conference Presentations

Arkeologisk förmedling (Communicating Archaeology), Organised by the Swedish National Heritage Board (Riksantikvarieämbetet).  

Title: Arkeloggen - Digital arkeologiförmedling (Arkeloggen: Digital archaeological outreach)

Swedish History Museum, Stockholm

Invited speaker

27 Oct 2016

World Wide Wikipedia, Organised by Riksutställningar, Swedish National Heritage Board and Wikimedia Sverige

Title: Arkeloggen - möjligheter och utmaningar med en samlad, digital kulturarvsförmedling (Arkeloggen – possibilities and challenges of gathered, digital heritage communication)

Museum of World Culture, Gothenburg

Invited speaker

29 Sept 2016 

Lecture on the Master’s program in Archaeology at Gothenburg University

Title: Svenska och brittiska perspektiv på kulturarvsförmedling (Swedish and British perspectives on heritage communication)

Department of Historical Studies, Gothenburg University

Invited speaker

6 Sept 2019

Snapshot of Swedish Archaeology, organised by Stockholm University

Keynote title: Communicating the past – Addressing challenges and building on the strengths of archaeological outreach in the Information Age.

Talk title: The dwelling dead – Exploring Viking-Age chamber graves as embodied dwellings for ancestral presence

Stockholm University

Invited Keynote speaker

14-15 mars 2024

Teaching and Impact

 Website

I’m the founder and manager of the website arkeloggen.se dedicated to gathering and spreading the latest research and news about archaeology. The website is mainly aimed at a Scandinavian audience, however all the articles also come with an English summary.