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Knut Andreas Bergsvik

Knut Andreas Bergsvik

Position

Professor, Archaeology

Affiliation

E-mail
knut.bergsvik@uib.no
Phone number
+47 55583136
Visitor address
Villaveien 1A
5007 Bergen
Postal address
P.O. Box 7800
NO-5020 Bergen
Norway

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Knut Andreas Bergsvik

Position

Professor, Archaeology

Affiliation

Research groups

Research

My main academic interests deal with economic, social and ideological and aspects of prehistoric societies, and my research is currently concentrated on two different themes: (1) Stone Age coastal hunter-fishers in Northern Europe and (2) the human use of caves and rockshelters. My work on these themes is mainly based on own archaeological fieldwork at several sites in western Norway, on international cooperation with other archaeologists and also on extensive interdisciplinary collaboration. I am particularly engaged in discussing the emergence of sedentism, the introduction of farming, and the demographic developments among the Stone Age hunter-fisher populations in Northern Europe. Concerning my research on caves and rockshelters, these are studied in a long-term perspective, and within a broad geographical frame. The preservation conditions for organic materials as well as their special character as “natural places” make them unique archaeological contexts for cross-disciplinary approaches. I am interested in how the caves and rockshelters were used, what they meant for people in different periods and regions, and also in how they have been perceived and contested up until the present day.

Publications
Academic article
Popular science book chapter
Other presentation
Media interview
Conference poster
Media feature article
Conference lecture
Research report
Letter to the editor
Doctoral thesis (PhD)
Lecture
Popular science article
Academic book chapter
Book anthology
Working paper
Radio or TV participation
Master’s thesis
Introduction
Textbook
Academic monograph
Journal review

See a complete overview of publications in Cristin.

Follow my work on: http://academia.edu

Published books:

Bergsvik, K.A.; Åstveit, L. I,; Zinsli, C.; Olsen, T. B. 2020. Faglig program i arkeologi for Universitetsmuseet i Bergen 2020–2025. Steinalder til og med mellomneolittisk tid (9500–2350 f.Kr.). UBAS 11. Bergen: Universitetet i Bergen.
 

Bergsvik, K.A. 2006. Ethnic Boundaries in Neolithic Norway. BAR International Series 1554. Oxford: Archaeopress.

Bergsvik, K.A.  2002. Arkeologiske undersøkelser ved Skatestraumen. Bind 1. Arkeologiske avhandlinger og rapporter fra Universitetet i Bergen. Bergen Museum, Universitetet i Bergen.

 

Edited books:

Bergsvik, K.A. and Dowd, M. (eds.) 2018. Caves and Ritual in Medieval Europe, AD 500-1500. Oxbow Books.

Bergsvik, K.A. and Skeates, R. (eds.) 2012. Caves in Context. The Cultural Significance of Caves and Rockshelters in Europe . Oxford, Oxbow Books.

Bergsvik, K.A., Johannessen, O.-J., Losnedahl, K. G., Sveen, H.K. and Ågotnes, H.-J. (eds.) 2007. Humaniora i Nasjonen, Nasjonen i Humaniora. Det historisk-filosofiske fakultets bidrag til hundreårsmarkeringen Norge 1905-2005. Bergen, University of Bergen.

Bergsvik, K.A. and Engevik, jr. A., (eds.) 2005.  Fra funn til samfunn. Jernalderstudier tilegnet Bergljot Solberg på 70-årsdagen. UBAS Nordisk 1. Department of Archaeology, University Bergen.

 

Articles in journals and edited books

Boethius, A, Bergsvik, K.A. and Nilsson, B. 2020. Knowledge from the ancient sea – about offering a long-term perspective of human impact on subsurface life. The Holocene 30 (5), 632-645

Bergsvik, K.A., Hjelle, K. L., Halvorsen, L., Olsen, A.B. and Zinsli, C. 2020. Low-level agriculture in Neolithic western Norway. In Gron, K, Sørensen, L. and Rowley Conwy, P. (eds.) Farmers at the Frontier: A Pan-European Perspective on Neolithisation. Oxford: Oxbow Books, pp. 339-362

Bergsvik, K.A. and Ritchie, K. 2020. Mesolithic fishing landscapes in western Norway. In Schülke, A. (ed.) The Coastal Landscapes of the Mesolithic. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 229-262.

Bergsvik, K.A. and Dowd, M. 2018. Caves and rockshelters in medieval Europe: religious and secular use In K. A. Bergsvik and M. Dowd (eds.). Cave Rituals in Medieval Europe 400-1200 AD. Oxford: Oxbow Books, pp. 1-9.

Bergsvik, K.A. 2018. The perception and use of caves and rockshelters in late Iron Age and medieval Western Norway c. 550-1550 AD. In K. A. Bergsvik and M. Dowd (eds.). Cave Rituals in Medieval Europe 400-1200 AD. Oxford: Oxbow Books, pp. 32-62.

Bergsvik, K.A., 2017. Mesolithic soapstone line-sinkers in western Norway: chronology, acquisition, distribution, function, and decoration. In G. Hansen and P. Storemyr (eds.). Soapstone in the North – Quarries, Products and People 7000 BC – Ad 1700. UBAS vol. 9. University of Bergen: Bergen. 73-92.

Bergsvik, K. A. 2017. Caves and Rockshelters in Iron Age Coastal Norway – At the Margins of the Society? In S. Semple and C. Orsini (eds.) Life on the Edge. Neue Studien zur Sachsenforschung. Hannover Museum Press: Hannover, pp 317-334.

Bergsvik, K.A., Hufthammer, A.K., and Ritchie, K., 2016. The emergence of sedentism in Mesolithic western Norway. A case-study from the rockshelters of Sævarhelleren and Olsteinhelleren by the Hardanger fjord. In Hein Bjerck et al. (eds.) Marine Ventures: Archaeological Perspectives on Human-Sea Relations. Proceedings from the Marine Ventures International Symposium in Trondheim 2013.  Sheffield: Equinox.

Ritchie, K., Hufthammer, A.K. and Bergsvik, K. A. 2016. Fjord Fishing in Mesolithic Western Norway. Environmental Archaeology: The Journal of Human Palaeoecology  21(4): 309-316. Publisert online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14614103.2015.1118212Bergsvik, K.A. and David, E. (2015) Crafting bone tools in Mesolithic Norway: a regional eastern-related Know-how. European Journal of Archaeology 18(2) 190-221.

Bergsvik, K.A. and Hansen, G. 2015. Medieval rockshelters in western Norway. Activities, functions, and social identities. In Baug, I., Larsen, J. and Mygland, S.S. Nordic Middle Ages – Artefacts, Landscapes and Society. Essays in Honour of Ingvild Øye on her 70th birthday. UBAS 8.p. 49-76.

Bergsvik, K.A. and Skeates, R. 2012. Caves in Context: an introduction. In K.A. Bergsvik and R. Skeates (eds.) Caves in Context. The Cultural Significance of Caves and Rockshelters in Europe . Oxford, Oxbow Books.

Bergsvik, K. A. and Storvik, I. 2012. Mesolithic caves and rockshelters in Western Norway.K.A. Bergsvik and R. Skeates (eds.) Caves in Context. The Cultural Significance of Caves and Rockshelters in Europe . Oxford, Oxbow Books.

Bergsvik, K.A. 2011.The last hunter-fishers of western Norway. In Glørstad, H. and Prescott, C. (eds.) Becoming European? The Transformation of the third Millennium Europe and the Trajectory into the second Millennium BC, pp. 100-114. Oxbow books, Oxford.

Bergsvik, K.A. 2011. East is east and west is west: on regional differences in Neolithic Norway. In Olofsson, A. (ed.) Archaeology of indigenous peoples in the north. Archaeology and Environment 27. University of Umeå, pp. 133-160.

Bergsvik, K.A. and Østmo, E. 2011. The Experienced Axe. Chronology, Condition, and Context of the TRB-axes in Western Norway. In Edmonds, M. and Davis, Vin (eds.) Stone Axe Studies II. Council for British Archaeology, Oxbow Books, Oxford, pp. 7-20.

Bergsvik, K.A. 2010. Marrying the Enemy: Technology and Regions in Early Neolithic Norway. In Barndon, R., Engevik jr, A. and  Øye, I. (eds.) The Archaeology of Regional Technologies. Case Studies from the Palaeolithic to the Age of Vikings. Mellen Press, New York, pp. 109-126.

Bergsvik, K.A. 2009. The importance of Landscape Perceptions to In-Group and Between-Group Relations among Hunter-Fishers of Neolithic Western Norway. In Glørstad, H. and Prescott (eds.) Neolithisation as if History mattered. Bricoleur Press, Lindome, pp. 105-134.

Bergsvik, K.A. and Hufthammer, A.K. 2009. Stability and change among marine hunter-fishers in western Norway 7000-4500 BC. Results from the excavations of two rockshelters. In Crombé, P. (ed.) Chronology and evolution in the Mesolithic of N(W) Europe. Cambridge, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 435-449.

Bergsvik, K.A. 2009.  Caught in the middle: functional and ideological aspects of Mesolithic shores in Norway. In McCartan, S., Woodman, P., Schulting, R. and Warren, G.  (eds.), Mesolithic Horizons: Papers presented at the Seventh International Conference on the Mesolithic in Europe, Belfast 2005. Oxford, Oxbow Books, pp. 602-609.

 Bergsvik, K.A. 2006. Førromersk jernalder ved Skatestraumen. Sosiale og økonomiske implikasjoner. Viking LXIX, pp. 107-130.

Hjelle K.L. , Hufthammer, A.K. and Bergsvik, K.A. 2006. Hesitant hunters: a review of the introduction of agriculture in Western Norway. Journal of Environmental Archaeology, pp. 147-170.

 

 

 

 

Projects
  • Research project: "Demographic developments in western Norway. Main supervisor for Ph.D. student Victor Lundström
  • Research project: "Mesolithic portable soapstone figures in western Norway". A collaboration with David Simpson and Hanne Årskog
  • Research project: "Mesolithic human skeletons in western Norway". A collaboration with Anne Karin Hufthammer and David Simpson (both University museum of Bergen)
  • The rockshelter project in western Norway. A cross-disciplinary investigation of subsistence, social identity and ritual activity in caves and rockshelters in western Norway from the Stone Age to the Iron Age (7000 BC - 1500 AD)".