Gutorm Gjessing (4 April 1906 – 27 April 1979) was a

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

archaeologist and

ethnographer Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject o ...

. He was director of the Ethnographic Museum at the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo ( no, Universitetet i Oslo; la, Universitas Osloensis) is a public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the highest ranked and oldest university in Norway. It is consistently ranked among the top universit ...

and as major contributor to

Circumpolar Circumpolar may refer to: * Antarctic region ** Antarctic Circle ** the Antarctic Circumpolar Current ** Subantarctic ** List of Antarctic and subantarctic islands ** Antarctic Convergence ** Antarctic Circumpolar Wave ** Antarctic Ocean * Arctic ...

studies.

Biography

Gjessing was born at

Ålesund Ålesund () sometimes spelled Aalesund in English, is a municipality in Møre og Romsdal County, Norway. It is part of the traditional district of Sunnmøre and the centre of the Ålesund Region. The town of Ålesund is the administrativ ...

in Møre og Romsdal, Norway. He was the son of parish priest Marcus Jacob Gjessing (1871–1947) and Julie Kathrine Monrad (1877–1951). Gjessing studied art at

Oslo Cathedral School Schola Osloensis, known in Norwegian as Oslo Katedralskole (''Oslo Cathedral School'') and more commonly as "Katta",University of Oslo The University of Oslo ( no, Universitetet i Oslo; la, Universitas Osloensis) is a public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the highest ranked and oldest university in Norway. It is consistently ranked among the top universit ...

where he received his

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in archeology in 1931 and defended his doctoral dissertation in 1934. From 1936 to 1940 he was employed as a curator in archeology at Tromsø Museum and was curator in archeology at the university's Antiquities Collection from 1940 to 1946. In the period 1947–1973, he worked as a director of the Ethnographic Museum (now

Museum of Cultural History, Oslo Museum of Cultural History ( no, Kulturhistorisk museum, KHM) is an association of museums subject to the University of Oslo, Norway. KHM was established in 1999 as ''Universitetets kulturhistoriske museum'' with the merging of the bodies ''Univ ...

) at the University of Oslo. During 1946–1947, he was in the United States as a

Rockefeller Fellow The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Carneg ...

. In 1952, Gjessing was invited as a guest lecturer at the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is a public university, public research university located in London, England and a constituent college of the federal University of London. Founded in 1895 by Fabian Society members Sidn ...

. He was an honorary member of the

Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland The Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (RAI) is a long-established anthropological organisation, and Learned Society, with a global membership. Its remit includes all the component fields of anthropology, such as biolo ...

. He was awarded the Fridtjof Nansen Prize for Outstanding Research and the Qvigstad Medal.

Selected works

*''Trænfunnene'' (1943) *''Yngre steinalder i Nord-Norge'' (1942) *''Norges steinalder'' (1945)

References

External links

Gutorm Gjessing Lecture Series
Norwegian ethnographers Archaeologists from Oslo 1906 births 1979 deaths 20th-century archaeologists University of Oslo alumni People from Ålesund {{Norway-scientist-stub