Bertil Almgren (27 September 1918 – 4 March 2011) was a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

archaeologist and the son of

Oscar Almgren Oscar Almgren (9 November 1869 – 13 May 1945) was a Swedish archaeologist specializing in prehistoric archaeology. He published a dissertation on Nordic types of brooches in 1897. He was also the father of Bertil Almgren, who followed in his fat ...

, the country's first archaeology professor. Following

Sune Lindqvist Sune Lindqvist (20 March 1887 – 23 March 1976) was a Swedish archaeologist and scholar. He worked at the Swedish History Museum, where he was responsible for the finds from the boat graves at Valsgärde, and later at Uppsala University, where he ...

, he was a professor at

Uppsala University Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in opera ...

from 1965 to 1984.

Early life and education

Almgren was the son of

, Sweden's first professor of Scandinavian and Comparative Archaeology. Bertil Almgren was born when his father was in his 50s and going blind, and so as a child would read him scholarly texts out loud. He would also accompany his father to the

Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities The Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities also called simply the Royal Academy of Letters or Vitterhetsakademin abbreviated KVHAA ( sv, Kungl. Vitterhetsakademien Historie och Antikvitets Akademien or or ) is the Swedish royal ...

, taking notes of lectures and discussions. Educated in

Uppsala Uppsala (, or all ending in , ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the county seat of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inha ...

, he graduated in 1936, and obtained his Ph.D. in 1955.

Career

In 1956 Almgren he became a lecturer in Uppsala, a position he kept until 1962. That year he became a university lecturer, and in 1965 he succeeded

Mårten Stenberger Mårten Karl Herman Stenberger (27 March 1898 – 19 January 1973) was a Swedish archaeologist, who from 1952 to 1965 served as professor of archaeology at Uppsala University. Before his professorship he took part in many excavations, including i ...

as a professor of Scandinavian and Comparative Archaeology. Almgren focused his research on the Northern

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...

, but included in his studies the periods from the

Stone Age The Stone Age was a broad prehistoric period during which stone was widely used to make tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years, and ended between 4,000 BC and 2,000 BC, with t ...

to historical times. He traveled extensively for his research, including across Europe, to the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

, the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

, and

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

. In the 1930s he excavated with

Axel W. Persson Axel Waldemar Persson (1 June 1888 – 7 May 1951) was a Swedish archaeologist. He was professor of classical archaeology and ancient history at Uppsala University and conducted excavations of sites in Greece and in Asia Minor. Biogr ...

Dendra Dendra ( el, Δενδρά) is a prehistoric archaeological site situated outside the village with the same name belonging to the municipality of Midea in the Argolid, Greece. The site has a history stretching back at least to the early Bronze A ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

, and twenty years later he excavated in

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

with Carl Nylander ( sv) and

Hans Henning von der Osten Hans may refer to: __NOTOC__ People * Hans (name), a masculine given name * Hans Raj Hans, Indian singer and politician ** Navraj Hans, Indian singer, actor, entrepreneur, cricket player and performer, son of Hans Raj Hans ** Yuvraj Hans, Punjabi a ...

( de). One of Almgren's major works was ''Vikingen'', later translated into English as "The Viking" as well as into Danish, Norwegian, German, French, Italian, Dutch, and perhaps other languages. The book was a collaboration between Almgren as researcher and an illustrator, and provided a popular account of the

Vikings Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

, and one of the most influential.

Personal life

Almgren was married to Inga Almgren (born Henning), who died in the summer of 2010. He died in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

on 4 March 2011.

Publications

References

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Almgren, Bertil Swedish archaeologists 1918 births 2011 deaths Uppsala University faculty