About the Journal

Nordic Archaeological Abstracts (NAA) was published once a year (1974-2000) and provides a comprehensive guide to Nordic archaeological literature mainly from the preceeding year. Each issue of NAA contains hundreds of references, with abstracts, from a wide variety of journals and books. NAA covers publications dealing with archaeological investigations, recent as well as medieval and prehistoric. Studies within other disciplines (such as environmental history, numismatics, and osteology) are also included, provided they throw light on problems on material groups relevant for the archaeologist.

The geographical limits of NAA are the Nordic countries, Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and the Åland Islands. Papers on culturally related areas are cited as long as they bear on material treated by Nordic archaeology.

The abstracts are concise summaries of published articles, with exact bibliographical information providing access to the originals. References are grouped by main chronological period and subject. Each volume also contains author, subject and site indexes, as well as lists of consulted periodicals, serials, etc.

 

The scope of NAA

The purpose of NAA is to indicate publications dealing with archaeological investigations, prehistoric, medieval, and post-medieval. In the prehistoric sections, papers dealing with all aspects of human culture within the Nordic area are included.

The limits of NAA are more restricted for periods with written sources. Thus the medieval section contains primarily papers on archaeological excavations or excavated material, but other material sources of human activity are also included in the concept "medieval archaeology". Existing medieval buildings and their decoration are examples of material also studied by medieval archaeologists. Thus papers dealing with medieval material in the fields of art history and iconography may be found in NAA. Abstracts on churches and iconography are, however, abbreviated. Papers on the postmedieval period are included in NAA only if they deal with archaeologically excavated material.

Studies within ethnology, geography, linguistics, the natural sciences, etc., are also abstracted, provided they shed light on problems or material groups commonly met with in the field, or are of special interest from a methodological or chronological point of view.

Corresponding book reviews and annual reports from institutions are included only when they bring information of special interest. For minor articles bringing little or no important new information, complete coverage is not attempted.

The geographical limits of NAA are the Nordic countries, including Greenland. Papers on culturally related areas are cited, if noticed, as long as they bear on material treated by Nordic archaeology.