Visa Immonen
Biographic Data
| ID | 3642407 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Visa Immonen |
| GIVEN NAMES | Visa |
| FAMILY NAME | Immonen |
| SIGNATURE | IMMONEN V |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Bergen |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 22 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 17 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 22 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2003 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
City, Citizen, Citizenship, 400–1500
Urban Heritage, and the Theory of Fragmentation
Despite the shift from object- to landscape-based approaches in urban heritage management, the analysis of heritage as objects is still viable, as the current archaeological theories of material culture do not see objects in the same manner as the object-based approach. To reveal the broader significance of urban archaeology for the cityscape, the relationship between the discipline and urban space is analyzed in the framework of fragmentation th…
Illuminated Manuscript Production in Medieval Iceland
New tools for studying Finnish archaeology and Uralic languages
Between 2018 and 2020 the Kipot ja kielet [Beakers and Speakers] project (KiKi) collected a typological database of archaeological artefacts in Finland and a typological linguistic database of Uralic languages. Both datasets will be accessible through a public online interface (URHIA) from 2021. The data will help integrate Finnish- and Uralic-speaking areas into global perspectives on human history
Pyhän tähteet
Arvio väitöskirjasta Sofia Lahti, Silver arms and silk heads: Medieval reliquaries in the Nordic countries (Åbo Akademi University Press), 2019
Radiohiiliajoituksen mahdollisuuksia ja ongelmia keskiaikaisten puuveistosten ajoituksessa
Radiohiiliajoitusta ei ole juuri käytetty keskiaikaisten veistosten tai alttarikaappien ajoittamiseen Suomessa. Luonnontieteellisten menetelmien hyödyntäminen kuvanveiston tutkimuksessa avaa kuitenkin uusia näköaloja. Samaan aikaan on tärkeä muistaa, että taidehistoriallisten objektien materiaalisen kokonaisuuden ymmärtäminen edellyttääradiohiiliajoitustulosten yhdistämistä ja vertailua perinteisin taidehistoriallisin menetelmin tuotettuihin ajoi…
From passion to bereavement
The Finnish diplomat Harri Holma and his wife Alli, along with their son, art historian Klaus, created a private collection of 554 items. They acquired antique pieces and works of art in Berlin, Paris and Rome from the 1920s to the 1950s. The collection consists of Western and Southern European paintings, sculpture, furniture, textiles and tableware, dating from the Middle Ages to the nineteenth century. Initially the objects were acquired by the…
The life of wood in North-eastern Europe in AD 1100–1600
This project develops theoretical as well as methodological tools for the study of ancient wood, focusing on wood-use in North-eastern Europe within the period AD 1100–1600. The authors approach wood within the framework of object biographies and link the study of wooden artefacts with broader archaeological understandings of formation processes and environmental reconstruction
Teaching Archaeological Heritage Management. Towards a Change in Paradigms
The concept of archaeological heritage management (AHM) has been key to wider archaeological research and preservation agendas for some decades. Many universities and other education providers now offer what is best termed heritage management education (HME) in various forms. The emphasis is commonly on archaeological aspects of heritage in a broad sense and different terms are often interchangeable in practice. In an innovative working-conferenc…
Medieval Desire to Consume and Its Powerhouses
The question of the character of the premodern resonates throughout all archaeological research. The issue gives vibrancy to the conceptual framework in which traces of the past are examined, while
Fondling on the kitchen table - Artefacts, sexualities and performative metaphors from the 15th to the 17th centuries
The term 'sexual metaphor' consists of two elements: sexuality and metaphor. Both individually and together provide a perspective on material culture, and particularly on the current discussions on the relations between humans, things and materiality. Using such relatively common objects as cock taps, bollock daggers and redware pipkins as examples, the article examines sexual metaphors in material culture from the 15th to the 17th centuries. Sex…
Connecting Things through the Visual Arts
Medieval archaeology as a discipline is usually defined in relation to written sources and history, while other kinds of sources and scholarly traditions studying the same period are overlooked. With a small group of 14th-century crescent moon pendants of bronze from Finland as its focal point, the present article analyses the way in which archaeology connects with the visual arts and the discipline specialized in studying them, art history. Inst…
Heritageisation as a material process
The old episcopal crosier of Turku Cathedral is a typical heritage item: a clearly identifiable object pregnant with traditions, including both medievalism and nationalism. A subject of the heritageisation process, it has become a familiar and discursive part of the past. The damaged and worn state of the crosier, which has lost its hook of silver, is a necessary indicator of the passage of time traced back to the Middle Ages. In 1931, the crosie…
Finger of a saint, thumb of a priest
The relics of Turku Cathedral are remains belonging to the bodies of holy persons, different from ours, even today, although the cathedral is the see for the archbishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, and relics are not on public display. Among the relics of the cathedral, there is a fragment of a radius, which according to its authentica, belongs to St Henry. Relics and reliquaries were in the core of medieval piety, and the cult …
Farming and Brass Kettles as Forms of Colonial Encounter
Farming and Brass Kettles as Forms of Colonial Encounter:New Sweden from an Archaeological Perspective Visa Immonen The History of New Sweden and its Margins Historians have spilled much ink regarding the seventeenth-century colony of New Sweden in the Delaware Valley, an area consisting of north Delaware, southwest New Jersey, and southeast Pennsylvania. A number of accounts have been written concerning the colony's history, Amandus Johnson's (1…
Artifacts, iconology, and the visual process
While retaining the iconological method, the study of Finnish as well as Scandinavian medieval liturgical artifacts has moved towards the analysis of their wider visual context. Such a shift creates a tension between the traditional means of art historical inquiry, and the concerns of visual studies. The visual disseminates into the nonvisual, and this complex relationship with the semiotic, material as well as social, is crucial for approaching …
Archives, Ancestors, Practices
Defining a culture
This paper explores the influence of merchants operating out of Germany in medieval Turku by comparing the evidence of documentary reports and the quantity and distribution of imported pottery. The documents make it clear that German merchants were present in the town and generally keep themselves aloof from the local citizens. But the pottery tells a different and more subtle story of interaction and involvement in which all parties are potentia…
Welding Theory with Tourism
Industrial archaeology, like any other branch of archaeology, forms a place where past and present meet. That how and to what ends the meeting place have been set up, defines the reciprocal binding between the two. In Finnish industrial archaeology, efforts to construct this stage have been very patchy, occasional and machine-centred. The first proper archaeological excavation at an industrial site took place in the 1980s, and the first Finnish a…
The Turku Archipelago
Six apostle spoons from Finland
There are six apostle spoons known from Finland. The northern European phenomenon of apostle spoons began at the end of the 15th century and was associated with the custom of giving a newborn baby a spoon as a gift. Their popularity faded at the end of the 17th century. They were never as much in vogue and produced in as great quantities elsewhere as in England. The article discusses aspects of their production and the most characteristic feature…
The stratigraphy of a life. An archaeological dialogue with Leo Klejn
Few archaeologists can claim to have written more than 300 articles in three different languages, let alone on topics as diverse as the philosophy of archaeology, the Ukrainian Eneolithic and the anatomy of the Iliad. Still fewer to have convinced Stalin, to have been convicted for homosexuality, and to have written a half-million copy bestseller about his years in prison. Only one archaeologist has. Despite all this, he is still poorly understoo…
Farming and Brass Kettles as Forms of Colonial Encounter
Farming and Brass Kettles as Forms of Colonial Encounter:New Sweden from an Archaeological Perspective Visa Immonen The History of New Sweden and its Margins Historians have spilled much ink regarding the seventeenth-century colony of New Sweden in the Delaware Valley, an area consisting of north Delaware, southwest New Jersey, and southeast Pennsylvania. A number of accounts have been written concerning the colony's history, Amandus Johnson's (1…
Urban Heritage, and the Theory of Fragmentation
Despite the shift from object- to landscape-based approaches in urban heritage management, the analysis of heritage as objects is still viable, as the current archaeological theories of material culture do not see objects in the same manner as the object-based approach. To reveal the broader significance of urban archaeology for the cityscape, the relationship between the discipline and urban space is analyzed in the framework of fragmentation th…
Heritageisation as a material process
The old episcopal crosier of Turku Cathedral is a typical heritage item: a clearly identifiable object pregnant with traditions, including both medievalism and nationalism. A subject of the heritageisation process, it has become a familiar and discursive part of the past. The damaged and worn state of the crosier, which has lost its hook of silver, is a necessary indicator of the passage of time traced back to the Middle Ages. In 1931, the crosie…
Defining a culture
This paper explores the influence of merchants operating out of Germany in medieval Turku by comparing the evidence of documentary reports and the quantity and distribution of imported pottery. The documents make it clear that German merchants were present in the town and generally keep themselves aloof from the local citizens. But the pottery tells a different and more subtle story of interaction and involvement in which all parties are potentia…
The stratigraphy of a life. An archaeological dialogue with Leo Klejn
Few archaeologists can claim to have written more than 300 articles in three different languages, let alone on topics as diverse as the philosophy of archaeology, the Ukrainian Eneolithic and the anatomy of the Iliad. Still fewer to have convinced Stalin, to have been convicted for homosexuality, and to have written a half-million copy bestseller about his years in prison. Only one archaeologist has. Despite all this, he is still poorly understoo…
Fondling on the kitchen table - Artefacts, sexualities and performative metaphors from the 15th to the 17th centuries
The term 'sexual metaphor' consists of two elements: sexuality and metaphor. Both individually and together provide a perspective on material culture, and particularly on the current discussions on the relations between humans, things and materiality. Using such relatively common objects as cock taps, bollock daggers and redware pipkins as examples, the article examines sexual metaphors in material culture from the 15th to the 17th centuries. Sex…
The stratigraphy of a life. An archaeological dialogue with Leo Klejn
Few archaeologists can claim to have written more than 300 articles in three different languages, let alone on topics as diverse as the philosophy of archaeology, the Ukrainian Eneolithic and the anatomy of the Iliad. Still fewer to have convinced Stalin, to have been convicted for homosexuality, and to have written a half-million copy bestseller about his years in prison. Only one archaeologist has. Despite all this, he is still poorly understoo…
The Turku Archipelago
Six apostle spoons from Finland
There are six apostle spoons known from Finland. The northern European phenomenon of apostle spoons began at the end of the 15th century and was associated with the custom of giving a newborn baby a spoon as a gift. Their popularity faded at the end of the 17th century. They were never as much in vogue and produced in as great quantities elsewhere as in England. The article discusses aspects of their production and the most characteristic feature…
Welding Theory with Tourism
Industrial archaeology, like any other branch of archaeology, forms a place where past and present meet. That how and to what ends the meeting place have been set up, defines the reciprocal binding between the two. In Finnish industrial archaeology, efforts to construct this stage have been very patchy, occasional and machine-centred. The first proper archaeological excavation at an industrial site took place in the 1980s, and the first Finnish a…
Defining a culture
This paper explores the influence of merchants operating out of Germany in medieval Turku by comparing the evidence of documentary reports and the quantity and distribution of imported pottery. The documents make it clear that German merchants were present in the town and generally keep themselves aloof from the local citizens. But the pottery tells a different and more subtle story of interaction and involvement in which all parties are potentia…
Archives, Ancestors, Practices
Finger of a saint, thumb of a priest
The relics of Turku Cathedral are remains belonging to the bodies of holy persons, different from ours, even today, although the cathedral is the see for the archbishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, and relics are not on public display. Among the relics of the cathedral, there is a fragment of a radius, which according to its authentica, belongs to St Henry. Relics and reliquaries were in the core of medieval piety, and the cult …
Farming and Brass Kettles as Forms of Colonial Encounter
Farming and Brass Kettles as Forms of Colonial Encounter:New Sweden from an Archaeological Perspective Visa Immonen The History of New Sweden and its Margins Historians have spilled much ink regarding the seventeenth-century colony of New Sweden in the Delaware Valley, an area consisting of north Delaware, southwest New Jersey, and southeast Pennsylvania. A number of accounts have been written concerning the colony's history, Amandus Johnson's (1…
Artifacts, iconology, and the visual process
While retaining the iconological method, the study of Finnish as well as Scandinavian medieval liturgical artifacts has moved towards the analysis of their wider visual context. Such a shift creates a tension between the traditional means of art historical inquiry, and the concerns of visual studies. The visual disseminates into the nonvisual, and this complex relationship with the semiotic, material as well as social, is crucial for approaching …
Heritageisation as a material process
The old episcopal crosier of Turku Cathedral is a typical heritage item: a clearly identifiable object pregnant with traditions, including both medievalism and nationalism. A subject of the heritageisation process, it has become a familiar and discursive part of the past. The damaged and worn state of the crosier, which has lost its hook of silver, is a necessary indicator of the passage of time traced back to the Middle Ages. In 1931, the crosie…
Connecting Things through the Visual Arts
Medieval archaeology as a discipline is usually defined in relation to written sources and history, while other kinds of sources and scholarly traditions studying the same period are overlooked. With a small group of 14th-century crescent moon pendants of bronze from Finland as its focal point, the present article analyses the way in which archaeology connects with the visual arts and the discipline specialized in studying them, art history. Inst…
Fondling on the kitchen table - Artefacts, sexualities and performative metaphors from the 15th to the 17th centuries
The term 'sexual metaphor' consists of two elements: sexuality and metaphor. Both individually and together provide a perspective on material culture, and particularly on the current discussions on the relations between humans, things and materiality. Using such relatively common objects as cock taps, bollock daggers and redware pipkins as examples, the article examines sexual metaphors in material culture from the 15th to the 17th centuries. Sex…
Medieval Desire to Consume and Its Powerhouses
The question of the character of the premodern resonates throughout all archaeological research. The issue gives vibrancy to the conceptual framework in which traces of the past are examined, while
Teaching Archaeological Heritage Management. Towards a Change in Paradigms
The concept of archaeological heritage management (AHM) has been key to wider archaeological research and preservation agendas for some decades. Many universities and other education providers now offer what is best termed heritage management education (HME) in various forms. The emphasis is commonly on archaeological aspects of heritage in a broad sense and different terms are often interchangeable in practice. In an innovative working-conferenc…
Pyhän tähteet
Arvio väitöskirjasta Sofia Lahti, Silver arms and silk heads: Medieval reliquaries in the Nordic countries (Åbo Akademi University Press), 2019
Radiohiiliajoituksen mahdollisuuksia ja ongelmia keskiaikaisten puuveistosten ajoituksessa
Radiohiiliajoitusta ei ole juuri käytetty keskiaikaisten veistosten tai alttarikaappien ajoittamiseen Suomessa. Luonnontieteellisten menetelmien hyödyntäminen kuvanveiston tutkimuksessa avaa kuitenkin uusia näköaloja. Samaan aikaan on tärkeä muistaa, että taidehistoriallisten objektien materiaalisen kokonaisuuden ymmärtäminen edellyttääradiohiiliajoitustulosten yhdistämistä ja vertailua perinteisin taidehistoriallisin menetelmin tuotettuihin ajoi…
From passion to bereavement
The Finnish diplomat Harri Holma and his wife Alli, along with their son, art historian Klaus, created a private collection of 554 items. They acquired antique pieces and works of art in Berlin, Paris and Rome from the 1920s to the 1950s. The collection consists of Western and Southern European paintings, sculpture, furniture, textiles and tableware, dating from the Middle Ages to the nineteenth century. Initially the objects were acquired by the…
The life of wood in North-eastern Europe in AD 1100–1600
This project develops theoretical as well as methodological tools for the study of ancient wood, focusing on wood-use in North-eastern Europe within the period AD 1100–1600. The authors approach wood within the framework of object biographies and link the study of wooden artefacts with broader archaeological understandings of formation processes and environmental reconstruction
New tools for studying Finnish archaeology and Uralic languages
Between 2018 and 2020 the Kipot ja kielet [Beakers and Speakers] project (KiKi) collected a typological database of archaeological artefacts in Finland and a typological linguistic database of Uralic languages. Both datasets will be accessible through a public online interface (URHIA) from 2021. The data will help integrate Finnish- and Uralic-speaking areas into global perspectives on human history
Illuminated Manuscript Production in Medieval Iceland
Urban Heritage, and the Theory of Fragmentation
Despite the shift from object- to landscape-based approaches in urban heritage management, the analysis of heritage as objects is still viable, as the current archaeological theories of material culture do not see objects in the same manner as the object-based approach. To reveal the broader significance of urban archaeology for the cityscape, the relationship between the discipline and urban space is analyzed in the framework of fragmentation th…
City, Citizen, Citizenship, 400–1500
History (17 works) · Archaeology (14 works) · Art (11 works) · Philosophy (8 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (6 works) · Geography (6 works) · Historical and Archaeological Studies (6 works) · History (6 works) · Sociology (6 works) · Aesthetics (5 works)