Svante Fischer was born in Stockholm, Sweden in 1971. He received his BA in history with an independent study project in English, Old English and Old Norse from Brown University in December 1994, having also studied at Columbia University. In 1995-1996, Fischer worked as a paralegal specialist in intellectual property, trademarks, and translations at Ladas & Parry LLP, a New York-based law firm. In 1997-2001, studies were resumed in archaeology, French, history of Greek and Roman religions, Old Norse, and runology at École pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE), Université de Paris I (Panthéon-Sorbonne), Université de Paris IV (Paris-Sorbonne), Stockholm University, and Uppsala University before Fischer embarked on a doctorate in archaeology. The dissertation Roman Imperialism and Runic Literacy – The Westernization of Northern Europe (150-800) was successfully defended in January 2006.

Field of Research:

The main focus is on the late Roman Empire and the Germanic world of the Migration Period with a comparative approach to Africa, America and Asia in the 19th and 20th centuries. The early Germanic kingdoms are compared to African nation-states of the late 20th century with a regard to the use of various writing systems. An important hypothesis is that most attempts within preliterate societies to catch up with the forced westernization cause the creation of kleptocracies, small military elites that constantly have to steal and plunder to maintain power and an extravagant lifestyle with little concern for the future.

IRF: From Post-doctoral Project to Permanent Institute

In March 2006, the French government awarded Fischer a scholarship for his post-doctoral project: Inscriptions runiques de France (IRF).
The grant was spent during the fall semester of 2006 at the Musée d’Archéologie Nationale in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France. Fischer lectured at the Université de Paris I (Panthéon-Sorbonne) seminar in early medieval archaeology and served as co-advisor and mentor to two French MA students. The post-doctoral research was compiled in the first volume of the IRF project: Les seigneurs des anneaux. Inscriptions runiques de France, Tome I. It will be published by the Association Française d’Archéologie Mérovingienne (AFAM) in 2007. With the publication of Les seigneurs des anneaux, the IRF project will become institutionalized as Institut runologique de France. The runological mentorship to French archaeologists will continue: A second IRF volume is to appear in 2009, following the institute’s acceptance to organize the 22nd annual meeting of international field-runologists at the Château Saint-Germain-Laye in 2008.

Current Research:

As of February 2007, Fischer is employed as a researcher in the Chamber Grave Project financed by Vetenskapsrådet, the Swedish Council for Scientific Research. This project seeks to interpret the Swedish Migration Period chamber graves in comparison with their Roman Iron Age origin and contemporaries on the Continent. Fischer will have completed a 300 page monography in English on the subject by 2009.