Norway

The systematic excavation, investigation and storing of ancient skeletal remains in Norway began more than 150 years ago when the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Monuments in Norway (Fortidsminneforeningen) made the first archaeological investigations in an ancient monument in 1851. The first skeletal parts to be salvaged for future scientific study were two skulls from the mediaeval Cistercian monastery ruins at Hovedøya in Oslo. These skulls were the first ‘archaeological’ finds of human remains to be incorporated in the growing skeletal collection at the newly established University of Oslo. For more than a century, anthropological studies in Norway were carried out by practitioners of

medicine who embraced the prevailing anthropological objectives and methods in Europe. Physical anthropological activities in Norway in the 20th century may be roughly subdivided into three periods, according to the chief interests of the scientific community (Næss and Sellevold 1990).

‘The anthropological period’ During the first half of the 20th century, anatomists at the University of Oslo were active in physical anthropology, collecting skeletons, mostly skulls from churchyards all over the country, in order to get material for their research. The principal physical anthropologist during this period was Professor of Anatomy Kristian Emil Schreiner, who was head of the Department of Anatomy at the University from 1908 to 1945. His chief aim in physical anthropology was to provide a craniological description of the Norwegian prehistoric and mediaeval populations, and of Norway’s indigenous ethnical minority group, the Sami, thus continuing in the tradition of his predecessors in Norwegian anthropology in the 19th century. Schreiner’s major works appeared between 1927 and 1946: the comprehensive report on the Viking Oseberg skeletons (Schreiner 1927); two comprehensive publications on Norwegian prehistoric and mediaeval skulls, Crania Norvegica (Schreiner 1939, 1946); and three publications on Sami skeletal remains, Zur Osteologie der Lappen (Bd 1 and Bd 2) (Schreiner 1931, 1935) and Further Note on the Craniology of the Lapps (Schreiner 1945). Schreiner systematized the anthropological collection, and greatly enlarged it, both by encouraging churchyard diggers to send him skulls from abandoned graves and by organizing excavations of his own. Schreiner died in 1954, and in the late 1970s the anthropological collection was named ‘The Schreiner Collection’ in his honour.

‘The antiquarian period’ Between the Second World War and the middle of the 1980s, the excavation of skeletal remains was carried out by antiquarians, first and foremost by the Directorate for Cultural Heritage (Riksantikvaren). The aim of the excavations was not to collect material and data for skeletal research but to rescue skeletal remains which were uncovered in connection with road and building construction works, mainly in the mediaeval towns (Oslo, Tønsberg, Bergen and Trondheim). During these years, there were few research projects involving human skeletal remains, and skeletal finds were often reburied. In the 1970s, skeletal finds from archaeological investigations began to pose problems, chiefly due to a lack of interest in physical anthropology among the anatomists. In 1986, the Schreiner Collection was closed to new finds when the ‘Archaeological Interim Committee’ decided to discontinue the general practice of depositing finds in the collection. From then on, human skeletal remains were deposited in the repositories of the five archaeological museums in Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim, Tromsø and Stavanger.