My speciality is Aegean prehistory, with focus on landscape- and settlement archaeology.
I defended my thesis in 2007, and my dissertation, Thinking the Bronze Age. Life and death in Early Helladic Greece, is an analysis of material from settlements and cemeteries from the Early Bronze Age on the Greek mainland (c. 3100-2000 BCE), from a spatial and phenomenological perspective. In all my research I deem it most important to find ways to highlight the human experiences of life, on different levels. In trying to accomplish this, I focus on analyses of the archaeological material in the highest detail possible, in order to better understand local and regional variations and sequences of events. The goal is to emphasize in a meaningful and well-informed way the potentials and limitations in the archaeological material, in order to place the prehistoric individuals in a multidimensional reality, shaped by people in active interaction with their surroundings.
From the beginning, I have combined my theoretical studies, and studies of already excavated, with periods of fieldwork. I have participated in excavations, and worked with documentation of above all ceramic material from Swedish and American excavations.
Projects in progress
Societies in transition
The project studies societal transformations in the Greek Bronze Age from a resilience perspective, i.e.through analysis of different systems’ ability to cope with change and continue to evolve. This ability is central for current studies of sustainable development and a growing focus in archaeological studies, with studies of the multidimensional dynamics of change, of human flexibility and resolve, and of continuity through change. One potential key in this context is the resilience based theory on adaptive cycles. In the light of this model of hierarchically arranged processes of varying length and speed, it is clear that continuity and change always works in parallel, albeit on different temporal and spatial scales.
The project is organized around two case studies, made up from two chronological periods for which contemporary societal ups and downs are available to be contrasted. The cognitive essence of these changes will be sought through analyses of their practical appearance in settlement dynamics and material culture. The main objectives of the project are: (1) to evaluate the potential of the resilience perspective for archaeological interpretations, and thus expand the traditionally employed theoretical framework; (2) to thereby seek nuanced and more comprehensive understandings of four societal transformations in the Greek Bronze Age, and (3) to bring the results to bear on the study of societies in transition today and in all times.
This project was 2011 awarded three years research funds from Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (RJ) and The Swedish Research Council.
Collaborative projects
Svunna landskap / Past landscapes
