Obituary by professor Jan Bill

Ole – ol’ crumblin’ Predersen as he often called himself with a smile – is dead. For me as for many others, he was a constant presence, and a kind of benchmark for our own work. That he is no longer with us seems unreal, and as the end of an era.

Ole had a long, professional life, with the capacity to excite and influence many generations working with maritime archaeology. I belong to what can be called the second generation – those who grew up with the Skuldelev ships and an active museum and research environment in Roskilde as an established fact, but who had the opportunity to take part in the fantastic research journey Ole took maritime archaeology on, over a quarter of a century from the beginning of the 1980’s. It was a generation that got the chance to know Ole both as mentor and master while he realised his vision for what was at that stage, a relatively untried branch of research.

I personally got to know Ole when as part of a group of young Viking ship enthusiasts, we were engaged by the Viking Ship Hall to build ROAR EGE, the first full-scale reconstruction of one of the Skuldelev ships, from 1982-84. Most of us had no particular craftsman’s background, rather a commitment that was big enough to see us use our weekends and holidays on a fantastic project, whose goal was formulated unequivocally and without compromise by Ole: using Viking age technology we would build the worlds first scientific reconstruction of a Viking ship, so that one could really find out how Viking ships could sail.

The project was in many ways typical of Ole: grandiose in its aims, unconventional in its methods and enormously meticulous in its execution. Another condition was also characteristic, namely that practical experience and ability were more important than titles when it came to getting permission to take part. For many of us the project took on a great personal meaning: 20 years after the launch of ROAR EGE almost half of us were in one way or another, back and working in the maritime archaeology environment at Roskilde.  

For me, the association was particularly close. From January 1988, I was – a few short months after having begun archaeology studies at Copenhagen University – hired as a student assistant at the National Museum’s Skibshistoriske Laboratorium. Here, I got to know another side of Ole’s character: his ability and willingness to teach and allow space for professional development. A task was never just a task; it was a challenge every time, one that allowed one to train, and the tasks quickly grew in terms of size and responsibility. When I was given my first large excavation – of the Gedesby ship in 1990 – Ole’s instructions were characteristic: he reckoned I had control of the archaeological aspect of things, but in order to excavate many hundred meters of ships timbers, I would have to try and make a production line. He meant that only that way, would I manage to get everything excavated, washed and documented within the six weeks of the excavation.

When the research centre became a reality in 1993, the maritime archaeology environment in Roskilde suddenly became much bigger and much more international than before, and Ole’s role as leader and advisor became much clearer – but certainly also much more demanding. The centre’s position must be explained and defended externally, while internally it must make sure that the sky-high goal – which was spread over a spectrum that was very much broader than Ole’s own primary research area – was achieved. An open work environment must also be created, so that the foreign researchers who now began to arrive also felt included. Ole solved many of those problems through delegation, but he always kept an attentive eye and ear on all of us – especially those who had come to Denmark solely because of the centre. In this way, he created life-long friendships among many people.

If there is one concept that especially defines Ole’s life’s work in archaeology, then it is probably ‘quality’. It was first and foremost that, that he passed on to those of us he was mentor and master to. Quality in research, that meant turning over every stone – preferably using new methods, if that was what it would take. Quality in publishing, that meant that each individual drawing should be correct, every single line should have the correct thickness, each and every book should be the book on its subject. That was a high standard to be measured against, but Ole’s strength lay in that he didn’t try to control content or methodology – there was a great freedom with responsibility in having Ole as the person in charge.

With reference to his background as an engineer, Ole was fond of saying at conferences that, ‘maritime archaeology is too important to be left to the archaeologists’. As an archaeologist, this remark always stung a little, but today may I say: thank God there was once an engineering student who thought and acted that way – and became one of the great archaeologists because of it.

Jan Bill
Professor, Head of Collections for the Viking Ship Collection at Bygdøy,
Museum of Cultural History,
University of Oslo.

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