During the seventeenth century, the kingdom of Sweden became a great power in northern Europe through its victories during the Thirty Years’ War. In that context, and without any Greek or Roman pedigrees to justify and substantiate its position of power, antiquarian research and knowledge about its own unique past became an important part of defining its national identity. Sweden appointed its first director of national antiquities, Johan Bure (1568-1652), in 1599.
Bure’s contact with the kings of Sweden guaranteed their involvement in antiquarian research, and as a result, ensured national and provincial government support. On Bure’s advice King Gustavus Adolphus II (1594-1632) issued his famous “antiquarian instruction” in 1630 to protect and record the nation’s monuments and antiquities.
Johan Hadorph (1630-1693) succeeded Bure as director of national antiquities. Hadorph not only shared Bure’s passion for antiquities, but also had influential connections. He had studied history at Uppsala University and then, in 1660, become the university’s secretary, working closely with its enlightened chancellor, Magnus Gabriel de la Gardie, who was also the political chancellor of Sweden. In 1662 the university founded a chair of antiquities and appointed Olof Verelius (1618-1682) as its first professor of antiquarian studies.
In 1666, with the support of Hadorph, la Gardie, and the powerful science professor Olof Rudbeck (1630-1702), Verelius was appointed royal antiquary, and, with royal, national, and provincial government approvals, and a legislative proclamation, a College of Antiquities was founded, affiliated to Uppsala University. As Klindt-Jensen (1975) describes:
The preamble to this proclamation deplored the prevailing apathy toward ancient monuments: nothing was being done to prevent their decay and destruction—even such ruins as were left were being dispersed—and there was no recognition of their true worth as testimony to posterity of the ‘heroic achievements of the kings of Sweden and Gotland, their subjects, and other great men—the imposing castles, fortresses, and dolmens, the stones bearing runic inscriptions, the tombs and ancestral barrows.’ Henceforth it was forbidden to break up or interfere with these monuments whether situated on crown land or private property. Officials were to ensure that this prohibition was respected; priests and their assistants had the special duty of inspecting all field-monuments and sending drawings of them to the king. (p. 27)
At the same time Hadorph left the university to become director of national antiquities and secretary of an antiquities committee that was established to administer the legislation. The committee was supported by paid research, conservation, and publication staff and was provided with an office and storage facilities in the Gustavianum (now the Museum of Nordic Antiquities). Its specific tasks were to:
Preserve the country’s ancient monuments; publish Icelandic sagas and ancient Swedish laws; create a Swedish dictionary; document rune stones and coins and seals; and carry out archaeological excavations. Priests and public officials were ordered to participate in field surveys and to send the results of any pillaging of monuments to the Antiquities Committee. (Hegardt 2001,1225)
Hadorph went on annual antiquarian expeditions with draftsmen and writers to find and record the reported monuments and any folk traditions. One of his draftsmen, Elias Brenner (1647-1717), was a student of both Olof Verelius (1618-1682) and Johannes Schefferus (1621-1679), the latter providing Brenner with his first insights into numismatics (coins) which Brenner was to elevate to the status of a science in the 1690s. The study of numismatics in Scandinavia would have a crucial impact on the development of prehistoric chronology during the nineteenth century. Hadorph wrote and published illustrated reports of monuments and finds and collected archaeological material and artifacts. He also undertook his own fieldwork, uncovering an ancient paved road marked by runic-inscribed standing stones near Taby in Uppland and excavating the Viking town of Birka.
Hadorph, Verelius, the college, and the committee ensured that the laws to protect ancient Swedish monuments were renewed in 1669 and 1676. In 1670 a bronze sword unearthed in Skane became the first prehistoric artifact to be handed to the committee, and in 1675 three bracteates from the same area were also acquired. At this stage the study of artifacts and material culture was not a recognized area of research in itself, but the use of such material to elucidate historic literary sources was recognized as being worthwhile. Here was another area that required protection—the material culture and artifacts associated with ancient monuments, and so in 1684 the antiquities laws were extended to protect archaeological material: “found piecemeal in the ground, ancient coins of all varieties and finds of gold, silver and copper, metal vessels and other rarities many of which are at present being discovered and secretly hoarded” (Klindt-Jensen 1975, 27).
Of equal importance was the fact that all of these archaeological finds had to be sent directly to the king, who would pay their finders a reward. The Antiquities College argued that these finds should be preserved “both for the glory of the nation and for the scientific interest” and that they were not to be looted and sold off (Klindt-Jensen 1975, 29).
With artifacts accumulating in the Gustavianum, Hadorph began to lobby for the creation of a museum similar to the Danish Royal Kunstkammer, set up as a result of the collections made by Ole Worm and the Danish crown. Despite deteriorating political relations with Denmark, he visited Copenhagen and examined its antiquities collections, and maintained a prolific correspondence with Danish antiquarians.
The antiquities committee was initially based in Uppsala, but in 1690 it was moved to the capital, Stockholm. Gradually its activities decreased, and in 1692 it was renamed the Antiquities Archive, reflecting its now passive role. Hadorph died in 1693.
Sweden’s period as a great power finished by 1718, partly because of a disastrous war with Russia, which was emerging as the great power of northeastern Europe. The last secretary of the Antiquities Archive completed his term of office in 1777, and no one was appointed in his place. In 1780 the archive was dissolved. After the reorganization of the Literary Academy in 1786, the Academy of Literature, History, and Antiquities took over the duties of the archive and its secretary became the director of national antiquities (Hegardt 2001, 1225).
See also Worm Issues His Circular (1626); Sweden Passes Law to Protect National Antiquities (1630).
Further Reading
Klindt-Jensen, Ole. 1975. A history of Scandinavian archaeology. London: Thames and Hudson.
Hegardt, J., ed. 2001. Sweden. In Encyclopedia of Archaeology, History and Discoveries, ed. T. Murray, vol. 3, 1224-1228. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.
World History
