[3] On the 20 May that year, Johannes Bureus who was a prominent rune researcher and King Gustavus Adolphus' private teacher, was appointed the first riksantikvarien ("National Antiquarian").

Bureus' teachings had made the king interested in ancient monuments and national heritage sites and artifacts, at that time called "antiquities".

Together with a priest and a young student, Bureus went on a journey through Sweden to draw and document runestones, collect old coins, chronicles, law books, letter and manuscripts.

The County Antiquarians also coordinated their work with the National Heritage Board, which function as an independent government agency since 1938.

[5] The Antikvarisk-topografiska arkivet (ATA) ("The Antiquarian-Topographical Archives") and the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities' Library are also part of the National Heritage Board.

[5] On 2 June 2005, the government decided to relocate a major part of the National Heritage Board's activities from Stockholm to Gotland.

[10] The move to Gotland was questioned by several officials within the agency who believed that the government did not understand how the National Heritage Board worked.

[11] Under the open area between the museum's main building and the Eastern Stable are storage rooms where the archive and library collections are kept.

[13][14] The National Heritage Board's previous double functions - as government agency and outsourcer - had been questioned as early as in the 1980s.

[15] The National Heritage Board's Gotland Studies (Riksantikvarieämbetets Gotlandsundersökningar) (RAGU), were previously a regional office under the archaeological commission operations during the 1970s to 1980s.

[16] The agency run the Internet network Platsr, a site where individuals and organizations can write texts about events and memories connected to local history.