Research programme
Ancient Worlds Network
The Ancient Worlds Network brings together staff and graduate students in LIAS working on the ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern world.
- Contact
- Miriam Müller
About the Network
The Ancient Worlds Network brings together faculty and graduate students at LIAS whose research focuses on the ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern worlds. Our members’ expertise spans a wide range of regions and disciplines, including Ancient Arabia, Assyriology, Coptic Studies, Egyptology, Hebrew and Aramaic Studies, Ancient Iranian Studies, Papyrology, linguistics, the study of religions, and the history of philosophy and science.
The Network pursues three core aims. First, it fosters scholarly exchange and intellectual synergy among researchers working on the ancient world at LIAS. To this end, we regularly organize discussion sessions devoted to “Current Debates” in our respective fields. Second, the Network provides a forum for reflecting on the present and future challenges facing our disciplines, and for developing strategies to enhance their resilience and adaptability. Third, it supports graduate training in ancient world studies at LIAS through a dedicated “Teaching Lab,” designed to strengthen and innovate graduate teaching training.
Ancient Worlds Lunch Talks Series
The Ancient Worlds Lunch Talks Series offers an informal setting for the exchange of ideas and recent research, bringing together a small audience of MA and PhD students, postdoctoral researchers, and faculty from the ONOS and CAC programs, alongside students and colleagues in Classics, History, and Archaeology. Free pizza is included!
Time: 13:00-14:00h
Location: Herta Mohr, KITLV Seminar Room 1.30 (first floor)
| 13 March 2026 |
Remco de Maaijer (PhD candidate Assyriology) |
| 27 March 2026 | Michele Massa (NINO Visiting Fellow) Modelling interaction in prehistoric archaeology - a case study from 3rd millennium BCE Anatolia |
| 10 April 2026 | Jesse Millek (NINO Visiting Fellow) The myth of trade collapse at the end of the Bronze Age |
| 24 April 2026 | Jacobus van Dijk (Emeritus Professor of Egyptology, University of Groningen) A ‘Königsnovelle’ of Tutankhamun and the ascension of Horemhe |
| 8 May 2026 | Burcu Yildirim (NINO Visiting Fellow) Placing the dead: Infant and child burial practices in Chalcolithic Asia Minor |
Previous Ancient Worlds Lunch Talks
Fall 2025
September 22nd, 2025: Dreams without Borders? New Perspectives on Oneirocritica from Babylon to Artemidor – Elyze Zomer (Lecturer in Assyriology, University of Tübingen/BiOr Editor)
13:00-14:00, Herta Mohr, KITLV Seminar Room 1.30 (1st floor)
October 6th, 2025: A Flour(ishing) Business? Milling and Flour from the New Kingdom through the Graeco-Roman Period in Egypt – Daan Smets (PhD Candidate in Ancient History, Leuven University/AGROS project)
13:00-14:00, Herta Mohr, KITLV Seminar Room 1.30 (1st floor)
October 20th, 2025: The Geographical Scope of Ebla Administration – Elisabetta Cianfanelli (Postdoc in Assyriology, University of Florence/NINO Visiting Fellow)
13:00-14:00, Herta Mohr, KITLV Seminar Room 1.30 (1st floor)
November 3rd, 2025: Picturing the Past: the NINO Ahnengalerie as Institutional Memory – Koen Klein (MA Candidate in Ancient History/NINO Office Assistant)
13:00-14:00, IIAS Conference Room, Herta Mohr building 0.28
November 17th, 2025: From Dusty to Digital Data: Digitization of the Tell Hammam al-Turkman Excavation Archive – Ruben Hartman (MA Candidate in Archaeology/NINO Student Research Assistant 2024)
13:00-14:00, Herta Mohr, KITLV Seminar Room 1.30 (1st floor)
Forum Antiquum & Ancient Worlds Network lecture
November 27th, 2025: An Anthropology of the Material World: Rethinking Nature, Knowledge, and Technology in Ancient Mesopotamia – Shiyanthi Thavapalan (Assistant Professor of Ancient Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam/BiOr editor)
15:30-17:00, Lipsius 0.28 with following reception
December 1st, 2025: (Re-)conceptualizing Dutch Collections of Ancient Egyptian Human Remains – Pansee Abou ElAtta (Postdoc Carleton University/NINO Visiting Fellow)
13:00-14:00, Herta Mohr, KITLV Seminar Room 1.30 (1st floor