Olaf H. Olsen

Olaf Heymann Olsen (7 June 1928 – 17 November 2015) was a Danish historian and archaeologist. He is known to have primarily worked in medieval and Viking Age archaeology.

Olsen was already a student hired as an assistant at the National Museum in Copenhagen. He became museum superintendent at the National Museum in 1958. In 1966, he received a degree in philosophy at the University of Copenhagen. He was appointed as a professor of medieval archaeology at Aarhus University in 1971. In 1981, he became director of the National Museum and the Directorate for Cultural Heritage. Olsen has conducted numerous excavations of medieval churches and was primary in the discovery of the ancient Skuldelev ships.