Cecilia Ljung

Cecilia Ljung has been affiliated with the Department of Archaeology and Ancient History since 2024. Between 2016 and 2024 she was employed first as a postdoctoral researcher and then as a researcher at the Department of Archaeology and Classical Studies at Stockholm University, where she also defended her award-winning thesis Under runristad häll. Tidigkristna gravmonument i 1000-talets Sverige (Resting under rune-inscribed stones. Early Christian grave monuments in eleventh century Sweden) in 2016. Ljung was a visiting scholar at the Department of Archaeology, University of Reading in 2009 and has a master’s degree in Archaeology as well as one in Viking and Early Medieval Studies from Uppsala University. She has a background within development archaeology and has worked at Societas Archaeologica Upsaliensis (SAU), the National Heritage Board and Sigtuna Museum.

Ljung is currently editing a Routledge Handbook of Death and Burial in the Viking Age together with Alison Klevnäs. She is also a co-editor of the journal Situne Dei: https://arkiv.sigtunamuseum.se/publikationer/situne-dei/

Current research projects:

2024-2026: "Early Adopters: the search for Gotland’s first churchyard burials", funded by Berit Wallenbergs Stiftelse. PI, in collaboration with Alison Klevnäs. This project analyses the diversity of the late Viking Age mortuary landscape on Gotland, with focus on the early adopters of churchyard burials, exploring the encounter with Christianity from the perspective of local society.

2024-2026: "Östra Aros – I skuggan av Gamla Uppsala" (Östra Aros – in the shadow of Old Uppsala). Research collaboration funded by the Swedish Research Council based at Upplandsmuseet with Torun Zachrisson as PI. The aim of the project is to a activate and revitalize research on the early history of Östra Aros (today’s Uppsala) based on a source pluralistic perceptive.

2022-2024: "Perceptions of a Pagan Past. Prehistoric spolia in medieval Scandinavian churches, with an emphasis on Gotland". Funded by the Marcus and Amalia Wallenberg Foundation. The project analyses the reuse of picture stones in Gotlandic churches and the medieval islanders’ perceptions of the past. See: https://www.su.se/english/research/research-projects/perceptions-of-a-pagan-past?open-collapse-boxes=research-project-description,research-project-members

Previous research projects:

2017-2020: "Skärningspunkt Sigtuna – de första människorna i Sveriges äldsta stad" (Intersection Sigtuna - the first people in Sweden's oldest town) funded by the Swedish Research Council. Research collaboration with Torun Zachrisson (PI) and Anna Kjellström. The project investigated the impact of social and religious communities, as well as long-distance relations, on early urban life in Sigtuna based on the burial record.