During the period 1975 to 2000 archaeology in Denmark was professionally consolidated. This effort was mainly linked to the expansion of local and regional museums. After a period of stagnation during the 1950s and 1960s, these institutions became the driving force in local cultural revivals. The modernization of Danish society increased the demand for and interest in local histories and identities, and museums successfully took on the job of meeting those needs. New grassroots movements formed local archives to supplement this development. History since industrialization became a major interest, as it presented a parallel story to the present-day transformations of society and landscape. And since 1985 public interest has increasingly focused on monuments and landscapes as part of a revitilization of local tourism and recreation.

Kristian Kristiansen

Acknowledgments

Gratitude is expressed to Jens Henrik Bech, Lotte Hedeager, Jorgen Street-Jensen, Birgitte Kjae, Viggo Nielsen, and Olfert Voss for their critical comments and supplementary information during the final preparation of this article.

References

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Earle et al. 1998. “The Political Economy of Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Society: The Thy Archaeological Project.” Norwegian Archaeological Review 31, 1: 1–28.

Klindt-Jensen, O. 1975: A History of Scandinavian Archaeology. London: Thames and Hudson.

Kristiansen, K. 1996. “The Destruction of the Archaeological Heritage and the Formation of Museum Collections: The Case of Denmark.” In Learning from Things. Ed. David W. Kingery. Method and Theory in Material Culture Studies. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.

Thomsen, C. J. 1849. A Guide to Northern Antiquities. London.

Worsaae, J. J. A. 1849. The Primeval Antiquities of Denmark. London.

Desor, Edouard

(1811–1882)

Born near Frankfurt, Germany, but of French origin, Edouard Desor played an important role in the development of archaeological research in switzerland after the middle of the nineteenth century. Desor’s intellectual path was eventful. While studying law in Germany, his political activities in the liberal movement forced him into exile, first in Paris, then in Bern, Switzerland, where he met and developed a friendship with the naturalist Louis Agassiz, whom he then followed to Neuchâtel, Switzerland.

As the young master’s right-hand man, Desor found himself among Agassiz’s disciples and became immersed in the intense dynamic of research in what was a “scientific factory,” in the words of his friend Carl Vogt. He studied the natural sciences—geology, paleontology, and above all, glaciology—during some of the group’s risky explorations in the Alps. In 1848, he followed Agassiz to the United States, where they fell out. While Agassiz was teaching at Harvard University, Desor undertook different geographical, geological, and zoological tasks and surveys for the U.S. government. Four years later he returned to Switzerland to teach geology in Neuchâtel.

Desor’s curiosity was universal, both in the natural sciences and in prehistoric research, which he only discovered in 1854 following the work of ferdinand keller on the lake dwellers. His easy social nature and his facility of expression, as much as his liking for travel, enabled him to be in constant contact with most Swiss and foreign prehistorians and naturalists. Thus, Desor chaired the first international congress of prehistory (“paleoethnology”) in his adoptive town of Neuchâtel in 1866.

He inherited a considerable fortune after his brother died, which gave him financial security while he studied and published. It also allowed him to keep an open house for guests who wished to participate in scientific debates, and this venue became famous in Neuchâtel. He continued to be involved in politics, initially on behalf of the Radical (progressive) Party, which elected him president of the Swiss Federal Assembly.

Desor studied the palafittes, or pole dwellings, of Lake Neuchâtel, but he also studied