Valter Lang
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Estonian state science prize (1997, 2011)
Baltic Assembly Medal
Valter Lang | |
|---|---|
 Lang in 2011 | |
| Born | 26 January 1958 |
| Citizenship | Estonia |
| Occupation | Archaeologist |
| Awards | Order of the White Star, 4th Class Estonian state science prize (1997, 2011) Baltic Assembly Medal |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | University of Tartu |
| Thesis | 'Muistne Rävala' (1996) |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Archaeology |
| Institutions | University of Tartu |
Valter Lang (born 26 January 1958)[1] is an Estonian archaeologist and academic whose research has centred on the prehistory of Estonia and the eastern Baltic, especially settlement archaeology in northern Estonia, the Bronze Age and Iron Age, and archaeological approaches to the emergence of Finnic-speaking communities.[2][3] He has been professor of archaeology at the University of Tartu since 1999 and a member of the Estonian Academy of Sciences since 2010.[4] A two-time recipient of the Estonian state science prize, he was awarded the Order of the White Star, 4th Class, in 2001.[5]
Lang was born in Kulunda, Novosibirsk Oblast, in the Russian SFSR, into a family that had been deported to Siberia in 1949.[6] He attended school in Kuigatsi and graduated from Otepää Secondary School in 1976.[6][4] He graduated from the University of Tartu in 1981.[4] In 1988 he received the Soviet degree of Candidate of Sciences in history, and in 1996 he completed a doctorate in archaeology at the University of Tartu with the dissertation Muistne Rävala, a study of monuments, chronology and the formation of farming settlement in north-western Estonia, especially in the lower Pirita River area.[4][7]
Career and research
After graduating, Lang joined the Institute of History in Tallinn, where he advanced through research and administrative posts before becoming head of its archaeology department in 1994.[5] In 1999 he was appointed professor of archaeology at the University of Tartu; he later served as head of the university's history department from 2001 to 2003 and as dean of the Faculty of Philosophy from 2006 to 2012.[4][5] He was elected to the Estonian Academy of Sciences in 2010, and since 2019 he has headed its Division of Humanities and Social Sciences.[4]
Lang's research has focused on settlement and landscape archaeology in Estonia and the wider eastern Baltic, with particular attention to northern Estonia and the historic county of Revala.[2] Surveys of archaeological publishing in Estonia have identified his monographs Muistne Rävala and From Centre to Periphery among the major book-length studies of post-1990 Estonian archaeology.[8] His English-language synthesis The Bronze and Early Iron Ages in Estonia presented Estonian material to an international readership in book form.[9] In later work he addressed questions of Finnic ethnogenesis and early Finnic–Baltic contacts, including in the article "Early Finnic-Baltic contacts as evidenced by archaeological and linguistic data" and the monograph Finnic Be-Comings.[3][10]
Lang has also served as editor-in-chief of the series Muinasaja teadus and of the Estonian Journal of Archaeology.[5] External evaluations commissioned by the Estonian Research Council have described the University of Tartu archaeology professorship as successful in bringing locally focused Estonian research to international audiences and have noted the broad public impact of works associated with Lang, including Finnic Be-Comings and the first volume of the academic History of Estonia, which he edited.[11][12]
