Oscar Montelius Medal 2015

The Swedish “Fornminnesföreningen” had the great pleasure to award Ulla Lund Hansen the Oscar Montelius medal at its annual meeting in 2015.

Motivation

Lecturer Emerita, Associate Professor Ulla Lund Hansen has been linked to the University of Copenhagen, where she worked as a teacher and researcher, for a large part of her career.

It was also here that in 1987 she presented her higher doctoral thesis “Römischer Import im Norden. Wahrenaustausch zwischen dem Römischen Reich und dem freien Germanien während der Kaiserzeit unter besonderer Berücksichtigung Nordeuropas“.

This thesis, which deals with Roman imports in the Nordic countries and the contacts between the Roman Empire and Scandinavia, is a milestone in the understanding of the Roman Iron Age, which is not only of significance to the Nordic countries but for northern Europe as a whole.

Through its fundamental and comprehensive analysis, the dissertation provided the chronological framework for import behaviour in the Nordic area. However, Ulla Lund Hansen was not content with this. She also ensured that the chronological results were set within a cultural historical context and broadly outlined the cultural development in the Nordic countries during the first four centuries of the Common Era.

By fine grouping graves and objects chronologically, she was also able to connect the Nordic findings to known historical events in the Roman area. Her analysis and understanding of the Roman Iron Age has made a lasting impression in research into the period and constitutes a significant fundament of the current research conducted in this area.

Finally, it should be mentioned that Ulla Lund Hansen received an honorary doctorate from the University of Lund for her endeavours to strengthen relations between the universities of Lund and Copenhagen, as well as for her role in the “Uppåkra” project. Another scholarly milestone was her publication of the highly valuable glass material from “Helgö Mälaren”. Thanks to her great knowledge of archaeological materials, she is perhaps the only scholar in the Nordic countries to have placed all this material in a wider cultural and historical context.