Laura Ahlqvist
Biographic Data
| ID | 80349 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Laura Ahlqvist |
| GIVEN NAMES | Laura |
| FAMILY NAME | Ahlqvist |
| SIGNATURE | AHLQVIST L |
| AFFILIATIONS | Aarhus University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1367-7574 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 13 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 9 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 13 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2018 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
New Research Project
The newly funded research project, Bodily Biographies of the Bronze Age (BODYBIO), takes its point of departure from the intersection of the body, society and material culture in the Nordic Bronze Age (NBA, c. 1700–500 BCE). By combining theoretical perspectives from New Materialism with those of classical sociology, we use artefacts as proxies for fragmented and missing bodies. BODYBIO combines the study of these artefacts together with stateof-…
Get Your Hands Dirty
This paper investigates the integration of democratic, participatory approaches within Danish regional museums, with a particular focus on archaeological practices. The study explores the extent and impact of public involvement in museum activities, considering recent trends in archaeology and museum practice. Through a survey of thirty state-authorized museums and in-depth interviews with seven, the research identifies various forms of public pa…
Towards Ontological Alterity in the Nordic Bronze Age? Perspectives from Ornamented Personal Objects
This paper asks how an ontological perspective on Late Nordic Bronze Age art can advance archaeological interpretation of the ornamentation on personal objects used and carried directly on human bodies. To this end, the theoretical concepts perspectivism and ontological alterity are operationalized as an alternative to epistemological approaches to art. This entails framing the art on personal objects as a set of relations with the capacity to ac…
Metal-for-Amber in the European Bronze Age
Baltic amber is often considered the principal Scandinavian commodity exchanged for metal from ore-rich regions in Europe. If correct, this may explain the astonishing metal wealth of the Nordic Bronze Age and the modest social consumption of amber locally. The hypothesis of a metal-for-amber principle behind the trade is here for the first time assessed on scales from micro to macro. Amber finds were charted across Europe, and the result was the…
Reshaping Gendered Narratives
This paper explores the changes to art on artefacts attributed to females in the Late Nordic Bronze Age (ca. 1100–500 BC) from a gender critical, feminist perspective. Traditionally, Scandinavian research has focussed on the art of male artefacts, which is believed to represent a cosmological narrative, whilst female art has been considered devoid of cosmological motifs–concomitantly, it is often assumed that prominent social standing was reserve…
A Collaborative Approach to the Analysis of Northwest Coast Treasures from the Ehlers Collection in Denmark
The paper examines three late nineteenth-early twentieth century Pacific Northwest coast objects-a Nuu-chah-nulth kuxmin (bird rattle), a Haida sGaaga (medicine man) figure, and a Kwakwaka'wakw or Wuikinuxv wooden model of a totem pole-from the collections of the Ehlers museum in Haderslev, Denmark. Drawing on multiple sources and epistemologies and structuring the study as a weaving of different narratives and perspectives, we investigate the id…
Just a souvenir?' Entangled identities within an early 20th century American Indian basket collection
In this article, we examine a collection of 47 American Indian baskets collected in the early 20th century, at the height of the 'basket craze'. Currently stored in a Danish museum without much archival information, the baskets encapsulate art historical developments taking place at the turn of the century, a time fuelled by the Euro-American preoccupation with collecting and displaying Native American artefacts. Academic debates developed around…
Titelseiten
Anthropomorphised warlike beings with horned helmets
Horned-helmet imagery continues to raise questions about what is local and what is global in Bronze Age Europe. How similar is the imagery found on Sardinia, in southwestern Iberia and southern Scandinavia in material appearance, medium of representation, and sociocultural setting? Does it occur at the same point in time? Does it spring from or transmit a shared idea? Analysis reveals intriguing patterns of similarity and difference between the t…
“Sol-guden” i nyt lys
Shedding new light on the “Sun God”The Vestrup Mark razor revisited The well-known Nordic Bronze Age razor from Vestrup Mark in northern Jutland, dated to c. 1100-900 BC, was re-examined in autumn 2018 and autumn 2019, and new details of the motif were revealed as a result. Using a digital Dino-Lite USB microscope, model AM4815ZTLx, with x10-x140 magnification and an inbuilt camera, detailed micrographs were taken of the ornamentation. By changin…
Horses, Fish and Humans
In this article, we identify and discuss Nordic Bronze Age interspecies relationships through a relational approach that is open to ontologies that differ from our own. Drawing on bronze objects, faunal remains and rock art recovered from a multitude of Nordic Bronze Age sites (1700–500 BC), we outline the complex evolution and interactions of significant socioeconomic and cosmological elements such as the horse, the sun, the warrior, the sea and…
Things that time forgot Native American objects in Danish Museums Problems and possibilities
We present a hitherto unresearched part of a shared Danish and American cultural heritage: Native American objects in Danish regional museum collections. Thus far, we have identified more than 200 Native American artefacts in 27 local museums, largely a result of Danes abroad privately collecting in the late 1800s and 1950s–70s. The majority of these artefacts, many of which are prehistoric in age, have never been displayed and have lingered in s…
Hybrid beasts of the Nordic Bronze Age
During the Nordic Bronze Age (NBA), hybrid beasts contributed to cosmological and mythical narratives on the main media of metal and rock. These hybrids are composed of body parts from particular animals – including bull, bird, snake, horse and human – which entangle with particular objects or images. On metalwork, they appear especially on bronze razors but also on shields, bowls, combs, helmets and in the shape of figurines. Their main occurren…
Horses, Fish and Humans
In this article, we identify and discuss Nordic Bronze Age interspecies relationships through a relational approach that is open to ontologies that differ from our own. Drawing on bronze objects, faunal remains and rock art recovered from a multitude of Nordic Bronze Age sites (1700–500 BC), we outline the complex evolution and interactions of significant socioeconomic and cosmological elements such as the horse, the sun, the warrior, the sea and…
Things that time forgot Native American objects in Danish Museums Problems and possibilities
We present a hitherto unresearched part of a shared Danish and American cultural heritage: Native American objects in Danish regional museum collections. Thus far, we have identified more than 200 Native American artefacts in 27 local museums, largely a result of Danes abroad privately collecting in the late 1800s and 1950s–70s. The majority of these artefacts, many of which are prehistoric in age, have never been displayed and have lingered in s…
Metal-for-Amber in the European Bronze Age
Baltic amber is often considered the principal Scandinavian commodity exchanged for metal from ore-rich regions in Europe. If correct, this may explain the astonishing metal wealth of the Nordic Bronze Age and the modest social consumption of amber locally. The hypothesis of a metal-for-amber principle behind the trade is here for the first time assessed on scales from micro to macro. Amber finds were charted across Europe, and the result was the…
Reshaping Gendered Narratives
This paper explores the changes to art on artefacts attributed to females in the Late Nordic Bronze Age (ca. 1100–500 BC) from a gender critical, feminist perspective. Traditionally, Scandinavian research has focussed on the art of male artefacts, which is believed to represent a cosmological narrative, whilst female art has been considered devoid of cosmological motifs–concomitantly, it is often assumed that prominent social standing was reserve…
Anthropomorphised warlike beings with horned helmets
Horned-helmet imagery continues to raise questions about what is local and what is global in Bronze Age Europe. How similar is the imagery found on Sardinia, in southwestern Iberia and southern Scandinavia in material appearance, medium of representation, and sociocultural setting? Does it occur at the same point in time? Does it spring from or transmit a shared idea? Analysis reveals intriguing patterns of similarity and difference between the t…
Hybrid beasts of the Nordic Bronze Age
During the Nordic Bronze Age (NBA), hybrid beasts contributed to cosmological and mythical narratives on the main media of metal and rock. These hybrids are composed of body parts from particular animals – including bull, bird, snake, horse and human – which entangle with particular objects or images. On metalwork, they appear especially on bronze razors but also on shields, bowls, combs, helmets and in the shape of figurines. Their main occurren…
Things that time forgot Native American objects in Danish Museums Problems and possibilities
We present a hitherto unresearched part of a shared Danish and American cultural heritage: Native American objects in Danish regional museum collections. Thus far, we have identified more than 200 Native American artefacts in 27 local museums, largely a result of Danes abroad privately collecting in the late 1800s and 1950s–70s. The majority of these artefacts, many of which are prehistoric in age, have never been displayed and have lingered in s…
Horses, Fish and Humans
In this article, we identify and discuss Nordic Bronze Age interspecies relationships through a relational approach that is open to ontologies that differ from our own. Drawing on bronze objects, faunal remains and rock art recovered from a multitude of Nordic Bronze Age sites (1700–500 BC), we outline the complex evolution and interactions of significant socioeconomic and cosmological elements such as the horse, the sun, the warrior, the sea and…
“Sol-guden” i nyt lys
Shedding new light on the “Sun God”The Vestrup Mark razor revisited The well-known Nordic Bronze Age razor from Vestrup Mark in northern Jutland, dated to c. 1100-900 BC, was re-examined in autumn 2018 and autumn 2019, and new details of the motif were revealed as a result. Using a digital Dino-Lite USB microscope, model AM4815ZTLx, with x10-x140 magnification and an inbuilt camera, detailed micrographs were taken of the ornamentation. By changin…
Titelseiten
Anthropomorphised warlike beings with horned helmets
Horned-helmet imagery continues to raise questions about what is local and what is global in Bronze Age Europe. How similar is the imagery found on Sardinia, in southwestern Iberia and southern Scandinavia in material appearance, medium of representation, and sociocultural setting? Does it occur at the same point in time? Does it spring from or transmit a shared idea? Analysis reveals intriguing patterns of similarity and difference between the t…
Just a souvenir?' Entangled identities within an early 20th century American Indian basket collection
In this article, we examine a collection of 47 American Indian baskets collected in the early 20th century, at the height of the 'basket craze'. Currently stored in a Danish museum without much archival information, the baskets encapsulate art historical developments taking place at the turn of the century, a time fuelled by the Euro-American preoccupation with collecting and displaying Native American artefacts. Academic debates developed around…
Metal-for-Amber in the European Bronze Age
Baltic amber is often considered the principal Scandinavian commodity exchanged for metal from ore-rich regions in Europe. If correct, this may explain the astonishing metal wealth of the Nordic Bronze Age and the modest social consumption of amber locally. The hypothesis of a metal-for-amber principle behind the trade is here for the first time assessed on scales from micro to macro. Amber finds were charted across Europe, and the result was the…
Reshaping Gendered Narratives
This paper explores the changes to art on artefacts attributed to females in the Late Nordic Bronze Age (ca. 1100–500 BC) from a gender critical, feminist perspective. Traditionally, Scandinavian research has focussed on the art of male artefacts, which is believed to represent a cosmological narrative, whilst female art has been considered devoid of cosmological motifs–concomitantly, it is often assumed that prominent social standing was reserve…
A Collaborative Approach to the Analysis of Northwest Coast Treasures from the Ehlers Collection in Denmark
The paper examines three late nineteenth-early twentieth century Pacific Northwest coast objects-a Nuu-chah-nulth kuxmin (bird rattle), a Haida sGaaga (medicine man) figure, and a Kwakwaka'wakw or Wuikinuxv wooden model of a totem pole-from the collections of the Ehlers museum in Haderslev, Denmark. Drawing on multiple sources and epistemologies and structuring the study as a weaving of different narratives and perspectives, we investigate the id…
Get Your Hands Dirty
This paper investigates the integration of democratic, participatory approaches within Danish regional museums, with a particular focus on archaeological practices. The study explores the extent and impact of public involvement in museum activities, considering recent trends in archaeology and museum practice. Through a survey of thirty state-authorized museums and in-depth interviews with seven, the research identifies various forms of public pa…
Towards Ontological Alterity in the Nordic Bronze Age? Perspectives from Ornamented Personal Objects
This paper asks how an ontological perspective on Late Nordic Bronze Age art can advance archaeological interpretation of the ornamentation on personal objects used and carried directly on human bodies. To this end, the theoretical concepts perspectivism and ontological alterity are operationalized as an alternative to epistemological approaches to art. This entails framing the art on personal objects as a set of relations with the capacity to ac…
New Research Project
The newly funded research project, Bodily Biographies of the Bronze Age (BODYBIO), takes its point of departure from the intersection of the body, society and material culture in the Nordic Bronze Age (NBA, c. 1700–500 BCE). By combining theoretical perspectives from New Materialism with those of classical sociology, we use artefacts as proxies for fragmented and missing bodies. BODYBIO combines the study of these artefacts together with stateof-…
History (9 works) · Archaeology (8 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (7 works) · Bronze (6 works) · History (6 works) · Bronze Age (5 works) · Geography (5 works) · Aesthetics (4 works) · Historical and Archaeological Studies (4 works) · Sociology (4 works)