Johann Rasmus Brandt was born 27.01. 1943. He studied classical archaeology, art history and classical languages at the universities of Oslo and Bergen. In 1970 he received a scholarship to Oxford, where he in 1975 earned a DPhil degree under the supervision of Professor Martin Robertson. In 1975 Brandt became Deputy Director of the Norwegian Institute in Rome, a post which he held till 1983. His arrival in Rome coincided with the start of the joint Nordic excavations at Ficana near Ostia, the first excavations in which the Norwegian Institute took part. Rasmus Brandt led the Norwegian part of the project from 1975 to 1981. The material from Ficana became the subject of his doctoral thesis (dr. philos.) from 1994, presented at the University of Oslo: Ficana. Studi su una communità dell’età di ferro nel Latium (VIII-VI sec. a. c. (later published under the title Scavi di Ficana vol.II.1: Il periodo protostorico e arcaico. Le zone di scavo 3.b-c, Rome 1996).
1976-1978 he participated in the Danish excavation of a mid-Republican fort at La Giostra in Latium, and 1989-1994 he participated in the American Palatine Project. In 1996 he took up the position as Director of the Norwegian Institute in Rome. From 2003 until his retirement in 2013 he was professor of classical archaeology at the University of Oslo.
In 1997 Brandt started the project Theatrum Roma. The Christianization of the Imperial Capital. The aim of the project, which lasted till 2001 and involved students and professors of various Norwegian universities, was to strengthen the ties between the classists in Norway and the Norwegian Institute in Rome. 1998-2002 Rasmus Brandt was responsible for the Norwegian participation in the joint Nordic excavation of a Roman villa near the Lake of Nemi.
Thanks to Rasmus Brandt, a group of Norwegian students was allowed to take part in the Italian excavations at Hierapolis (Pamukkale) in South-Western Turkey in 2007. This project, which Brandt led till 2013, was later expanded with the participation of Norwegian scholars from other disciplines. It was funded by the Norwegian Research Council. In 2005 Rasmus Brandt was made Knight (Cavaliere) of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.
Rasmus Brandt has published extensively, and he has also divulged the results of his research in a number of conferences, also to non-academic audiences. After his retirement, Rasmus Brandt has been occupied with the editing of the Norwegian contributions to the Hierapolis project.
He is currently writing a book in Norwegian about the Etruscans. On the occasion of his 80th birthday he will an open lecture on this topic 9th April 2023. We look forward to gather his friends and colleagues in Rome to celebrate him!