William Pestle and Jason Laffoon recently published a new article entitled 'Quantitative paleodietary reconstruction with complex foodwebs: An isotopic case study from the Caribbean' in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.

The research article ‘The life history of an enslaved African’ is one of the top 20 read Archaeometry articles in the period of January 2017 to December 2018.

The dental remains of 25 enslaved Africans from the site of Newton's Plantation, on Barbados, were subjected to isotope analysis. Previous research had pointed out that the locally born individuals were subjected to high concentrations of lead poisoning. A new study, done by Dr Jason Laffoon among others…

A new study published in Archaeometry describes the unexpected results obtained from analyses of five human teeth discovered in a ritual cache at an enslaved African plantation site on the island of Saba in the Caribbean.

Lecture, Studium Generale

Conference

Lecture, Leiden Interdisciplinary Migration Seminar (LIMS)

The project seeks to come to an understanding of the archaeology of the desert and the ways in which its inhabitants engaged with their constraint, marginal environments through time. It compares and interprets site distribution and community organisation over a long time scale and across several different…

Professor of Archaeometry Patrick Degryse analyses archaeological finds using techniques from chemistry, physics and biology. He will give his inaugural lecture on 19 February. He reflects on three interesting propositions from his lecture.

200 years ago, in 1818, Caspar Reuvens was appointed Professor in Archaeology at Leiden University. This was effectively the start of the academic study of archaeology in the Netherlands. To celebrate this occasion, the faculty organises events related to the future of archaeology throughout the yea…

The main research areas are the development of Amerindian societies and the impacts of colonial encounters in the regions around the Caribbean Sea. These are the nexus of the first interactions between the New and the Old World. The focus is on rewriting a crucial and neglected chapter in global history…

This project, under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Hans van der Plicht, comprises several studies aimed at the use of isotopes occurring naturally in organic material as tracers for both the climate change and its cultural impact at about 6200 BC. The research will be carried out by the co-applicant at…

This year, archaeology at Leiden University as well as in the Netherlands turns 200! Archaeology has always been at the forefront of technological innovation. So instead of only looking back, in this jubilee year we also focus on the future of archaeology. Check out our news and events on the latest…

A multiple isotope approach to human-animal dynamics in the Lesser Antilles across the historical divide

Dynamics of material, social and ideological relationships in the pre-Columbian insular Caribbean

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

What transformations can be observed in the hinterland of Petra (South Jordan)?

The Archaeology of Imperial Landscapes examines the transformation of rural landscapes and societies that formed the backbone of ancient empires in the Near East and Mediterranean. Through a comparative approach to archaeological data, it analyses the patterns of transformation in widely differing imperial…

Lecture

Past, Present and Future of Nubian Communities in Sudan

ASLU 14

Sphingolipids are important membrane compounds with a variety of functions. In mammalian cells, different enzymes are involved in the metabolism of sphingolipids, but interruption of this metabolism process leads to different diseases.

Back in 2008, Jason Laffoon moved from Chicago to Leiden. He came to join the Faculty of Archaeology’s Caribbean research group as a PhD candidate. Now he is an assistant professor, bridging departments through his innovative research methods. ‘I focus both on the archaeology of the Americas, as well…

New insights into the Fayum Epipalaeolithic and Neolithic.

Case-studies on use-wear analysis of prehistoric flint tools

This volume provides one of the most comprehensive overviews of the archaeology of a single Caribbean island yet published. Drawing together scholars from the Caribbean, north America and Europe, all working from a range of disciplines within the broader scope of archaeology, and drawing upon recent…

The bottom-up development of post-Roman northwestern Europe

Alternatives to current practice

ASLU 11

This PhD project develops and applies a GIS procedure to use legacy survey data in settlement pattern analysis. As part of the research by the LERC project (NWO, Leiden University, KNIR), legacy data produced by surveys in central and southern Italy are examined in a comparative framework to investigate…

A project aimed at understanding the complicated process of religious transformation in one of the centres of the early Muslim world.

The Assyrian Empire was the first state to achieve durable domination of the Ancient Near East, enduring some seven centuries and, eventually, controlling most of the region. Yet, we know little about how this empire emerged from a relatively minor polity in the Tigris region and how it managed to consolidate…

In several Mediterranean regions archaeological sites have been mapped by fieldwalking surveys, producing large amounts of data. These legacy site-based survey data represent an important resource to study ancient settlement organization. Methodological procedures are necessary to cope with the limits…

What workflow of non-destructive techniques provides accurate, valuable data to improve our understanding of Caribbean archaeological landscapes? How were Amerindian settlements configured?

The sites of Norman Estata, Anse des Pères and Hope Estate with a contribution to the 'La Hueca problem'

Wouter Verschoof-van der Vaart has developed a way to use Deep Learning and geography software to rapidly and systematically map prehistoric barrows, Celtic fields, and medieval charcoal kilns. This innovative method has been tested on high-resolution elevation maps from the Veluwe, the Netherlands.…

Built Environment and Domestic Material Culture in the Medieval and Post-Medieval Cyclades, Greece (13th – 20th Centuries AD)

Current status and future prospects

ASLU 27 Sjoerd van der Linde (2012)

In this project we develop algorithms to automatically detect a particular type of archaeological sites in satellite images of the Alps.

Two graves dating from the 7th century have been discovered during an archaeological excavation in Leiden. One of the graves was found by a student of Archaeology during the first-year fieldwork project that took place at the same time as the excavation. The well-preserved graves are interesting because…

The Faculty of Archaeology

Bones contain information about people’s lives such as where they came from, their age at death and which diseases they suffered from. Researchers can deduce a lot from them about a person’s life and about human evolution. This generates leads that could help solve present-day problems, such as how…

At the Faculty of Archaeology, we investigate the development of human societies worldwide, from the earliest beginnings to modern times. We also study the heritage of mankind, which evokes this deep history, and which connects with, and informs, contemporary society.

What are the patterns and processes of human mobility in the pre-colonial circum-Caribbean as revealed by burial populations and what are the underlying motives and socio-cultural principles on both micro- and macro-scales?