Jan Bill (born
1961 in Denmark)
Professor, curator for the Viking
Ship Collection
Museum of Cultural History,
University of Oslo
Curriculum
2007- Professor, Museum of
Cultural History, Oslo
2003-2007 Senior researcher, head curator,
The Viking Ship Museum, Roskilde
1997-2003 Researcher/senior researcher,
research coordinator, Centre for Maritime Archaeology, National Museum of
Denmark
1997 Ph.D.-degree in
archaeology from University of Copenhagen
1993-1997 Ph.D.-student, Centre for
Maritime Archaeology, National Museum of Denmark
1993 Cand.phil.-degree
in archaeology from University of Copenhagen
1987-1993 Student, Institute of
prehistoric and classical archaeology, University of Copenhagen
Research
projects (list still under construction)
Gokstad
revitalised
With
funding from Anders Jahres Humanitære
Stiftelse a pilot project is carried out in 2009-2010 to develop a research
plan and proposal for a reexamination of the Gokstad find and site. When the
Gokstad ship grave was excavated in 1880, the main focus was on the very well
preserved ship. The excavation of the Oseberg ship grave with its vast amounts
of organic finds in 1904 put further Gokstad research on a hold, and little has
been done to pursue other aspects of this grave. Through GIS-supported analyses
survey and Lidar scanning of the surrounding landscape the project will seek to
locate adjacent settlement, burial and activity areas, and through renewed
analyses of the grave inventory – including biochemical, paleozoological,
pathological and other analyses – the relation between the grave and the
landscape is investigated. The project will include a research seminar on Early
Medieval Monumental Graves to be held in Sandefjord November 2009 with about 20
participants from six different countries. It is planned to publish the
proceedings of the seminar.
From Nordic
to North European. Coastal seafaring and changes in Danish shipbuilding AD 900-1600
On the basis of analyses of changes in ship
construction techniques applied in South Scandinavian and North European
shipbuilding this project discusses the changing organisation of Danish
shipbuilding and seafaring in relation to the medieval urbanisation process. It
is argued that the socioeconomic dynamics behind the urbanisation also are
reflected in shipbuilding, and that seafaring during the medieval period
increasingly moves from the domaine of estates and land owners to that of
towns. The project is carried out in collaboration with the Viking Ship Museum,
Roskilde, and is expected to produce a monography in the series Ships and Boats of the North from the
Viking Ship Museum.
DendroCT
DendroCT is a research project, supported by
the Nordic Culture Fond, which aims at developing methods for non-destructive
dendrochronological dating of archaeological objects by means of CT-scanning. Read
more at DendroCT.htm
Publications
(selection)
Piracy
and naval organisation in the Baltic Sea in the 9th century: some security
considerations concerning Wulfstan's voyage.
In: Wulfstan's Voyage. The Baltic Sea region in the early
Viking Age as seen from shipboard. Ed. Anton Englert & Athena Trakadas.
Maritime Culture of the North 2. The Viking Ship Museum,
Roskilde, 2009. 343-353.
Zwischen
Kogge und Kraweel. Traditioneller Kleinschiffbau in Südskandinavien in einer
Zeit der Wende .In: Zwischen Tradition und Wandel. Archäologie des 15. und
16. Jahrhunderts. Ed. Barbara Scholkmann et al.
Tübinger Forschungen zur historischen Archäologie, Verlag Dr. Faustus, Büchenbach,
2009. 251-259.
Viking Ships and the Sea.
In: The
Viking World. Ed. Stefan Brink. Oxon: Routledge, 2009.
170-180.
Travel and Transport. In: The Archaeology of Medieval Europe (with
Welcome on Board! The Sea Stallion From Glendalough. A Viking Longship Recreated (with
S. Nielsen et al.).
Medieval Warships; Shipbuilding
Materials – An Overview; Viking ships; Wind Power. Opslag i The
Ældre historiske kort som kilde
til kommunikationslandskabet. Geoforum Perspektiv 5, pp. 32-37, 2004
Haithabu 4 seen in the context
of contemporary shipbuilding in
Byens opståen og de ferske
vande. In: Hofmeister, Erik (Ed.) De ferske vandes kulturhistorie i Danmark,
pp. 222-227. Silkeborg 2004
Navires et navigation en
occident à l'époque Viking. In La Progression des Vikings, des raids à la
colonization (ed. Flambard Héricher,Anne-Marie), pp. 27-56,
Publications de l'Université de
Schiffe als Transportmittel im
nordeuropäischen Raum. In Mitteilungen der Deutschen Gesellschaft für
Archäologie des Mittelalters und der Neuzeit 14, pp. 7-19. 2003
The Cargo Vessels. In Cogs, Cargoes, and Commerce. Maritime Bulk
Trade in
Scandinavian Warships and
Naval Power in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries. In War at Sea in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (eds. Hattendorf,
J. & R. Unger), pp.35-52. The Boydell Press 2002.
Castles at Sea – The warship
of the High Middle Ages. In Maritime
Warfare in
Roskildeskibene. In: Civitas Roscald – fra byens begyndelse
(ed. T. Christensen & M. Andersen), pp.211-259. Co-autor. Roskilde 2001
Port topography in medieval Denmark. In:
Jan Bill (ed.) 1999: pp. 251-261.
Fra vikingeskib til
bondeskude. Middelalderens almuesøfart under lup. I: Nationalmuseets Arbejdsmark 1999 (ed. Hvass, S.), pp. 171-185.