The Asine Collection

The Asine Collection, which is curated by Gustavianum, Uppsala University museum, came to Uppsala through an agreement between Sweden and Greece after the Swedish excavations in Asine during the years 1922 to 1930. Thanks to a unique exchange agreement, Sweden was allowed to keep all stratigraphic material (i.e. material from different occupational horizons) collected in the spring of 1926, together with parts of the material from chamber tomb I:1 and some complete vases from different periods. In exchange, Greece was given a collection of Swedish stone age objects, as well as economic support for the refurbishment of the Venetian arsenal in Nauplion as an archaeological museum.

The grave goods and vases are today housed in Medelhavsmuseet (The Museum of Mediterranean and Near Eastern Antiquities) in Stockholm, whereas the stratigraphic material from the spring field season of 1926 forms the Asine Collection in Uppsala. The Collection, which comprises approximately 6000 boxes containing about 15 metric tons of unsorted material, includes large amounts of pottery, bones (mostly from animals), shells, glass, tiles and different categories of so-called small finds. The major part of the Collection derives from the late Bronze Age, but material ranging from the early Bronze Age to the Roman period is also represented.

At the time of excavation in the 1920s, the material was packed into boxes marked with date and context, which allows them to be linked directly to the original documentation of the excavation. This documentation includes excavation diaries, photos, and plan drawings that have been scanned and partly annotated, i.e. labelled digitally.

The Asine collection is included in the database PRAGMATA.