Rightfully research related to Birka-Hovgården receives particular interest and funding, not only because it is a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site but as well because there exist very few other “Viking Age”/Scandinavian Iron Age settlement and trading places that are similarly well preserved and rich in archaeological terms. Consider Ribe, Dorestad, York, Hedeby, or Kaupang and you will understand why one would like to work on Björkö and Adelsö. Not to mention the very idyllic scenery once the tourists have gone for the day – actually we do not consider it work being there.
In order not to be accused for a 08-centric perspective (I was told that this could happen) and since there exists a similarly fascinating site in Scania, we have deliberately selected two Iron Age case study sites in Sweden in order to develop, test and demonstrate large-scale archaeological prospection methods and technologies: the case study
Birka-Hovgården as well as the case study
Uppåkra, which thanks to the wide open agriculturally used fields offers entirely new approaches (Quad bike rides at 70 km/hr mapping square kilometres rather than hectares).
These case studies are on a par with the mapping of the entire area that is visible from the main monument at
Stonehenge (the so called Stonehenge envelope), currently our other UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site.
This ground-breaking (not literally) research is funded by an
international research consortium including the Swedish partners Riksantikvarieämbetet UV, Lund University and MALÅ Geoscience, with support of the Torsten Söderberg Stiftelse.
I can think of many more exiting archaeological sites in Sweden, where to conduct rewarding and fun new projects. Could anybody with some spare cash please come forward. Ingvar?