The MARQ Archaeological Museum of Alicante expresses its sorrow at the death of the doyenne of Alicante archaeology, Solveig Nordström, born in Sweden in 1923. Her relationship with the Museum began when she arrived in Alicante in 1955, where she met José Lafuente Vidal, whom she assisted in the remodelling of the permanent exhibition and helped in the drafting of the Guide Catalogue, published in 1959. Lafuente was his teacher, whom he admired and to whom he dedicated his book Los cartagineses en la costa alicantina (The Carthaginians on the Alicante coast) (1961) where he followed the historical considerations of the scholar from Alicante who defended the seat of Akra Leuka in Alicante, the citadel founded by Amilcar Barca, father of Anibal. He undoubtedly excelled in the study of painted Iberian ceramics, which was the subject of his Doctoral Thesis (1973) where he compiled an enormous amount of testimonies, providing his own very detailed classification of the painted motifs and decorative styles. Many of the pieces she studied and drew were deposited in the Archaeological Museum of Alicante, belonging to the Alicante Provincial Council, where she also met its then director, Enrique Llobregat, who advised her on her academic work. She was one of the first women to direct archaeological excavations in the province of Alicante, in particular those carried out at the site of La Escuera (San Fulgencio) in 1960, the results of which were published in 1967 by the Prehistoric Research Service of Valencia. There he discovered the remains of a large construction which he believed to have formed part of an Iberian temple. She also participated in the excavations at the Iberian site of Coimbra del Barranco Ancho in Jumilla (Murcia) in the second half of the 1950s, co-authoring the edited report of the work (1976). These are just a few of her documented contributions to the knowledge of the past of the province and the southeast of the peninsula, which must also, and above all, be highlighted in order to give a fair measure of the importance of the Swedish archaeologist. A legacy that did not have greater continuity due to her early retirement from archaeological activity, a fact that those of us who are professionally dedicated to Ancient History regret.
With her goes with her kindness, a virtue that guided her way of being and which she expressed permanently with a smile accompanied by gestures of peace. This is how we will remember her.
Manuel Olcina
Director of MARQ.
