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Birgit Arrhenius

{{short description|Swedish archaeologist and academic (1932–2023)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2020}}

{{Infobox scientist

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| name = Birgit Arrhenius

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| image = Birgit Arrhenius 2011.jpg

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| alt = Colour photograph of Birgit Arrhenius

| caption = Arrhenius in 2011

| birth_name = Klein

| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1932|08|25}}

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| death_date = 10 September 2023 (aged 91)

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| nationality = Swedish

| fields = Archaeology

| workplaces = Stockholm University

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| known_for = Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

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| awards = Royal Patriotic Society's Gösta Berg Medal

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Birgit Arrhenius ({{née|Klein}}, 25 August 1932 – 10 September 2023) was a Swedish archaeologist and professor emeritus at Stockholm University. She was a professor of laboratory archaeology, and the first head of the university's Archaeological Research Laboratory. Her work has studied places including Helgö and Mälaren, and she has researched prehistoric pressblech and garnet cloisonné work. Arrhenius is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and was in 1992 the recipient of the Royal Patriotic Society's Gösta Berg Medal.

Career

File:Bronsplåt 2 fr Torslunda sn, Öland (Stjerna, Hjälmar och svärd i Beovulf (1903) sid 103).jpg.]]

Birgit Arrhenius was born Birgit Klein on 25 August 1932.{{sfn|Kungl. Vitterhetsakademien}} She was one of six children of Gerda Klein and her husband Oskar Klein, a Swedish theoretical physicist who taught at Stockholm University.{{sfn|Lindström|1995|p=ix}} Expenses were tight, and her father nearly turned down the award of the Order of the Polar Star until the dean provided for the significant cost of dressing for such an award's ceremony.{{sfn|Lindström|1995|p=ix}}

Arrhenius, like her father, became a professor at Stockholm University.{{sfn|Lindström|1995|p=ix}} She served from 1986 to 1998 as Professor of Laboratory Archaeology, and was the first head of the Archaeological Research Laboratory, founded in 1976, at the university.{{sfn|Stockholm University|2015}} She participated in the excavation and publication of finds from archaeological sites at Helgö and Björkö. A 1983 paper suggested a reanalysis of the chronology of the graves found in Vendel,{{sfn|Arrhenius|1983}} and in 1992 she demonstrated through laser scanning that a dancing warrior on one of the Torslunda plates, cast bronze dies used to make helmet decorations, had had its eye sharply struck out in a possible invocation of the one-eyed Germanic god Odin.{{sfn|Arrhenius|Freij|1992|p=76}}

On 1 October 1991 Arrhenius was elected to the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities,{{sfn|Kungl. Vitterhetsakademien}} and the following year she was awarded the Gösta Berg Medal, intended for those who have made "outstanding efforts" in the areas of cultural heritage, by the Royal Patriotic Society.{{sfn|Kungliga Patriotiska Sallskapet}} In 1993, the journal PACT published an issue in her honour, titled Sources and Resources: Studies in Honour of Birgit Arrhenius.{{sfn|Arwidsson|1993}}

Arrhenius is a professor emeritus at Stockholm University.{{sfn|Stockholm University profile|2017}} She died on 10 September 2023, at the age of 91.{{Cite web |title=Dödsannonser - Sök efter dödsannonser på familjesidan.se |url=https://www.familjesidan.se/cases/8ea02f05-f3d8-4231-9eef-1367a7e6cb6c/funeral-notices |access-date=2024-10-26 |website=www.familjesidan.se}}

Publications

A list of Arrhenius's publications through 1991 is contained in {{harvnb|Holmqvist Olousson|1993}}; selected works appear below.

  • {{cite journal | ref = none | last = Arrhenius | first = Birgit | date = 1978 | title = Review of The Sutton Hoo Ship-Burial, volume 1, by Rupert Bruce-Mitford | journal = Medieval Archaeology | publisher = Society for Medieval Archaeology | volume = 22 | pages = 189–195 | doi = 10.1080/00766097.1978.11735412 }}
  • {{cite book | last = Arrhenius | first = Birgit | editor1-last = Lamm | editor1-first = Jan Peder | editor1-link = Jan Peder Lamm | editor2-last = Nordstrom | editor2-first = Hans-Åke | editor2-link = Hans-Åke Nordstrom | title = Vendel Period Studies: transactions of the Boat-Grave Symposium in Stockholm, February 2–3, 1981 | series = Studies – The Museum of National Antiquities, Stockholm | volume = 2 | date = 1983 | publisher = Statens Historiska Museum | location = Stockholm | pages = 39–70 | chapter = The chronology of the Vendel graves | isbn = 978-91-7192-547-3 | name-list-style = amp }}
  • {{cite journal | last1 = Arrhenius | first1 = Birgit | last2 = Freij | first2 = Henry | date = 1992 | title = 'Pressbleck' Fragments from the East Mound in Old Uppsala Analyzed with a Laser Scanner | journal = Laborativ Arkeologi | publisher = Stockholm University | issue = 6 | pages = 75–110 | url = http://www.archaeology.su.se/polopoly_fs/1.170010.1394448706!/menu/standard/file/LA6.Arrhenius%20%26%20Freij.pdf | name-list-style = amp }} {{open access}}

References

{{reflist|30em}}

Bibliography

  • {{cite journal | last = Arwidsson | first = Greta | author-link = Greta Arwidsson | translator-last = O'Meadhra | translator-first = Uaininn | date = 1993 | title = Preface | journal = PACT | volume = 38 | pages = IX-X | issn = 0257-8727 }}
  • {{cite web | ref = {{harvid|Kungl. Vitterhetsakademien}} | title = Birgit Arrhenius | website = Kungl. Vitterhetsakademien | url = http://www.vitterhetsakad.se/ledamoter/matrikel/26 | access-date = 6 May 2018 | archive-date = 6 May 2018 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180506173906/http://www.vitterhetsakad.se/ledamoter/matrikel/26 | url-status = dead }} {{free access}}
  • {{cite web | ref = {{harvid|Stockholm University profile|2017}} | title = Birgit Arrhenius | date = 17 May 2017 | website = Stockholm University | url = http://www.su.se/english/profiles/btas-1.184669 | access-date = 11 July 2017 }} {{free access}}
  • {{cite web | ref = {{harvid|Kungliga Patriotiska Sallskapet}} | title = Gösta Berg-medaljen | website = Kungliga Patriotiska Sallskapet | url = http://kungligapatriotiskasallskapet.se/gosta-berg-medaljen/ | access-date = 26 July 2017 }} {{free access}}
  • {{cite web | ref = {{harvid|Stockholm University|2015}} | title = Historik – Institutionen för Arkeologi och Antikens Kultur | date = 12 March 2015 | website = Stockholm University | url = https://www.archaeology.su.se/om-oss/historik | access-date = 6 May 2018 }} {{free access}}
  • {{cite journal | last = Holmqvist Olousson | first = Lena | date = 1993 | title = Bibliography of Birgit Arrhenius up to 1991 | journal = PACT | volume = 38 | pages = 561–566 | issn = 0257-8727 }}
  • {{cite book | editor-last = Lindström | editor-first = Ulf | editor-link = Ulf Lindström | title = The Oskar Klein Centenary | date = 1995 | publisher = World Scientific | location = Singapore | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=XEIoDwAAQBAJ&pg=PR9 | isbn = 978-9814532549 }} {{free access}}

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Category:Swedish archaeologists

Category:Swedish women scientists

Category:1932 births

Category:Swedish women archaeologists

Category:Academic staff of Stockholm University

Category:Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

Category:2023 deaths