Carina van den Hoven defended her thesis on 16 February 2017.

This research focuses on figurative Byzantine mosaic-floors that have been excavated in the geographical area of the ancient provinces of Palestina and Arabia (current Israel, PA and Jordan) dating to the Late 5th, 6th and early 7th centuries C.E.

What was the stringed instrument known in medieval and early Renaissance Italy as “cetra”?

An Ancient Egyptian System of Workmen’s Identity Marks

Religion in the ancient world, and ancient Egyptian religion in particular, is often perceived as static, hierarchically organised, and centred on priests, tombs, and temples. Engagement with archaeological and textual evidence dispels these beguiling if superficial narratives, however. Individuals…

Numismatic research of Roman coin hoards in the Netherlands. The use of numismatic sources is incorporated in Claes’s research project “Dialogues of Power”. This project aims to analyse the legitimising dialogue between Roman emperors and their Germanic legions during the so-called “crisis of the third…

This project aims to explore the environmental impact of early Roman expansion (4th/3rd century BC) through a program of dating and ecological sampling of traces of field systems (centuriations).

Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Augustan Rome: Greek culture in the Roman world.

This volume, featuring sixteen contributions from leading Roman historians and archaeologists, sheds new light on approaches to the economic history of urban craftsmen and traders in the Roman world, with a particular emphasis on the imperial period.

Between 16 May and 4 June our first ‘Introduction to Ancient Egypt’ course took place with a group of highly motivated students.

This new handbook by Frits Naerebout and Henk Singor places the history of the Greeks and Romans within the larger context of the contemporary Eurasian world.

The advent of script has never managed to eliminate the use of symbols. This is the finding of research carried out by Kyra van der Moezel on Ancient Egyptian identity marks. PhD defence 7 September.

The ancient Egyptians knew about marks as well as script. The New Empire (ca. 1550-1070 BC) in particular provides a rich harvest. The script has now been deciphered, but the same does not apply to the system of marks used at the time. Egyptologist Ben Haring has been awarded a subsidy by NWO from the…

Non-urban settlement organization and Roman expansion in the Roman Republic (4th-1st centuries BC)

The faculty of Humanities scores well in the anual QS World Universities Ranking By Subject list. This year we have placed sixth in the category Classics and Ancient History.

Last week, to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, Prof. Dr. Ton Liefaard shone a fresh light on children’s rights, in Italy.

The Faculty of Archaeology has a new Centre of Archaeological Studies in Italy.

Lecture

It is one of the greatest archaeological mysteries of all times: the disappearance of a Persian army of 50,000 men in the Egyptian desert around 524 BC. Leiden Professor Olaf Kaper unearthed a cover-up affair and solved the riddle.

Did early farmers deliberately use animal manure on their fields?

This project studies the theory and practice of moral education in the (Neo)Platonic tradition.

According to a new study by an international team of researchers from the Caribbean, Europe and North America, the Caribbean was settled by several successive population dispersals that originated on the American mainland.

An interdisciplinary study of the Persian Period

An enormous number of monumental buildings, such as burial tombs, appeared in Mycenaean Greece after 1600 BC. Why did this urge to build come to an abrupt end 400 years later? Archaeologist Ann Brysbaert investigates the possible causes thanks to her ERC Consolidator Grant.

There are still things we can learn from the Ancient Greeks. How they managed to make sure that innovations were accepted, for example. A group of classics scholars, led by Leiden, will be carrying out research on this question funded by the largest ever NWO subsidy.

This PhD project studies immigrant groups in ancient Babylonia and aims at investigating their identities, socioeconomic status, and integration into an ancient multicultural society.

On February 21st, Maria Vasile, one of the PhD students of the project participated to several events organized in Milan by the University of Milano-Bicocca for the celebration of the World Anthropology Day.

Just published:

To what extent can Nietzsche's Amor Fati be seen as a Stoic concept?

Do you live in Egypt and have you always wondered about all the pharaonic heritage surrounding you? This spring NVIC organizes a beginner’s level, introductory course in Egyptology. In 6 richly illustrated lessons, the history of ancient Egypt will be brought to life, both chronologically as well as…