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School of History, Welsh History and Archaeology

Staff Profile of Dr Kristján Ahronson

Name:

Dr Kristján Ahronson

Position:

Lecturer in Archaeology

Email:

Location:

Room T13, Main Arts

Phone:

+44 (0)1248 383251

Dr Ahronson is a specialist in the later prehistoric and early historic archaeology of Europe and North America, with fundamental interests in Celtic and medieval studies, human-environmental interactions, histories of archaeological thought and inter-disciplinary theory. Over the Autumn of 2010-11, he was Visiting Professor in Celtic Archaeology at the University of Toronto. Dr Ahronson has created and organises two inter-disciplinary seminar series in Bangor:

  1. ‘People and Environment’ seminar (inter-collegiate).
  2. ‘Origins of our Ideas: Celtic studies and Archaeology’ seminar (inter-school)

Areas of Teaching and Supervision

Dr Ahronson teaches and supervises topics in the general areas of archaeology and Celtic studies. More specifically, his undergraduate and postgraduate teaching explores archaeological theory and method, Atlantic archaeology, palaeoecology, the history of archaeology (especially in the nineteenth century), and Celtic studies.

*NEW MODULE FOR 2011-12 :
HTA2115/HTA3115* ARCHAEOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE

The role of people in bringing about or contributing to environmental change – and how human societies adapt to that change – is a high profile topic, highlighted by recent inter-governmental meetings in Copenhagen and Cancun. Read full abstract ...

Current Research

Human-environmental interactions; archaeology and Celtic studies; Viking-Age Iceland and Britain and Ireland; later prehistoric and early historic NW Europe and NE North America; tephrochronology; nineteenth-century scholarship; archaeological and ethnological collections; systems theory and archaeology.

Active Field Interests

  • Seljaland site, Vestur-Eyjafjallasveit, southern Iceland [early medieval; human-environmental interactions]
  • Meath sites, Ottawa Valley, eastern Ontario, Canada [multi-period]

Key and Recent Publications

Books

In review. Into the Ocean: Viking-Age Gaels, Norse and Environmental Change.

2007. Viking-Age Communities: Pap-names and Papar in the Hebridean Islands. Oxford.

Articles and Book Chapters

2011. Old World Prehistory and early Canadian archaeology. Canadian Journal of Archaeology 35, 1-17.

2010. (with T M Charles-Edwards) Prehistoric Annals and early medieval monasticism: Daniel Wilson, James Young Simpson and their cave sites. Antiquaries Journal 90, 455-66.
( pdf iconFree downloadable PDF of article. (Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 2010))

2006. (with W Gillies and F Hunter) Early Christian activity at Scottish cave sites. Church Archaeology 7/8/9, 123-5.

2004. The crosses of Columban Iceland: A survey of preliminary research. In Lewis-Simpson, S. (ed.) Vínland Revisited: The Norse World at the Turn of the First Millennium. Selected Papers from the Viking Millennium International Symposium, 15-24 September 2000, Newfoundland and Labrador, St John’s, Newfoundland, 75-82.

2003. (collected and edited) Atlantic Peoples between Fire, Ice, River and Sea. Past Environments in Southern Iceland.  Published as a collection of articles in Northern Studies 37, 49-111.

–. One North Atlantic cave settlement: Preliminary archaeological and environmental investigations at Seljaland, southern Iceland. In Atlantic Peoples, 53-70.

–. (with K T Smith) Dating the cave? The preliminary tephra stratigraphy at Kverkin, Seljaland. In Atlantic Peoples, 71-80.

2002. Testing the evidence for northernmost North Atlantic papar: A cave site in southern Iceland. In Crawford, B. (ed.), The Papar in the North Atlantic: Environment and History. Proceedings of the St Andrews Dark Age Conference, St Andrews, 107-120.

–. Review of O Owen and M Dalland, Scar. A Viking Boat Burial on Sanday, Orkney. Scottish Historical Review 81, 258.

2001. ‘Hamarinn’ frá Fossi: Kristinn norrænn kross með keltneskum svip / The Foss ‘hammer’:  A Celtic-influenced Norse cross from Viking-Age southern Iceland. Árbók Hins Íslenzka Fornleifafélags 1999, 185-9.

2000. Further evidence for a Columban Iceland: Preliminary results of recent work. Norwegian Archaeological Review 33:2, 117-24.

Recent Media Coverage

Bangor archaeology research on early Iceland attracts international attention

Publication Date: 21/01/2011

Archaeological and palaeoecological discoveries demonstrate that Iceland was inhabited around AD800 - that's 70 years before the traditional dating of its Viking settlement. These earliest people in Iceland appear related to medieval Irish monastic communities in Atlantic Scotland. Dr Kristjan Ahronson of Prifysgol Bangor University's School of History, Welsh History and Archaeology made the discoveries, which were covered by Canadian Radio's flagship evening current-affairs programme "As It Happens". This interview was broadcast across Canada on CBC Radio and in the United States on its National Public Radio service. Ahronson's team used tephrochronology, which is a technique based on airfall deposits from volcanic eruptions (or, tephra), to date the site and to explore records of human-environmental interactions and climate change in early Iceland.

LISTEN TO THE CBC RADIO INTERVIEW:

Listen to the interview online at www.cbc.ca/aih . Go to the episode for Tuesday January 11th, 2011 and click on the link to Part 3. Dr Ahronson's interview starts at 18:54.

DIRECT LINK TO AUDIO PLAYER FOR TUESDAY JANUARY 11th EPISODE, PART 3: http://www.cbc.ca/video/news/audioplayer.html?clipid=1750326896

READ MORE:

http://www.medievalists.net/2010/12/23/did-the-scots-visit-iceland-new-research-reveals-island-inhabited-70-years-before-vikings-thought-to-have-arrived/

http://www.unreportedheritagenews.com/2010/12/did-scots-visit-iceland-new-research.html

Research Seminar

The first PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT seminar of the year, will take place on Friday 7 October at 16:00 in G1 on the theme of 'ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS'. We are delighted to welcome Prof Tony Brown from the University of Southampton to speak alongside our very own Prof James Scourse in what promises to be a special event:

Prof Tony Brown (Geography and Environment, Southampton) will be exploring exciting ideas and fresh perspectives in ...

‘Meteorological events and Neolithic monumentalism’

Prof James Scourse (Ocean Sciences) will be presenting on some very new analyses in ...

‘New insights into environmental constraints on marine foraging: a case study from the Isles of Scilly’

Each speaker shall present for 30 minutes and Dr David Devalle shall then act as 5-minute Discussant. For further information, see the attachments.

All are warmly welcome.