Knut Hjalmar Stolpe (23 April 1841 – 27 January 1905), was a Swedish entomologist, archaeologist, and ethnographer. He was the first director and curator of the

Museum of Ethnography, Sweden The Museum of Ethnography ( sv, Etnografiska museet), in Stockholm, Sweden, is a Swedish science museum. It houses a collection of about 220,000 items relating to the ethnography, or cultural anthropology, of peoples from around the world, i ...

. He is best known for his meticulous archaeological excavations at the Viking-age site

Birka Birka (''Birca'' in medieval sources), on the island of Björkö (lit. "Birch Island") in present-day Sweden, was an important Viking Age trading center which handled goods from Scandinavia as well as many parts of the European continent and ...

on the island Björkö.

Biography

Hjalmar Stolpe was born at Gävle in Gävleborg County, Sweden. He was the son of Carl Johan Stolpe, the mayor of Norrköping, and Katarina Vilhelmina Charlotta Eckhoff. He graduated from

Uppsala University Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. The university rose to significance during ...

in 1860 with a degree in zoology and botany and obtained a PhD in 1872. He worked at the Swedish History Museum during the years 1874–1900. Over a period of twenty years, he carried out large excavations at

on Björkö where there are burial mounds dating from the Bronze Age. One of the graves he documented was that of the

Birka female Viking warrior The Birka female Viking warrior was a woman buried with the accoutrements of an elite professional Viking warrior in a 10th century chamber-grave in Birka, Sweden. Although the remains were thought to be of a male warrior since the grave's excav ...

(Birka chamber grave Bj 581) buried with the accoutrements of an elite professional Viking warrior in a 10th-century chamber-grave. In 1883–1885 he took part in the Vanadis expedition which sailed around the world with the frigate ''Vanadis'' visiting South America, Oceania, Asia, and Europe. During land excursions, Stolpe collected 7500 cultural specimens for an intended ethnographical museum in Sweden. In 1900, an ethnographic department was established at Swedish Museum of Natural History (now the

(''Etnografiska museet''). Hjalmar Stolpe became the ethnographic unit's first director. In 1903 he was appointed curator and professor.

Personal life

From 1875 he was married to Emmy Holmgren (1841 - 1905). He died in 1905 in Stockholm.

Gallery

File:Birka Stolpe 1875.jpg, Sketch from Stolpe's diary about Birka in 1875 File:Viking grave Bj 581 in Birka, Sweden by Hjalmar Stolpe in 1889.png, Sketch from his diary published in 1889 about the Bj 581 gravesite File:Hjalmar Stolpe i Ancón, Peru.jpg, Hjalmar Stolpe during the Vanadise Expedition at Ancón, Peru, 1884

Publications

* * (French edition of )

References

Other sources

*Erikson, Bo G. (2015) ''Kungen av Birka: Hjalmar Stolpe arkeolog och etnograf. Andra upplagan'' (Stockholm: Atlantis) *Erikson, Bo G. (2020) ''Expedition Vanadis : en etnografisk världsomsegling 1883-1885'' (Stockholm: Bokförlaget Stolpe)

External links

Etnografiska museet website
1841 births 1905 deaths Swedish archaeologists Swedish entomologists Swedish ethnographers People from Gävle Uppsala University alumni {{Sweden-archaeologist-stub