Hanna Jansson

Research project

Identity-building and memory-production - a study of Scandinavian Viking Age burial customs

Supervisor:

Dawn Hadley

Steve Ashby

Funding:

Wolfson Postgraduate Scholarship in the Humanities

Summary of research project:

My research concerns late Iron Age and Viking Age burials and identities, looking particularly but not exclusively at the burial assemblages from Scandinavia and Northern Europe and how they relate to identity-building and memory production. 

Profile

I hold a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Archaeology from Gothenburg University, Sweden. During my undergraduate I won the Gothenburg Society of antiquaries’ award for Best undergraduate dissertation, and during my master’s studies I founded a website (arkeloggen.se) dedicated to archaeology news and aimed at the general public. Through my work with the website I was invited to give talks at, among others, the Swedish History Museum and Swedish Wikimedia. After completing my master’s degree I worked as a Research Assistant at Gothenburg University before moving into contract archaeology where I also continued to participate in public outreach as Outreach Manager. In 2017 I moved to England and worked on a number of excavations in Suffolk and London before taking up a position at English Heritage as Social and Content Campaign. Here, I managed the digital campaigns on website and social media for 30+ sites across the north of England, including staff training and day-to-day content creation. In late 2021 I was awarded generous funding through the Wolfson Scholarship in the Humanities to pursue a PhD in archaeology. 

Research interests

My research interests have always centred around the study of burials and identities. In my undergraduate thesis I studied the concept of ritual warfare during the Bronze age through multiple burials from sites where violent clashes between different groups had occurred (ex Tollense Valley in modern day Germany). In my master’s thesis I studied a large 16th – 19th century burial material from Swedish Linköping in relation to the perceived rise in individualism. During this work I found that,  rather than  individualism, new types of social groups started to express themselves in new ways in 18th century Linköping. In my PhD project, I continue my passion to study past identities through burials and discuss the impact of Western thinking on how we perceive the past. I also have a continued keen interest in public outreach and working towards making research and knowledge accessible to everyone.

Publications and Awards

Academic Awards

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

Conference Presentations

Arkeloggen – Digital arkeologiförmedling. At the conference Arkeologisk förmedling – konferens I Stockholm held at The Swedish History Museum.

Arkeloggen - möjligheter och utmaningar med en samlad, digital kulturarvsförmedling – Hanna Jansson, Arkeloggen. At World Wide Wikipedia, organised by Swedish National Heritage Board, Riksuställningar and Wikimedia Sverige.

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.