Prof Natascha Mehler
PD Prof Natascha Mehler
Visiting Reader
Senior Researcher at the German Maritime Museum (Leibniz Institute for German Maritime History) Bremerhaven Docent at the Department of Prehistory and Historical Archaeology, University of Vienna
Contact details: Deutsches Schiffahrtsmuseum, Hans-Scharoun-Platz 1, D-27568 Bremerhaven
email: mehler@dsm.museum
Biography
Prof Mehler has a strong research profile in the medieval and post-medieval archaeology of Iceland, Shetland and the Faroes. Her work includes investigations of Viking settlements (e.g. in Reykjavík), medieval assembly sites (e.g. in Tingwall, Shetland), late medieval and early modern trading stations (e.g. in Gunnister, Shetland Mainland; Krambatangi, Faroe) and modern building remains (e.g. at Fiblister, Shetland Mainland). She has directed international research projects on medieval harbour sites in the North Atlantic islands, and most recently on German trading stations in Iceland, Shetland and the Faroes. Visit her blog on the history and archaeology of the German trade with the Shetland Islands: https://fishandships.dsm.museum
Prof Mehler has gained her Magister Artium at the university of Bamberg (2001), her PhD at the university of Kiel (2008) and her habilitation at the university of Vienna (2014). She is board member of the Society of Post-Medieval Archaeology (UK), of the Society for Historical Archaeology (USA), of the Austrian Society of Medieval Archaeology, of the Medieval Europe Research Community (MERC) of the European Association of Archaeologists, and a member of the ESF College of Expert Reviewers.
Selected projects and grants
2019 HANSdoc, a database containing primary sources pertaining to the German trade with the North Atlantic islands Iceland, Shetland and the Faroes in the 15th-17th centuries, contains almost 1000 historical documents.
2015-2018: Between the North Sea and the Norwegian Sea: Interdisciplinary Studies of the Hanse, funded by the Leibniz Association (900.000 €)
2012-2018: Harbours in the North Atlantic (800-1300 AD), funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) (800.000 €)
2010-2013: The Assembly Project (TAP) – Meeting-places in Northern Europe AD 400-1500, together with the Centre´s Alexandra Sanmark, Frode Iversen (Oslo university) and Sarah Semple (Durham university), funded by the Humanities in the European Research Area (HERA) (1.000.000 €)
Selected publications
A. Brooks / N. Mehler, Kilts and Lederhosen. The historical archaeology of nationalism in Scotland and Bavaria. In: A. Brooks / N. Mehler (eds.), The Country Where My Heart Is. The Historical Archaeology of Nationalism and National Identity (University Press of Florida 2017) 3-37.
A. Sanmark, F. Iversen, N. Mehler und S. Semple (eds.), Debating the Thing in the North II. Selected papers from workshops organized by The Assembly Project. Journal of the North Atlantic, Special Volume 8, 2015.
J. Coolen / N. Mehler, Excavations and Surveys at the Law Ting Holm, Tingwall, Shetland. An Iron Age settlement and medieval assembly site. BAR British Series 592 (Oxford 2014).
A. Sanmark, F. Iversen, N. Mehler und S. Semple (eds.), Debating the Thing in the North I. Selected papers from workshops organized by The Assembly Project. Journal of the North Atlantic, Special Volume 5, 2013.
N. Mehler, Marine trade and transport related crafts and their actors: people without archaeology? in S. Ashby, I. Baug and G. Hansen (eds.), Everyday Products in the Middle Ages: Crafts, Consumption and the Individual in Northern Europe c. 800-1600 (Oxford 2015) 360–374.
N. Mehler, Hanse Archaeology, in C. Smith (ed.), Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology (New York 2014) 3209–3219.
N. Mehler / M. Gardiner, On the Verge of Colonialism: English and Hanseatic Trade in the North Atlantic Islands, in Peter Pope and Shannon Lewis-Simpson (eds.), Exploring Atlantic Transitions: Archaeologies of Permanence and Transience in New Found Lands. Society of Post-Medieval Archaeology Monograph 8 (Woodbrige 2013) 1–15.
J. Coolen, M. Gardiner and N. Mehler, Excavation and geomagnetic survey at the Blade of Fiblister, Gluss Voe, North Mavine, Shetland. OITIS Field Report No. 3, 2012.
J. Coolen / N. Mehler, Archaeological excavations at the Law Ting Holm, Tingwall, Shetland, 2011. Data structure report / interim report. TAP field report No. 4.
M. Gardiner /N. Mehler, Excavations at the hanseatic trading site at Gunnister, Shetland. Post-Medieval Archaeology 44/2, 2010, 347–349.
J. Coolen / N. Mehler, Geophysical survey at Tingwall, Shetland, 2010. TAP field report No. 1.
J. Campbell, E. Elvestad, M. Gardiner und N. Mehler, A Report on Preliminary Work on Papa Stour, Shetland. OITIS Field Report No. 1, 2010.
J. Coolen / N. Mehler, Geophysical survey at Housa Voe, Papa Stour, Shetland 2010. TAP field report No. 2.
N. Mehler, The perception and identification of hanseatic material culture in the North Atlantic: problems and suggestions. Journal of the North Atlantic Special Volume 1 (Historical Archaeology in the North Atlantic: World Systems, Colonialism, and Climate), 2009, 89–108.