Nordic Urban Archaeology Conference 2025
Wednesday 4th June – Friday 6th June 2025 in Oslo
From medieval to modern: urban archaeology in the Nordic countries
Abstracts should be submitted before 15.12.2024
The second Nordic Urban Archaeology conference in Oslo aims to build on the success of the first NUA conference in Copenhagen in May 2023. That conference brought together archaeologists and other practitioners and specialists with an interest in the archaeology of Nordic towns and cities. NUA 2025 will similarly seek to provide a stimulating forum for the presentation and discussion of a range of topics central to the practice of urban archaeology in the Nordic countries.
The conference will explore the archaeology of urbanization and urban life in the Nordic countries in medieval and modern times. Four sessions will encompass a variety of aspects relating to current urban archaeology: issues of central importance for its administration and practice (Session 1); materialities of modernity in urban contexts (Session 2); curating, accessing, and disseminating urban archaeological material culture (Session 3); and archaeologies of medieval urban life and the ‘urban ecosystem’ (Session 4).
Session 1. Burning issues for urban archaeology in 2025: Invited speakers and panel discussion
The conference will commence by focusing on important issues of current concern for urban archaeology in the Nordic countries. Contributors drawn from the heritage sector in four Nordic countries – Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway – have been invited to offer their views on the conditions pertaining to the practice of urban archaeology in their own countries. In addition to topics chosen by themselves, the speakers will also address a common question, namely: What is the status of post-medieval/later historical urban archaeology in your country, and what are your thoughts regarding the situation? After they have presented their papers, the speakers will participate in a moderated panel discussion.
Session 2: A familiar past? Later historical archaeologies of the urban in the Nordic countries.
The archaeology of the last 500 years is a field where much is happening and in the process of development across the Nordic countries. This includes the exploration of modernity and its associated materialities of urbanization and urban life, aspects previously relatively under-researched and under-communicated. Archaeology, often in combination with other sources and analytical methods, is contributing increasingly to our understanding of the urban phenomenon in later historical times. Papers are requested that address relevant heritage management policy and priorities, as well as results from excavations and research which demonstrate what later historical archaeologies of the urban offer in terms of academic and public knowledge about a period traditionally dominated by historians and their sources. Topics of interest include – but are not restricted to – the following:
What insight does urban archaeology provide regarding early modern urban practices and networks, and flows of people, goods and culture, both regionally, nationally and globally?
How can archaeology contribute to our understanding of the composition, development and organization of the urban built environment in later historical times (e.g. urban plans and infrastructure, harbours, buildings and building traditions, crafts and industries, etc.)?
Can archaeology shed light on how the transition to modernity transformed urban life and death; for instance with regard to cultural traditions, burial practices, religious practices and worldviews, as well as material expressions and outcomes of social status, poverty, wealth and consumption choices?
What new perspectives are we gaining regarding urban households and domestic life?
What does archaeology tell us regarding the nature of later historical urban harbours and maritime activity and their role in social, economic and commercial networks?
In what ways can Contemporary Archaeology and archaeologies of the Second World War offer new, alternative or disruptive insights into our most recent urban past?
Session 3: Is there life after excavation? Publishing urban archaeology, curating exhibitions and making collections accessible
Urban excavations generate new knowledge about medieval and modern urban life and add large quantities of material to museum collections. Large-scale excavation projects with good in-situ preservation create particular challenges for museums, including demand for storage space and long-term conservation. Excavated material constitutes a valuable resource for museum exhibitions and publications, available long after the completion of the excavation report. Digitization, in the form of digitized collections of material culture and integrated urban GIS systems and AI, shows promise for the near future but is still underutilized, and creates a new set of challenges regarding long-term storage and archiving of data.
In this session we welcome papers addressing best practices and issues regarding publication and other forms of synthesis and dissemination of urban excavation and research, the curation of urban archaeological exhibitions, and the facilitation of public and academic access to collections in the afterlife of urban excavation projects. Papers addressing the following questions and other relevant topics are welcome:
How do we compile, maintain and share information about urban sites and material culture beyond individual project reports?
What particular challenges, problems and possibilities are we facing regarding the curation of museum collections and the publication and exhibiting of urban archaeological material?
Can we find new and better ways to make syntheses and collections of urban material culture more accessible to researchers and the general public?
Session 4. Medieval urban life and the urban ecosystem
For this session we welcome papers that address all aspects of medieval life (and death) which can be illuminated by archaeological material deriving from urban contexts, including contributions which present examples of recent successful integrations of results from excavation, surveys, scientific analytical methods and research questions. In addition, we would also like to encourage contributions that explore the concept of the city as an ecosystem. The urban ecosystem can be defined as a highly heterogeneous and dynamic system created and maintained by humans in ongoing interaction with their environment. Some questions that might be addressed are:
What characterizes the urban ecosystem during the medieval period? (for example, its human and nonhuman constituents, such as people, buildings, infrastructure, animals, plants, landscape, climate, microorganisms, viruses etc.).
What negotiations and strategies between living and non-living components in the urban ecosystem can we identify archaeologically?
To what degree can we see the city as a closed system? Is it connected to other ecosystems, and to what degree is the world outside the city part of the urban ecosystem?
How can the increasing range of scientific analyses help to inform us about social aspects of medieval urban life and death?
What aspects of demography, health, nutrition and sanitation can we discern in urban environments and populations during the medieval period?
Paper and poster proposals
Suggestions for papers must be accompanied by an abstract of between 300 and 500 words. Papers should preferably be presented in English but contributions in one of the Scandinavian languages are also welcome.
Each paper will be allocated a timeslot of 15 – 20 minutes depending on the numbers of papers per session.
If you wish to present a poster, please submit an abstract of max. 250 words. Posters in English and the Scandinavian languages will be accepted.
Abstracts should be submitted as follows before 15.12.2024:
Session 2: Chris McLees chris.mclees@niku.no or Georg Haggrén georg.haggren@utu.fi
Session 3: Joakim Kjellberg Joakim.Kjellberg@upplandsmuseet.se
Session 4: Hanna Dahlström hanna.dahlstrom@sydsvenskarkeologi.se or Kirstine Haase KIRHA@odense.dk
Posters: Chris McLees chris.mclees@niku.no
The meeting
The conference will take place in Oslo over three days from Wednesday 4th June to Friday 6th June 2025. The official organizers are the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU) and the University of Oslo.
Further information regarding the venue, registration, conference fee, conference dinner and other practical details will be posted in the near future on the conference webpage and the NUA facebook page www.facebook.com/groups/nua2023/
The preliminary conference programme will be presented in early February 2025.
If you have any questions, please contact chris.mclees@niku.no