Peter Skoglund

I am an archaeologist who received my PhD from Lund University in 2005. I have worked as a researcher at the Swedish Rock Art Research Archives at the University of Gothenburg and I am currently employed as Professor in Archaeology at Linnaeus University.

Research

My research concentrates on rock art, the Scandinavian Bronze Age, landscape archaeology and public archaeology. 

I am the principal investigator of ‘From Shapes to Action – The Narrative Turn in Prehistoric Image-Making in Northern Europe’, which is a joint research project including colleagues in Semiotics at Lund University and staff from the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research. Inspired by theories from semiotics and narratology, we are investigating what is required to reproduce actions and stories in image form and how we can apply these models to Nordic rock carvings.

I am also involved in a project related to the monument known as Hagbard's gallows in Halland in south-west Sweden. The monument consists of two graves with standing stones decorated with rock carvings. In this project, we investigate the monument's dating, its relationship to the surrounding cultural landscape, and the importance of the site in Bronze Age society. The project is conducted in collaboration with researchers at Durham University in the UK, the University of Gothenburg, Lund University and Kulturmiljö Halland.

Since 2021, I have collaborated with the organization Empower the Northern Frontier to document and promote the still-ongoing rock carving tradition among the Samburu in northern Kenya. The project ‘Samburu Rock Art - A Unique Cultural Heritage’, which was funded by the Swedish Institute ended in spring 2024. I am now working together with local organizations, the National Museums of Kenya, and the Trust for African Rock Art to find new opportunities to continue the work of documenting Samburu's unique cultural heritage.