The Laboratory for Human Osteoarchaeology specialises in the macroscopic and microscopic analysis of human remains. We use cutting edge scientific approaches to address archaeological, historical, and anthropological research questions. In addition to paleopathological, histological, and 3D scanning…

The Laboratory for Human Osteoarchaeoloy examines human remains and their burial context to address questions about the human past.

This dissertation examines how we can reconstruct physical activity by looking at variations in the shape of muscle attachment sites ( ‘entheses’) on the human skeleton. It evaluates two post-medieval contexts; rural Middenbeemster and urban Aalst.

This study stresses the importance of investigating vitamin D deficiency in every community to better understand the deteriorating effect that sociocultural practices may have had on health.

Day-to-day activities are important in the development of social identities, the establishment of social standing, and the communal understanding of societal rules. This perspective is broadly referred to as practice theory and relates to the power of an overarching social structure and the individual…

Our MSc in Human Osteology student Judyta Olszewski, together with Raven Todd Da Silva, made the first of a series of videos on the study of human bones. The videos were created for the website Dig it with Raven, Raven's video blog aiming to make learning about Archaeology, Art Conservation, and History…

During the Faculty of Archaeology’s 2018 Field School excavation, in Leiden, two Early Medieval burials were encountered, as well as some house plans. One of the burials was found by Beatriz, an international student from Mexico. “When I found the pelvis bone it was clear that I had found a human sk…

Symposium on the extraordinary excavations at Middenbeemster

Bioarchaeology covers the study of all biological remains from archaeological sites.

Rachel Schats has been a familiar face at the Faculty of Archaeology since she started her bachelor’s in Archaeology in 2005. Now she is an assistant professor, working on her Veni project on malaria in the Middle Ages. ‘I have included in this project so many skeletal collections that no one has ever…

Our staff has a strong international reputation and a broad research network, facilitating international student exchange. They lead projects world-wide, from France to the Caribbean, and from Ethiopia to Russia.

Human trafficking is a very topical social problem, which because of both its social and legal complexity, can only be studied in an interdisciplinary way. Combating human trafficking currently features high on national and international policy agendas.

Hermeneutics and the Humanities: Dialogues with Hans-Georg Gadamer / Hermeneutik und die Geisteswissenschaften: Im Dialog mit Hans-Georg Gadamer

Despite the field’s general agreement that pyrotechnology had a significant impact on the cultural evolution of humankind, our understanding of the origins and development of fire use and its role in humankind’s cultural evolution is very limited, blurred by strong disagreements over its chronology…

Melanie Fink, Postdoctoral Researcher at the Europa Institute of Leiden University, has published her book Frontex and Human Rights, Responsibility in 'Multi-Actor Situations' under the ECHR and EU Public Liability Law. This work is based on her doctoral dissertation, which she defended in December…

The currently available in vitro generated human skin equivalents resemble the human skin in many aspects. However, some essential barrier characteristics do not fully mimic the native barrier. Consequently, the human skin equivalents cannot be used for screening of drugs for skin penetration.

Dive into the heart of archaeological science: explore the flora and fauna of bygone ages, study human bones and teeth, analyse the cultural biographies of material objects, or become an expert in the use of digital data in archaeological research.

We are very happy to welcome you to spend a semester or year studying with us in the Faculty of Humanities. Here you will find information on your course timetables and more.

Leiden’s Faculty of Humanities is one of the broadest of its kind, offering courses in no fewer than 80 different languages and a very broad spectrum of academic disciplines.

The Faculty of Humanities has 8 institutes:

The Faculty of Humanities

In the Humans of Humanities series, we will do a portrait of one of our researchers, staff members or students, every other week.

As a Faculty of Humanities graduate you are part of a valuable network. Discover how you can remain in contact with other alumni and the University!

On 1 October 2019 the Hazelhoff Centre for Financial law hosted its 19th guest lecture starring Paul Sharma, managing director at Alvarez & Marsal and co-head of the European Financial Industry Regulatory Advisory Services practices.

Book presentation

At the Faculty of Humanities, we study languages, cultures, civilisations and their connection to each other. This knowledge is relevant to society and we gladly share it with the world around us.

Humanities Campus Project is the name of the redevelopment of the Witte Singel-Doelen Complex, the location of the Faculty of Humanities and associated knowledge partners and institutes. Over a period of ten years the complex will undergo a gradual metamorphosis, while classes continue to be taught.…

The Human Origins group at Leiden University studies the archaeology of hunter-gatherers, from the earliest stone tools in East Africa, more than three million years old, to the origin of sedentary societies towards the end of the last ice age.

Leiden University is building on its future in Leiden. As a means to achieving this aim, the University will be investing in excess of 100 million euros over the coming years in constructing the new accommodation for the Faculty of Humanities at Witte Singel and Doelensteeg. The University aims with…

The HARVEST project explores the dietary choices that our hominin ancestors and relatives made, by recovering information on what they consumed, and how factors like environmental variation, intrinsic biology, and development of food processing technologies could have influenced their decisions.

This case study-based textbook in multivariate analysis for advanced students in the humanities emphasizes descriptive, exploratory analyses of various types of data sets from a wide range of sub-disciplines, promoting the use of multivariate analysis and illustrating its wide applicability. Fields…

There is considerable need for improved skin models to develop safe and efficient drugs for skin delivery as well as for cosmetic and chemical product testing on the skin.

The first workshop will be about potentially setting up 3 different clusters.

The first workshop will be about potentially setting up 3 different clusters.

To what extent are, can, and should, human trafficking and human smuggling be(ing) seen as interlinked phenomena? What are the consequences of seeing the phenomena as either distinct or interlinked for the way in which migrants crossing intra-Schengen borders are treated.

Study of human cultures using computational approaches

Study of human cultures using computational approaches

Are you about to move to Leiden or The Hague to study at one of Leiden University’s master programmes? It is not unusual to be a bit anxious. We want to help! The Humanities Buddy Programme has been set up to help you along the way.

The LUMC iPSC Hotel offers the generation of research grade human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) from different tissue sources using state of the art reprogramming techniques.

This volume is themed around the interdependent relationship between humans and the environment, an important topic in the work of Corrie Bakels

Studies in Human Evolution is a series of the Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University and The Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig.

Two researchers at the Faculty of Archaeology have received a Veni award from the Netherlands Organisation for Academic Research (NWO). This award offers promising young researchers the opportunity to further develop their ideas for a period of three years.

The Faculty of Humanities consist of various academic fields. What is the common ground of all these different academics and students? They tell their story and why it matters in today’s world in 'We are Humanities'.

For Humans of Psychology, students and staff will be put into the spotlight. At our institute prizes are won, exiting research is conducted, knowledge is harnessed, public meeting are organised and open science is highlighted. Take a look behind the scenes.

The master's programme in Philosophy of Humanities at Leiden University allows you to specialise in conceptual and methodological issues in the Humanities.

Leiden University is a unique international centre for the advanced study of languages, cultures, arts, and societies worldwide, in their historical contexts from prehistory to the present.

What are interactive effects of human pressures on aquatic communities?

Welcome to the Graduate School of the Faculty of Humanities.