Jakob Rudolf Keyser (1 January 1803 – 9 October 1864) was a Norwegian historian, archaeologist and educator.

He was the son of Bishop Johan Michael Keyser (1749–1810) and his second wife Kirsten Margarethe Wangensteen.

[2] Following studies in Iceland, Rudolf Keyser was appointed as a docent at the Royal Frederick University in Christiania in 1828.

He did so utilizing the chronological system developed by Christian Jürgensen Thomsen.

The theory was commonly denounced by many Norwegian historians especially by Ludvig Kristensen Daa.