Ture J:son Arne and the Viking Age in Eastern Europe Parts of a research life in 20th century Europe

T. J. Arne (1879-1965) still stands out as the most important Scandinavian, per-haps Western European scholar working with the archaeology of early Russia. He was a person with a sharp and clear intellect, an impressive capacity to work with rich archaeological collections and he was an outstanding linguist. He un-dertook three very ambitious research tours in Russia both before and after the revolutions. In connection with two of these tours he also excavated at important sites in Ukraine and in Russia. After the assumption of power of J. Stalin Arne became the leading scholar opposing the increasingly nationalistic and crude Marxist interpretations of what happened in the 9th and 10th centuries in East-ern Europe and more precisely in Russia. His scholarly achievements still today remain unchallenged and carry much weight.