Anna Wessman

I have a PhD in Archaeology from the University of Helsinki, Finland (2010). My thesis dealt with Late Iron Age burial rituals. Between 2010-2015 I led the multidisciplinary project about the Levänluhta water burial (in Ostrobothnia, Finland) financed by the Emil Aaltonen Foundation. I have also worked as the acting University Lecturer in Museum Studies at the University of Helsinki in 2015-2017.

I have worked extensively with avocational metal-detectorists in Scandinavia. I'm interested in finder behaviours and motivations but also in private collecting, curation and object biographies. Between 2018-2021 I was involved in developing FindSampo, a semantic portal and a Linked Open Data service for searching and analyzing archaeological public finds. I'm involved in The European Public Finds Recording Network.
I am also Adjunct Professor in Iron Age studies at the University of Turku, Finland.

My research interests are Late Iron Age in Scandinavia, Finland and the Baltic countries, Burial Archaeology, Avocational Metal-detecting, Citizen Science, Ethnographic methods, Community Archaeology, Museum Studies, Digital Humanities, Archaeological databases.