Christian Løchsen Rødsrud completed his PhD at the University of Oslo in 2012 on early Iron Age pottery and the ritualized feasting culture of the elite. Currently an adviser at the University of Oslo’s Museum of Cultural History, he has extensive experience in archaeological project planning, collection management and excavations, primarily of settlement and grave sites. His primary research interests include prehistoric settlements and graves, Iron Age pottery, social networks, market and production sites, and urbanization processes.

Rødsrud also regularly leads archaeological excavation projects, and two years ago, he found himself propelled into an opportunity of a lifetime. In 2018, archaeologists at the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research identified a Viking burial mound concealing the Gjellestad ship—comparable in size to that of the Oseberg ship uncovered more than 100 years ago in Vestfold, Norway. When the excavation began a year later, Rødsrud was chosen to manage the project and continues to oversee it today.