Alex Casteel

Education

BA Archaeology, Willamette University

MA/MPhil Viking and Medieval Norse Studies, the University of Iceland and the University of Oslo

Areas of Interest

(northern) medieval archaeology, architecture, art, literature, and society, and particularly of the transatlantic Norse/Viking diaspora

Profile

Alex Casteel is a PhD candidate in the Interdepartmental Archaeology Graduate Program in the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Drawing from archaeological and historical sources alongside his transdisciplinary field research, Alex's dissertation project is an architectural history of the transatlantic Viking diaspora, centered in the symbiotic spectra of soils and florae that comprise the earthen building material "turf." Alex is currently examining architectural exchange between circumpolar Indigenous peoples and Viking diasporic migrants as a 2025-2026 Predoctoral Fellow at the Smithsonian National Museum of National History. As a 2024-2025 Leifur Eiríksson Foundation Fellow, Alex conducted architectural, environmental, and ethnographic fieldwork in Iceland in collaboration with the Skagafjörður Heritage Museum (Byggðasafn Skagfirðinga). Alex holds a BA in Archaeology from Willamette University and an MA/MPhil in Viking and Medieval Norse Studies from the University of Iceland and the University of Oslo.

Field Experience

• Fjörður, Seyðisfjörður, Iceland
• Mosfell Archaeological Project, Mosfellsbær, Iceland
• Chernihiv Archaeological Project, Vypovziv, Ukraine
• Ness of Brodgar, Orkney, Scotland
• The Cairns, Orkney, Scotland
• Nueva Esperanza, Cundinamarca, Colombia
• Chavín de Huántar, Huari-Ancash, Peru
• Huamparán, Huari-Ancash, Peru

Advisors

Meredith Cohen
Stella Nair
Jesse Byock
Nancy Wicker