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Department of

Archaeology and Heritage Studies

  • #18 on QS World University Rankings

About the department

At the department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies we are concerned with people and the environment and culture and society from the earliest times, examining the connection between the past and the present – and exploring how real and imagined pasts can inform the future. With a focus on studies of material culture and heritage practice, the department pays strong attention to dissemination and engagement with a wide range of publics and policy makers. Drawing on fieldwork and excavation, laboratory, archival and ethnographic investigation, the department’s interdisciplinarity is at the core of its research and teaching activities, investigating and challenging our understanding of past, present and future societies seen in a long-term perspective.

Research environment

The department has an international profile and strong research networks. A dynamic research environment provides the framework for large research projects, international conferences and a variety of visiting researchers. The environment is versatile and cross-disciplinary, and the academic staff’s research competences span a broad range of topics; from war and power, mobility and globalisation, family and individual, religion and rituals, landscape, settlement and architecture, colonial and decolonial relations, geopolitics and community development, paleo-demography and evolution, trade and networks, technology and knowledge exchange. We hereby apply quantitative analysis methods, field methodology and digital representation. As a research environment we cooperate with international partners across the globe, as well as the Danish heritage and museum sector, not least Moesgård Museum.

Affiliated degree programmes

The archaeology programme at Aarhus University offers a bachelor’s and a master’s degree programme in archaeology, together with an MA Programme in Sustainable Heritage Management (taught in English). We hereby cooperate with the Department of History and Classical Studies as well as the Institut for Geoscience, both at AU. In addition, a variety of elective subjects and events are offered, including Viking age Scandinavia at the Aarhus University Summer University.


Academic staff

Phd students

Archaeological IT

 Archaeological IT website

Latest publications

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Riede, F. & Nowell, A. (2025). Children of the ice age: Apprenticeship, communities of practice and embodied cognition in deep-time hunter-gatherer archaeology. In A Field Guide to Cross-Cultural Research on Childhood Learning: Theoretical, Methodological, Practical, and Ethical Considerations for an Interdisciplinary Field (pp. 47-49). Open Book Publishers.
Baillie, B. A. (2025). Civilizational narratives and heritage in the Croatian borderlands. Abstract from Cross-Field Dialogues, Aarhus, Denmark.
Roesdahl, E. (2025). Commemorations - Niels Lund. Rikke Malmros. In S. Nygaard, S. Croix & S. M. Sindbæk (Eds.), Ritual Performance in the Viking Age. : Proceedings of the 39th Interdisciplinary Viking Symposium, 20th May 2022, Aarhus University (pp. 9-10). Aarhus Universitetsforlag.
Iversen, R. & Riede, F. (2025). Culture change in archaeology. In M. Robbeets & M. Hudson (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Archaeology and Language (pp. 156-168). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780192868350.013.35

Publications

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Sindbæk, S. M. (2014). Suzhou, China and the Maritime Silk Road. In S. M. Sindbæk & A. Trakadas (Eds.), The World in the Viking Age (pp. 121-123). Vikingeskibsmuseet.
Sindbæk, S. M. (2014). Suzhou, Kina og den maritime silkevej. In S. M. Sindbæk & A. Trakadas (Eds.), Verden i Vikingetiden (pp. 121-123). Vikingeskibsmuseet.
Vellev, J. & Kryger, K. (2014). Svend 3. Grathe og Adela. In K. Kryger (Ed.), Danske Kongegrave 1 (pp. 239-248). Museum Tusculanum.
Croix, S., Roesdahl, E. & Jørgensen, L. B. (2014). Tekstilredskaber. Tekstilaftryk. In E. Roesdahl, S. Sindbæk & A. Pedersen (Eds.), Aggersborg i vikingetiden: Bebyggelsen og borgen (pp. 367-378). Jysk Arkæologisk Selskab.
Roesdahl, E. & Sindbæk, S. M. (2014). Terminologi og oversigtsplaner. In E. Roesdahl, S. M. Sindbæk & A. Pedersen (Eds.), Aggersborg i vikingetiden: Bebyggelsen og borgen (pp. 65-75). Jysk Arkæologisk Selskab.
Roesdahl, E. & Sindbæk, S. M. (2014). Terminology and general plans. In E. Roesdahl, S. M. Sindbæk, A. Pedersen & D. M. Wilson (Eds.), Aggersborg: The Viking-Age settlement and fortress (pp. 53-64). Jysk Arkæologisk Selskab.
Roesdahl, E., Croix, S. & Jørgensen, L. B. (2014). Textile equipment, textile impressions. In E. Roesdahl, S. M. Sindbæk, A. Pedersen & D. M. Wilson (Eds.), Aggersborg: The Viking-Age settlement and fortress (pp. 317-329). Jysk Arkæologisk Selskab.
Larsen, M. (2014). The Archaeology of Reformation: The Franciscans, their Friaries and the Reformation. Paper presented at Monasteries and the Lutheran Reformation, Odense, Denmark.
Nørgaard, H. W. (2014). The Bronze Age Smith as Individual. In V. Ginn, R. Enlander & R. Crozier (Eds.), Exploring Prehistoric Identity in Europe: Our Construct or Theirs? (pp. 97-102). Oxbow Books.
Sindbæk, S. M. (2014). The excavations: strategy and process. In E. Roesdahl, S. M. Sindbæk, A. Pedersen & D. M. Wilson (Eds.), Aggersborg: The Viking-Age settlement and fortress (pp. 64-77). Jysk Arkæologisk Selskab.
Kölcze, Z. (2014). The Fårdrup Type Shaft-hole Axes: Material hybridity in Bronze Age Europe. In S. Reiter, H. Wrobel Nørgaard, C. Rassmann & Z. Kölcze (Eds.), Rooted in Movement: Aspects of mobility in Bronze Age Europe (pp. 77-89). Jysk Arkæologisk Selskab.
Roesdahl, E. & Pedersen, A. (2014). The finds: Introduction. In E. Roesdahl, S. M. Sindbæk, A. Pedersen & D. M. Wilson (Eds.), Aggersborg: The Viking-Age settlement and fortress (pp. 209-210). Jysk Arkæologisk Selskab.
Sindbæk, S. M. & Roesdahl, E. (2014). The fortress. In E. Roesdahl, S. M. Sindbæk, A. Pedersen & D. M. Wilson (Eds.), Aggersborg: The Viking-Age settlement and fortress (pp. 139-208). Jysk Arkæologisk Selskab.
Sindbæk, S. M. (2014). The Journey of Ideas. In S. M. Sindbæk & A. Trakadas (Eds.), The World in the Viking Age (pp. 124-125). Vikingeskibsmuseet.
Croix, S. (2014). The loom and the sail. In S. M. Sindbæk & A. Trakadas (Eds.), The world in the Viking Age (pp. 32-33). Vikingeskibsmuseet.
Sindbæk, S. M. (2014). The Making of the Viking Age. In S. M. Sindbæk & A. Trakadas (Eds.), The World in the Viking Age (pp. 21-25). Vikingeskibsmuseet.
Roesdahl, E. & Sindbæk, S. M. (2014). The purpose of the fortress. In E. Roesdahl, S. M. Sindbæk, A. Pedersen & D. M. Wilson (Eds.), Aggersborg: The Viking-Age settlement and fortress (pp. 383-414). Jysk Arkæologisk Selskab.
Riede, F. (2014). The resettlement of northern Europe. In V. Cummings, P. Jordan & M. Zvelebil (Eds.), Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology and Anthropology of Hunter-Gatherers (pp. 556-581). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199551224.013.059
Atzbach, R. (2014). The "Stube" and its Heating: Archaeological Evidence for a Smoke-Free Living Room between Alps and North Sea. In M. Svart Kristiansen & K. Giles (Eds.), Dwellings, Identities and Houses: European Housing Culture from the Viking Age to the Renaissance (Vol. 84, pp. 195-209). Jutland Archaeological Society Publications. http://www.byhistorie.dk/filer/Conference-on-Houses.pdf
Sindbæk, S. M. (2014). The Viking-Age settlement. In E. Roesdahl, S. M. Sindbæk, A. Pedersen & D. M. Wilson (Eds.), Aggersborg: The Viking-Age settlement and fortress (pp. 81-138). Jysk Arkæologisk Selskab.
Sindbæk, S. M. & Trakadas, A. (Eds.) (2014). The World in the Viking Age. Vikingeskibsmuseet.
Roesdahl, E. (2014). Tools. In E. Roesdahl, S. M. Sindbæk, A. Pedersen & D. M. Wilson (Eds.), Aggersborg: The Viking-Age settlement and fortress (pp. 330-336). Jysk Arkæologisk Selskab.
Vellev, J. (2014). Tycho Brahes liv, død og efterliv. In C. R. Kjaer (Ed.), 25 søforklaringer: Naturvidenskabelige fortællinger fra Søauditorierne (pp. 348-365). Aarhus Universitetsforlag.
Sindbæk, S. M. (2014). Udgravningernes forløb og strategier. In E. Roesdahl, S. M. Sindbæk & A. Pedersen (Eds.), Aggersborg i vikingetiden: Bebyggelsen og borgen (pp. 76-95). Jysk Arkæologisk Selskab.
Roesdahl, E. & Pedersen, A. (2014). Våben. In E. Roesdahl, S. M. Sindbæk & A. Pedersen (Eds.), Aggersborg i vikingetiden: Bebyggelsen og borgen (pp. 352-355). Jysk Arkæologisk Selskab.
Roesdahl, E. (2014). Værktøj. In E. Roesdahl, S. M. Sindbæk & A. Pedersen (Eds.), Aggersborg i vikingetiden: Bebyggelsen og borgen (pp. 379-385). Jysk Arkæologisk Selskab.
Sindbæk, S. M. & Trakadas, A. (Eds.) (2014). Verden i Vikingetiden. Vikingeskibsmuseet.
Sindbæk, S. M. (2014). Vikingetiden tager form. In S. M. Sindbæk & A. Trakadas (Eds.), Verden i vikingetiden (pp. 21-25). Vikingeskibsmuseet.
Riede, F. (2014). Volcanic activity. In C. Smith (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology (Vol. 11, pp. 7657-7666). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_2043
Johannsen, N. N., Löffler, D. & McGraw, J. J. (2014). Waffengeschichte. In G. Jüttemann (Ed.), Entwicklungen der Menschheit: Humanwissenschaften in der Perspektive der Integration (pp. 157-165). Pabst Science Publishers.
Holst, M. K. (2014). Warrior aristocracy and village community: Two fundamental forms of social organisationin the Late Iron Age and Viking Age. In E. Stidsing, K. H. Nielsen & R. F. (Eds.), Wealth and Complexity: Economically specialised sites in Late Iron Age Denmark (pp. 179-197). Aarhus Universitetsforlag.
Roesdahl, E. & Pedersen, A. (2014). Weapons. In E. Roesdahl, S. M. Sindbæk, A. Pedersen & D. M. Wilson (Eds.), Aggersborg: The Viking-Age settlement and fortress (pp. 302-305). Jysk Arkæologisk Selskab.
Sindbæk, S. M. (2013). All in the same Boat: The Vikings as European and global heritage. In D. Callebaut, J. Mařík & J. Maříková-Kubková (Eds.), Heritage Reinvents Europe (Vol. 7, pp. 81-86). Article 8 Europae Archaeologia Consilium.
Dobat, A. S. (2013). A monument of contestation: The Danevirke in archaeology, history and cultural heritage management. In Schleswig Holstein – contested region(s) through history: Proceedings of the conference, 5th-6th November 2012, University of Southern Denmark, Odense
Holst, M. K., Rasmussen, M. & Breuning-Madsen, H. (2013). Barrow Assemblies: Introduction. In M. K. Holst & M. Rasmussen (Eds.), Skelhøj and the Bronze Age Barrows of Southern Scandinavia: Vol. I.: The Bronze Age barrow tradition and the excavation of Skelhøj (pp. 11-20). Jysk Arkæologisk Selskab.
Sindbæk, S. M. (2013). Broken links and black boxes: material affiliations and contextual network synthesis in the Viking world. In C. Knappett (Ed.), Network Analysis in Archaeology: New approaches to Regional Interaction (pp. 71-94). Oxford University Press.
Holst, M. K., Rasmussen, M., Kristiansen, K. & Bech, J.-H. (2013). Bronze Age ‘Herostrats’: Ritual, Political, and Domestic Economies in Early Bronze Age Denmark. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 79, 265-296. https://doi.org/10.1017/ppr.2013.14
Thrane, H. (2013). Bronze Age Megalomania. In S. Bergerbrandt & S. Sabatini (Eds.), Counterpoint: Essays in Archaeology and Heritage Studies in Honour of Professor Kristian Kristiansen (pp. 329-338). Archaeopress.

Recent Publications (2016 onwards)

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Dobat, A., Christiansen, T. T., Henriksen, M. B., Jensen, P., Laursen, S. V., Jessen, M. D., Ruhe, R., Arntsen, F. & Kähler Holst, M. (2018). DIME - Digitale Metaldetektor fund: Den Danske Registreringsportal for Detektorfund. Arkæologisk Forum, 39, 3-12.
Larsen, J. S., Skriver, C., Astrup, P. M., Borup, P., Drejer, J. & Mannino, M. (2018). Discarded shells on land: A zooarchaeological study of the Hjarnø Sund mollusc assemblage. Poster session presented at 39th Association for Environmental Archaeology Conference, Højbjerg, Denmark.
Jackson, R., Arneborg, J., Dugmore, A., Madsen, C., McGovern, T., Smiarowski, K. & Streeter, R. (2018). Disequilibrium, Adaptation, and the Norse Settlement of Greenland. Human Ecology, 46(5), 665-684. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-018-0020-0
Johannsen, N. N. (2018). Ecologies of creativity and a new cultural evolution. Abstract from Annual Conference of the Association of Social Anthropologists of the UK and Commonwealth, Oxford, United Kingdom.
Kristiansen, M. S., Iversen, R. & Jessen, M. D. (2018). Editorial. Danish Journal of Archaeology, 7(1), 1. https://doi.org/10.1080/21662282.2018.1486119
Jessen, M. D., Kristiansen, M. S., Iversen, R., Grane, T. & Sørensen, L. (2018). Editorial. Danish Journal of Archaeology, 7(2), 117-118. https://doi.org/10.1080/21662282.2018.1541695
Larsen, J. S. (2018). Environmental studies in urban archaeology. Poster session presented at 39th Association for Environmental Archaeology Conference, Højbjerg, Denmark.
Vellev, J. (2018). Et industrianlæg og en votivsten på Hven fra renæssancen: Om Tycho Brahes papirmølle. Ale: Historisk Tidskrift for Skåne, Halland och Blekinge, 1, 10-25.
Jensen, P. (2018). Evaluating Authenticity: Authenticity of 3D Models in Archaeological Field Documentation. In P. Di Giuseppantonio Di Franco, F. Galeazzi & V. Vassallo (Eds.), Authenticity and Cultural Heritage in the Age of 3D Digital Reproductions (pp. 59-74). Mcdonald Institute for Archaeological Research. https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.27029
Guyomarc'h, P., Velemínský, P., Brůžek, J., Lynnerup, N., Horák, M., Kučera, J., Rasmussen, K. L., Podliska, J., Dragoun, Z., Smolík, J. & Vellev, J. (2018). Facial approximation of Tycho Brahe's partial skull based on estimated data with TIVMI-AFA3D. Forensic Science International, 292, 131-137. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2018.08.002
Linaa, J. (2018). Forord. In B. Skaarup (Ed.), Middelaldermad (pp. 7-9). Gyldendal.
Kristiansen, M. S. (2018). Gård og toft i Danmarks middelalder på tværs af tid og rum. Poster session presented at Middelalderens Rurale Danmark, Højbjerg, Denmark.
Enevold, R., Hammers, N. M., Haase, K. & Odgaard, B. V. (2018). How do non-pollen palynomorphs define latrines? A study of non-pollen palynomorphs in Danish medieval cesspits. In Reflecting Futures: 24th EAA Annual Meeting, Barcelona, 5-8 September 2018 (Vol. Abstract book I, pp. 287). European Association of Archaeologists.
Naum, M. E. (2018). "How It Would Be to Walk On the New World With the Feet From the Old": Facing Otherness in Colonial America. In M. Naum & F. Ekengren (Eds.), Facing Otherness in Early Modern Sweden: Travel, Migration and Material Transformations, 1500-1800 (pp. 243-260). Boydell & Brewer.
Naum, M. E. (2018). How to Plant a Colony in the New World: Rules and Practices in New Sweden and the Seventeenth-Century Delaware Valley. In B. Hausmair, B. Jervis, R. Nugent & E. Williams (Eds.), Archaeologies of Rules and Regulation: Between Text and Practice (pp. 83-102). Berghahn Books.
Løvschal, M. (2018). Hulbælterne og de lange lineære landskabsopdelinger i Sydengland. In De danske hulbælter (1/2) (pp. 377-389). Aarhus Universitetsforlag.
Larsen, J. S. (2018). Interdisciplinary methods in town archaeology. In R. Raja & S. M. Sindbæk (Eds.), Urban Network Evolutions: Towards a high-definition archaeology (pp. 249-254). Aarhus Universitetsforlag.
Thrane, H. (2018). Jernaldergrave ved Jyderup Skov i Odsherred. Aarboeger for Nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie, 2016, 105-129.
Sindbæk, S. M. & Imer, L. M. (2018). Kæm, kam! Skalk, 2018(1), 16.
Nielsen, E. K., Roborg, A. S., Stephansen, C. F., Alemanno, S. S., Hansen, J., Aagaard, J. B., Vinter, M. & Løvschal, M. (2018). Keramikrige gruber og velbevarede agre fra førromersk jernalder ved Boes Skov, Østjylland. Gefjon, 3, 82-97.
Harvey, D. & Wilkinson, T. J. (2018). Landscape and heritage: emerging landscapes of heritage. In P. Howard, I. Thompson, E. Waterton & M. Atha (Eds.), Routledge Companion to Landscape Studies : (Second Edition) (2 ed., pp. 176-191). Routledge.
Hrnjic, M. (2018). Long-distance Trade of Silver: Provenance Determination of Silver Coins, Perm’/Glazov and Duesminde Rings. Poster session presented at The Archaeometallurgical Perspective of Bronze Age Scandinavia, Højbjerg, Denmark.
Roesdahl, E. (2018). Looking north-east: Southern Scandinavia in the Middle Ages. In C. M. Gerrard & A. Gutiérrez (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Later Medieval Archaeology in Britain (pp. 941-963). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198744719.013.41
Thrane, H. (2018). Luristanbroncerne - en mishandlet oldtidskultur i Zagrosbjergene. In B. D. Hermansen & C. V. Pedersen (Eds.), Iran i historiens søgelys (pp. 46-65). Orbis Books.
Kristensen, H. K. (2018). Mariager Kloster. Jysk Arkæologisk Selskab. Jysk Arkæologisk Selskabs Skrifter Vol. 105
Kristiansen, M. S. (2018). MIRUDA. Middelalderens Rurale Danmark 2018-2022. Middelalderarkæologisk Nyhedsbrev, 95, 46-48.
Hrnjic, M. (2018). Missing links: Viking-Age silver rings and urban networks. In R. Raja & S. M. Sindbæk (Eds.), Urban Network Evolutions: Towards a High-Definition Archaeology (pp. 203-208). Aarhus Universitetsforlag.

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