Liv Nilsson Stutz

Professor

Department of Cultural Sciences Faculty of Arts and Humanities

liv.nilssonstutz@lnu.se

+46 480-44 61 98

I am a bioarchaeologist and archaeologist who got my post graduate training in France (Maîtrise and DEA Université Bordeaux 1, 1996 and 1997) and Sweden (PhD, Lund University 2004). I have worked as a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Anthropology at Emory University (USA) and am currently a professor in Archaeology at LNU.

My research interests are broad and interdisciplinary.

Research on Research Ethics with regards to human remains: Research on human remains is a part of a long scientific tradition. Today museums are the custodians of extensive collections of both skeletal remains and soft tissues. In the Humanities and Social Sciences (archaeology, biological anthropology, history of medicine) research on human remains provide valuable information on the lived experience of people in the past. At the same time, reservations are made against research on the remains of people who were never able to consent. My research explores the space between formal legal frameworks and recommendations on the one hand, and underlying value systems and practices on the other.

Death, Rituals and the Handling of the dead body: I am interested in how people across cultures handle the universal crisis of death, and I have been especially interested in how the ritual treatment of the dead body plays a crucial role in defining and producing ideas about death. Through archaeology I combine fieldwork, archaeothanatology, ritual theory, practice theory, and body theory to explore the handling of the dead and death especially in hunter gatherer communities in Northern Europe. This work on hunter gatherer ritual practices has also developed into a broader focus on hunter gatherer ontology, new animism, new totemism and the relationships between humans and non human animals in archaeology and anthropology. For more insight into my work on mortuary rituals and the handling of the dead body, listen to this interview by How Stuff Works.

Politics, Repatriation and Claims to Culture: My work in burial archaeology has also led me to explore the ethical dimensions of excavating, studying and exhibiting human remains. Through a comparison of the debates in different academic and political contexts, I have examined the repatriation and reburial issue from a perspective that critically examined claims to culture while at the same time recognized the colonial past of the discipline. I have been especially interested in problematizing cultural heritage politics and identity politics and the role that the past in general, and heritage in particular, plays in these discourses.
Material Culture, Memory and Affect: More recently I have stared to explore the ways in which culture, emotion and affect, are given form in material culture, and how these material manifestations act back at us through processes of memory and affect. I am starting to develop these thoughts through transdisciplinary connections with cultural anthropology, psychology, history, art, and design.
Collaborations with artists and designers: I enjoy collaborating with artists and designers on shared interests (death, order and chaos, material culture). I have collaborated with Timo Menke and Christian Kosmas Mayer by providing commening and analysing texts to their art work. I collaborate continuously with designer Anna Kraitz, for example in the project STÄDA (2020) (CLEANING, in English) about he material culture of clearning and ordering, and our cultural conceptions about cleanilness, dirt, disorder, and chaos.

I have conducted fieldwork in Latvia and Jordan.

I was an editor of Archaeological Dialogues (Cambridge University Press) from 2005 to 2020 and I am currently an associate editor for Bioarchaeology International (University of Florida Press), and the Cambridge World Archaeology Series, and the co-edior of the Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Death and Burial.

Teaching

Stone Age and Iron Age Archaeology in Arkeologi 1
Europe and the World in Arkeologi 2
Supervision of term papers in Arkeologi 2 and 3.
The Swedish Landscape: temporal and spatial perspectives
What is Archaeology. Current Research at LNU (portion on rituals and burials)
Ritual, Religion and Materiality (Masters level course)
Race and Racism in a postcolonial perspective (masters level course)
Archaeology in the Public Debate (graduate course)
Research in Museums (graduate course)
The Value of the Past (graduate course)
How to get published in International Journals (workshop for graduate students)

Research

Principal Investigator: Ethical Entanglements. The caring for human remains in museums and research. The research is funded by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, Stiftelsen för humanisktisk och samhällsvetenskaplig forskning.

Co-Principal Investigator of the Western Ajloun Early Prehistory Project, Jordan. Projektet har finansierats av the LSB Leakey Foundation, the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, and the National Science Foundation.

Excavations of the Upper Palaeolithic cave Mughr el-Hamamah in Jordan. Chantel White

Liv Nilsson Stutz and Aaron Jonas Stutz at the mouth of the cave at Mughr el-Hamamah, Jordan. In the small square: Early Upper Palaeolithic archaeological material found at the cave (from left to right): el-Wad point, A retouched point with basal modification, and a bone tool. Julie Margolis

My research groups

My ongoing research projects

Project: Ethical Entanglements – The caring for human remains in museums and research Research on human remains is a part of a long scientific tradition. Today museums are the custodians of extensive…

Publications

Article in journal (Refereed)

Nilsson Stutz, L., Peyroteo Stjerna, R., Tarlow, S. (2024). Ethical entanglements : human remains, museums and ethics in a European perspective. Antiquity.
Status: Epub ahead of print
Alonso-Eguiluz, M., Toffolo, M.B., White, C.E., Asouti, E., Boaretto, E., et al. (2024). The Early Upper paleolithic deposit of Mughr el-Hamamah (Jordan): Archaeobotanical taphonomy and site formation processes. Journal of Archaeological Science : Reports. 55. 104471-104471.
Status: Published
Clark, J.L., Hartman, G., Nilsson Stutz, L., Stutz, A.J. (2024). The fauna from Mughr el-Hamamah, Jordan : Insights on human hunting behavior during the Early Upper Paleolithic. Journal of Human Evolution. 190.
Status: Published
Nilsson Stutz, L. (2023). Between objects of science and lived lives. The legal liminality of old human remains in museums and research. International Journal of Heritage Studies (IJHS). 29 (10). 1061-1074.
Status: Published
Nilsson Stutz, L. (2022). Rewards, Prestige, and Power : Interdisciplinary Archaeology in the Era of the Neoliberal University. Forum Kritische Archäologie. 40-52.
Status: Published
Peyroteo-Stjerna, R., Nilsson Stutz, L., Mickleburgh, H., Cardoso, J.L. (2022). Mummification in the Mesolithic : New Approaches to Old Photo Documentation Reveal Previously Unknown Mortuary Practices in the Sado Valley, Portugal. European Journal of Archaeology. 25 (3). 309-330.
Status: Published
Mickleburgh, H., Nilsson Stutz, L., Fokkens, H. (2021). Virtual Archaeology of Death and Burial : A Procedure for Integrating 3D Visualization and Analysis in Archaeothanatology. Open Archaeology. 7 (1). 540-555.
Status: Published
Elliott, B., Nilsson Stutz, L., Conneller, C. (2020). Clamber of the dead : material ontology and cosmological affect within the hunter-gatherer mortuary traditions of the Eastern Baltic 4000-3000 cal. BC. World archaeology. 52 (5). 707-723.
Status: Published
Shea, J., Stutz, A.J., Nilsson Stutz, L. (2019). An Early Upper Palaeolithic Stone Tool Assemblage from Mughr El-Hamamah, Jordan : An Interim Report. Journal of field archaeology. 44 (7). 420-439.
Status: Published
Nilsson Stutz, L. (2018). A future for archaeology : in defense of an intellectually engaged, collaborative and confident archaeology. Norwegian Archaeological Review. 51 (1-2). 48-56.
Status: Published
Larsson, L., Nilsson Stutz, L., Zagorska, I., Berzins, V., Cerinja, A. (2017). New Aspects of the Mesolithic-Neolithic cemeteries and settlement at Zvejnieki, Northen Latvia. Acta Archaeologica. 88 (1). 57-93.
Status: Published
Nilsson Stutz, L., Larsson, L. (2016). Disturbing the Dead : Archaeothanatological Analysis of the stone age burials at Zveijnieki, Latvia (excavated 2006-2009). Journal of Archaeological Science : Reports. 10. 715-724.
Status: Published
Nilsson Stutz, L. (2016). Building Bridges Between Burial Archaeology and the Archaeology of Death : Where is the Archaeological Study of the Dead Going?. Current Swedish Archaeology. 24. 13-35.
Status: Published
Stutz, A.J., Shea, J.J., Rech, J.A., Pigati, J.S., Wilson, J., et al. (2015). Early Upper Paleolithic chronology in the Levant : new ABOx-SC accelerator mass spectrometry results from the Mughr el-Hamamah Site, Jordan. Journal of Human Evolution. 85. 157-183.
Status: Published
Nilsson Stutz, L., Larson, L., Zagorska, I. (2013). The Persistent Presence of the Dead : The Significance of Place and Time revealed by the recent excavations at the hunter-gatherer cemetery at Zvejnieki (Latvia). Antiquity. 87 (338). 1016-1029.
Status: Published
Nilsson Stutz, L. (2013). Claiming the Past. : A critical view of the arguments driving repatriation of cultural heritage and their role in contemporary identity politics. Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding. 7 (2). 170-195.
Status: Published
Nilsson Stutz, L. (2012). The Noah Complex and Archaeology in the Holy Land : The case of the Mamilla Cemetery and the Museum of Tolerance and Human Dignity. Heritage & Society. 5 (2). 221-248.
Status: Published
Berggren, Å., Nilsson Stutz, L. (2010). From Spectator to Critic and Participant : A New Role for Archaeology in Ritual Theory. Journal of social archaeology. 10 (2). 171-197.
Status: Published
Nilsson Stutz, L. (2010). The way we bury our dead : Reflections on mortuary ritual, community and identity at the time of the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition. Documenta Praehistorica. 37. 33-42.
Status: Published
Nilsson Stutz, L. (2008). Archaeology, Identity, and the Right to Culture : Anthropological perspectives on repatriation. Current Swedish Archaeology. 15-16. 157-172.
Status: Published
Nilsson Stutz, L. (2007). Setting it Straight : A re-analysis of the Mesolithic Barum burial according to the principles of Anthropologie 'de terrain'. Lund Archaeological Review. 11-12 (2005-2006). 37-46.
Status: Published
Nilsson Stutz, L. (1999). Dynamic Cadavers : A "Field-Anthropological" Analysis of the Skateholm II Burials. Lund Archaeological Review. 4 (1998). 5-17.
Status: Published

Conference paper (Refereed)

Nilsson Stutz, L. (2009). Coping with cadavers : ritual practices in Mesolithic cemeteries. Mesolithic Horizons : Papers presented at the Seventh International Conference on the Mesolithic in Europe, Belfast, 2005. 657-663.

Chapter in book (Refereed)

Nilsson Stutz, L. (2024). Death Changes Everything : Archaeology and the human scale of change. Archaeological Perspectives on Burial Practices and Societal Change : Death in transition. London, Routledge. 221-232.
Nilsson Stutz, L. (2022). What Can Archaeothanatology Add? : A case study of new knowledge and theoretical implications in teh re-study of Mesolithic burials in Sweden and Denmark. The Routledge Handbook of Archaeothanatology : Bioarchaeology of Mortuary Behaviour. London, Routledge. 178-193.
Nilsson Stutz, L. (2020). Sensing death and experiencing mortuary ritual. The Routledge Handbook of Sensory Archaeology. London, Routledge. 149-163.
Stutz, A.J., Nilsson Stutz, L. (2018). Burial and ritual. The International Encyclopedia of Biological Anthropology. New York, John Wiley & Sons.
Nilsson Stutz, L. (2018). From Here and to Death : The Archaeology of the Human Body. A Companion to the Anthropology of Death. Hoboken, NJ, John Wiley & Sons. 323-335.
Nilsson Stutz, L. (2018). Human Lives and Deaths. The Encyclopedia of Archaeological Sciences. Hoboken, NJ, John Wiley & Sons.
Nilsson Stutz, L. (2016). The Importance of “Getting It Right” : Tracing Anxiety in Mesolithic Burials. The Archaeology of Anxiety : The Materiality of Anxiousness, Worry, and Fear. Springer. 21-40.
Nilsson Stutz, L. (2016). To Gaze Upon the Dead : The Exhibition of Human Remains as Cultural Practice and Political Process in Scandinavia and the USA. Dealing with the Dead : Mortuary Archaeology and Contemporary Society. Oxford, Oxford University Press. 268-292.
Nilsson Stutz, L. (2015). A Proper Burial. Some Thoughts on Changes in Mortuary Ritual, and how Archaeology can begin to understand them.. Death and Changing Rituals : Function and meaning in ancient funerary practices. Oxford, Oxbow Books. 1-16.
Nilsson Stutz, L., Thomas, D.H. (2014). Perspectives – Socially Responsible and Culturally Conscious Approaches to Cremations in the New and Old World. Transformation by Fire : The Archaeology of Cremation in Cultural Context. Tucson, University of Arizona Press. 35-46.
Nilsson Stutz, L., Kuijt, I. (2014). Perspectives-Reflections on the Visibility of Cremtion as a Physical Event.. Transformation by fire : the archaeology of cremation in cultural context. Tucson, University of Arizona Press. 143-147.
Nilsson Stutz, L. (2014). Mortuary Practices. The Oxford handbook of the archaeology and anthropology of hunter-gatherers. Oxford, Oxford University Press. 712-728.
Larsson, Å.M., Nilsson Stutz, L. (2014). Reconcilable Differences : Cremation, Fragmentation, and Inhumation in Mesolithic and Neolithic Sweden. Transformation by Fire : The Archaeology of Cremation in Cultural Context. Tucson, University of Arizona Press. 47-66.
Nilsson Stutz, L. (2013). Contested Burials : The dead as witnesses, victims and tools. The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Death and Burial. Oxford, Oxford University Press. 801-816.
Nilsson Stutz, L., Tarlow, S. (2013). Beautiful Things and Bones of Desire : Emerging Issues in the Archaeology of Death and Burial. The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Death and Burial. Oxford, Oxford University Press. 1-16.
Nilsson Stutz, L. (2013). Dialogue with the Dead : Imagining Mesolithic Mortuary Rituals. Archaeological Imaginations of Religion. Budapest, Archaeolingua. 337-358.
Nilsson Stutz, L. (2012). Marginal and Mainstream : Religion, politics and identity in the contemporary US, as seen through the lens of the Kennewick Man / the Ancient One. From Archaeology to Archaeologies : The "Other" Past. Oxford, Archaeopress. 33-44.
Nilsson Stutz, L. (2010). A Baltic Way of Death? : A tentative exploration of identity in Mesolithic cemetery practices. Uniting Sea II : Stone Age Societies in the Baltic Sea Region. Uppsala, Uppsala University. 127-144.
Berggren, Å., Nilsson Stutz, L. (2010). Ett utmanat koncept? : Ritualbegreppets möte med arkeologin. Den rituella människan : Flervetenskapliga perspektiv. Linköping, Linköping University Electronic Press. 25-52.
Nilsson Stutz, L. (2008). Caught in the Middle : An archaeological perspective on repatriation and reburial. UTIMUT : Past Heritage – Future Partnerships. Discussions on Repatriation in the 21st Century. Copenhagen, IWGIA International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs. 84-98.
Nilsson Stutz, L. (2008). Capturing Ritual Practice : An attempt to harmonize archaeological method and theory. Religion, Archaeology and the Material World. Carbondale, IL, Southern Illinois University. 159-178.
Nilsson Stutz, L. (2008). More than Metaphor : Approaching the Human cadaver in Archaeology. The Materiality of Death : bodies, burials, beliefs. Oxford, Archaeopress. 19-28.
Nilsson Stutz, L. (2007). Escaping the Allure of Meaning : Toward new paradigms in the study of ritual in prehistory. Old Norse religion in long-term perspectives : Origins, changes, and interactions. An international conference in Lund, Sweden, June 3—7, 2004. Lund, Nordic Academic Press. 95-98.
Nilsson Stutz, L. (2006). Unwrapping the Dead : Searching for evidence of wrappings in the mortuary practices at Zvejnieki. Back to the Origin : New research in the Mesolithic-Neolithic Zvejnieki cemetery and environment, northern Latvia. Stockholm, Almqvist & Wiksell. 217-233.
Nilsson Stutz, L. (2004). Minnet och glömskan av de döda i Skateholm.. Minne och Myt. Lund, Nordic Academic Press. 81-98.
Nilsson Stutz, L. (2004). Body and Ritual.. Encyclopedia of Religious Rites, Rituals and Festivals. . New York, Routledge. 81-85.
Nilsson Stutz, L. (2003). A Taphonomy of Ritual Practice. : A field-anthropological study of Late Mesolithic Burials.. Mesolithic on the Move. : Papers Presented at the Sixth International Conference on the Mesolithic in Europe, Stockholm 2000.. Oxford, Oxbow Books. 527-535.

Collection (editor) (Refereed)

Tarlow, S., Nilsson Stutz, L. (2013). The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Death and Burial. Oxford, Oxford University Press. 849.

Article in journal (Other academic)

Nilsson Stutz, L. (2023). Fires and Seeds. : Considerations for a decolonized Mesolithic archaeology.. Norwegian Archaeological Review. 56 (1). 97-99.
Status: Published
Nilsson Stutz, L. (2022). À la recherche de l’homme perdu. Archaeological Dialogues. 29 (2). 127-130.
Status: Published
Elliott, B., Damm, C., Nyland, A., Piezonka, H., Porr, M., et al. (2022). Decolonising the Mesolithic?. Mesolithic Miscellany. 29 (2). 59-61.
Status: Published
Nilsson Stutz, L. (2018). Commentary on Grauer and Miller, and DeWitte and Kowaleski. Fragments : Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Study of Ancient and Medieval Pasts. 7. 73-79.
Status: Published
Nilsson Stutz, L. (2016). Cautiously Optimistic : A reply. Current Swedish Archaeology. 24. 71-78.
Status: Published
Brück, J., Nilsson Stutz, L. (2016). Is Archaeology Still a Project for the Nation State? An editorial Comment. Archaeological Dialogues. 23 (1). 1-3.
Status: Published
Tarlow, S., Nilsson Stutz, L. (2013). Can an Archaeologist be a Public Intellectual?. Archaeological Dialogues. 20 (1). 1-5.
Status: Published
Nilsson Stutz, L. (2009). Response to Apel and Darmark : Evolution and Material Culture. Current Swedish Archaeology. 17. 35-39.
Status: Published
Nilsson Stutz, L., Larsson, L., Zagorska, I. (2008). More Burials at Zvejnieki : Preliminary results from the 2007 excavation. Mesolithic Miscellany. 19 (1). 12-16.
Status: Published
Nilsson Stutz, L. (2004). Uppför Hawkes stege : Hur kan vi studera ritualer i det förflutna?. Arkæologisk Forum. (11). 15-18.
Status: Published

Book (Other academic)

Lillios, K.T., Waterman, A.J., Mack, J.E., Artz, J.A., Nilsson Stutz, L. (2015). In Praise of Small Things : Death and Life at the Late Neolithic-Early Bronze Age Burial of Bolores, Portugal. Oxford, BAR Publishing.
Ekengren, F., Nilsson Stutz, L. (2009). I tillvarons gränsland : Perepktiv på kroppen mellan liv och död. Lund, Arkeologiska Institutionen, Lunds universitet.

Chapter in book (Other academic)

Nilsson Stutz, L. (2023). Living With Death. Living with the Dead.. in_finite. Living with Death. Leipzig, E. A. Seemann. 106-111.
Nilsson Stutz, L. (2023). Maa Kheru – can you hear me?. First Monograph of Christian Kosmas Mayer. Wien, DISTANZ Verlag GmbH.
Nilsson Stutz, L. (2023). What is Remembered. (Un)contested heritage : Archives, Museums and Public Spaces. Malmö, Malmö universitet. 7-13.
Nilsson Stutz, L., Stutz, A.J. (2022). Deeply Human : Archaeological Traces of Rituals for Coping with Death, Adversity, and Trauma. Coping Rituals in Fearful Times : An Unexplored Resource for Healing Trauma. Springer. 23-42.
Nilsson Stutz, L. (2021). Materializing What Matters : Ritualized bodies from a time before text. The Sacred Body : Materializing the divine through human remians in antiquity. Oxford, Oxbow Books. 11-27.
Mickleburgh, H., Nilsson Stutz, L., Fokkens, H. (2020). Digital Arcaheology of Death and Burial : Using 3D Reconstruction, Visualization and Simulation to Frame Past Experience. Doing Digital Humanities : Concepts, Approaches, Cases. Växjö, Linnaeus University Press. 121-145.
Nilsson Stutz, L. (2011). Legislating multivocality : drawing on the NAGPRA experience. Archaeology of indigenous peoples in the North : proceedings from a workshop held in Vuollerim 6000 år, 3-4 December 2005. Umeå, Department of Historical, Philosphical and Religious Studies, Umeå University. 9-50.
Nilsson Stutz, L. (2007). "…I will feel lost, unhappy and at home." : Travel and deep analogies as archaeological tools. On the Road : studies in honour of Lars Larsson. Stockholm, Almqvist & Wiksell. 133-136.

Article in journal (Other (popular science, discussion, etc.))

Nilsson Stutz, L., Geber, J. (2022). Att återlämna kvarlevor kan berika forskningen. Forskning Framsteg. 6. 18-19.
Status: Published
Nilsson Stutz, L. (2021). "Namnbyte är att smita från ansvaret". Forskning & Framsteg. (2021-11-03).
Status: Published

Other (Other (popular science, discussion, etc.))

Nilsson Stutz, L. (2020). Yttrandefriheten och kvinnorna. Motargument.se.
Online publication at Motargument.se
.