Anders Johnsen Nummedal (January 27, 1867 – March 6, 1944) was a
Norwegian archaeologist. He is known for discovering the
Fosna culture.
Nummedal was educated as a geologist, and in 1909 he was employed as a teacher at Kristiansund High School ( no, Kristiansund høyere almenskole) when he found traces of people living on the Norwegian coast approximately 8,000 years ago. Nummedal found these settlements from the Fosna culture while he was studying the
shorelines and
post-glacial rebound during the time after the last ice age.
The first discovery was made at Lake Voll (''Vollvatnet'') on the island of
Nordlandet
Nordlandet is an island in Kristiansund Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The island is located just east of the city center of Kristiansund, and is one of the boroughs of the city. The island is home to Kristiansund Airport, Kve ...
in
Kristiansund. Later he found a number of Fosna culture sites elsewhere in
Western Norway and
Southern Norway.
Nummedal was named a
government scholar
Government scholar (Norwegian, ''statsstipendiat'') is a position awarded by the Parliament of Norway upon the recommendation of the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Education and Research and funded directly over the State budget of Nor ...
in 1917, and he was associated with the University Collection of Antiquities in Oslo as a conservator. In 1925 he found the first traces of a similar Stone Age culture in
Northern Norway
Northern Norway ( nb, Nord-Norge, , nn, Nord-Noreg; se, Davvi-Norga) is a geographical Regions of Norway, region of Norway, consisting of the two northernmost counties Nordland and Troms og Finnmark, in total about 35% of the Norwegian mainlan ...
. It was named the
Komsa culture after
Mount Komsa, close to where the first discovery was made.
Nummedal was a member of the
Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters ( no, Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi, DNVA) is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway. Its purpose is to support the advancement of science and scholarship in Norway.
History
The Royal Frederick Univer ...
, and in 1936 he was named a knight first class of the
Order of St. Olav
The Royal Norwegian Order of Saint Olav ( no, Den Kongelige Norske Sankt Olavs Orden; or ''Sanct Olafs Orden'', the old Norwegian name) is a Norwegian order of chivalry instituted by King Oscar I on 21 August 1847. It is named after King Olav II ...
.
References
Further reading
*Marit Holme Mehlum. 1995. "Historien om oppdagelsen av de første Fosnaboplassene i Kristiansund"
he Story of the Discovery of the First Fosna Sites in Kristiansund ''Årbok for Nordmøre Museum''.
*Heidi Mjelva Breivik & Ellen J. Grav Ellingsen. 2014.
'A Discovery of Quite Exceptional Proportions': Controversies in the Wake of Anders Nummedal's Discoveries of Norway's First Inhabitants" ''Bulletin of the History of Archaeology'' 24(9): 1–13.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nummedal, Anders
1867 births
1944 deaths
Norwegian archaeologists
Norwegian government scholars
People from Vik, Sogn
Order of Saint Olav
Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters
Burials at Vestre gravlund