“Vikings: New Technology – New Discoveries”

New technology and discoveries have revolutionized understanding of the Viking Age and its beginnings. Early trading towns in Denmark and Sweden, a recent excavation of a Viking ship burial in Norway, Viking Age DNA studies, and ring fortresses in Denmark are a few of the topics that will be discussed. This symposium will carry on the time-honored tradition of presentations by experts with ample time for guest interaction and discussion.

Archaeologists flying in from the Nordic countries to give presentations include professor Søren Sindbæk from Aarhus University, Denmark; Sigridur (Sunna) Ebenesersdóttir, PhD, of deCODE Genetics, Iceland; Dr. Christian Løchsen Rødsrud of the Norwegian Museum of Cultural History, Oslo, Norway; and Dr. Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson of Uppsala University, Sweden. As a bonus, Dr. Nelleke Ijssennagger-van der Pluijm, director of the Fryske Academy, Netherlands, will give a Zoom presentation on Viking activity in the Low Countries.

Reservations are requested for the reception at 5:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 9 ($15), and required by Jan. 30 for the dinner at 6 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 10 ($45). The dinner will take place in the Lundring Events Center. Admission is $25 for the Friday evening program and $50 for the daylong Saturday program.

The event is free for Cal Lutheran students, faculty and staff. For the full symposium schedule, visit scandinaviancenter.org. 

For information and early registration fees, contact Howard Rockstad at 805-497-3717 or nordicspiritclassics@gmail.com.

The symposium is sponsored by the Scandinavian American Cultural and Historical Foundation and Cal Lutheran, and made possible by generous grants from the Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation and the Norway House Foundation in San Francisco.