Bjørnar Olsen

Olsen is director of the Unruly Heritage: An Archaeology of the Anthropocene project which focuses on industrial ruins, abandoned fishing villages, World War II remains, and mining sites in Norway, Russia, Iceland, and Canada. Olsen's previous projects were Object Matters: Archaeology and Heritage in the 21st Century (2014 - 2018) and Ruin Memories: Materiality, Aesthetics, and the Archaeology of the Recent Past (2010 - 2014). These projects dealt with similar issues regarding the archaeology of the recent past.

Olsen, being an academic and an author, is also known for his rebellious streak and willingness to explore new and emerging theoretical or philosophical directions while persuading the reader to give said theory more thought. He brings material culture and the weight of identifying an object's ontology upon discovery to light in his 2010 book In Defense of Things: Archaeology and the Ontology of Objects. By first introducing the reader to the meaning of material culture, which is defined as objects influenced by human interaction maintain their integrity through time, he then begins to tie this material significance of landscape and topography to the discipline of archaeology. Olsen puts it best by stating “This book is grounded in a realist attitude in the sense that I do believe the material world exists and that things constitute a fundamental and persistent foundation of our existence. Things, materials, and landscapes possess real qualities affecting and shaping both our perception of them and our cohabitation with them.”

Olsen was born in a small fishing village in Finnmark, Norway. He received his PhD from the University of Tromsø in 1984 and was a visiting researcher at the University of Cambridge 1985–1986. He became a full professor in 1991 (at the age of 33) and since 1994 has been professor of archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology, History, Religious Studies, and Theology at UiT - The Arctic University of Norway. Olsen currently lives in Tromsø with his wife and three children. He is a fellow of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.

Olsen was a figure in the development of post-processualism and theoretical archaeology during the 1980s and 1990s and is now at the forefront of the development of new approaches to things, including symmetrical archaeology, the archaeology of the contemporary period, and material culture studies. He is also an international leader in the development of archaeological theory and Sámi prehistory/history. Olsen has published 10 books (and close to 160 scientific papers), including Archaeology: The Discipline of Things (2012 with Michael Shanks (archaeologist), Timothy Webmoor and Christopher Witmore), In Defense of Things: Archaeology and the Ontology of Objects (2010), Persistent memories: Pyramiden – a Soviet mining town in the High Arctic (2010, with Elin Andreassen and Hein Bjerck; see Pyramiden), and Ruin Memories: Materiality, Aesthetics and the Archaeology of the Recent Past (2018, editor with Þóra Pétursdóttir).

Bjørnar Julius Olsen (born 2 January 1958, Finnmark, Norway) is professor at UiT - The Arctic University of Norway. He is a Norwegian archaeologist who specializes in archaeological theory, material culture, museology, northern/Arctic archaeology, and contemporary archaeology. Olsen is a prominent figure in the turn to things in humanities and social sciences, including symmetrical archaeology.