Taras Shevchenko Kiev University, Stockholm University, Uppsala University

Lecturer, Research Associate, Principle Investigator, Archeology (Kiev, Stockholm), Linguistics & Philology (Uppsala)

PhD

Taras Shevchenko Kiev University

Thesis Title: Northmen and Slavs in the Desna river area (Models of cultural interaction in the period of early Middle ages). (Kyiv, 1999). /Ukr./. Reviwed in Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas (2003 ), 51, nr 2, 289-291

About

I defended my PhD in 1998 at the University of Kiev (Taras Shevchenko National University of Kiev). During 1988−1995 I studied history, archaeology and museology at the University of Kiev, and in 1996−2000 I was employed as a lecturer at the Department of Archaeology and Museology of the same university.

My route to both Scandinavia and Byzantium started in Kiev and in the Ukrainian village Shestovica. Both are famous because of their finds of Scandinavian and Byzantine origin. The role of these sites in the cultural contacts with the two regions became the subject of my PhD research and, to a large extent, also of my later studies. After completing my dissertation I turned to the weaponry and specifically the swords as a source for my studies of contacts in the Viking Period. In order to make a deep study of Scandinavian material culture I visited and studied the collections of the most important museums in Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. These studies of the original sources form the basis of my coming book concerning such questions as the diversity and the cultural and social role of swords in Scandinavia and other parts of Europe in the Viking Age. It will be published in the series "Stockholm Studies in Archaeology".

My current research is devoted to studies of the contacts between Byzantium, Old Rus’ and Scandinavia in the Viking Age. Questions concerning Byzantine influence on dress customs, city life, court ceremonies, town planning and defence are central in my research. One of my coming books, "Vikings in the East − Contacts along the Road to Byzantium A.D. 900−1100," is accepted for publication in the series "Studia Byzantina Upsaliensia."

Being a Swedish citizen  with roots in Ukraine, I am equally at home in Ukraine and Sweden – and have personal experience of the plurality in the meaning of the concept ”Identity”.

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