Uppland Folly

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Site: Gamla Uppsala, Sweden

Competition: UN-Timely Aesthetics

Team: Alexander J. Ford, Jack R. Parnell

Drawings: Competition Board [22x30"]

Sp. 2016

 

Uppland province in southern Sweden is home to the famous archaeological site of the Temple at Gamla Uppsala. Uppsala was the heart of Nordic pre-Christian religion and culture. Whatever the form of the pagan temple may have been, it was destroyed in the 11th. century. Over the ruins on the very same site was raised a Christian church, which stands today, and remains in-use. In the fields that surround the church, royal burial mounds serve as the final resting place for the ancient Yngling dynasty--those famous kings of heathen legend. While archaeological work in the kingsgarden mounds has turned up astonishing finds over the years, probes into the nature of the ancient pagan temple, itself, have been next-to-impossible on account of the active church above.

 

Our proposal is to conduct, at long last, a proper excavation of the temple remains, and to do so without demolishing or damaging the existing medieval church. After temporarily postponing services for the duration of the dig, an engineered superstructure would be fitted like a scaffold to secure the load bearing elements of the church. Utilizing ground penetrating radar (LIDAR) systems, archaeological work in the nave would begin, organized to avoid or circumvent major fountational features. In this way, a network of trenches could be threaded through the church, allowing archaeologists to search for the underlying temple in the stratigraphy. Once complete, the trenches would be back-filled, and the original floor flagstones replaced. Church services would resume.

 

Our competition board depicts the proposed process: In elevation, the existing church.In section, a reproduction of a famous etching depicting the church among the royal burial mounds during the late medieval period. And finally, in plan, a diagrammatic depiction of the open trench, within the standing walls. Included over-top is the text inscribed on the 10th century Danish Jellingstenene; iconic stelae from the transitional period that contain a depiction of Christ in the canonical form of Odin, and signify the waning of the old religion in Sweden. It reads:

 

"King Haraldr ordered this monument made in memory of Gormr, his father, and in memory of Thyrvé, his mother; that Haraldr who won for himself all of Denmark and Norway and made the Danes Christian.”