Casper van Dijk is a PhD candidate researching the transformation of military as complex adaptive systems. His dissertation, Military Metamorphosis: Warfare in the Northern Netherlands, 1425–1560, reinterprets late medieval warfare through the lens of emergence and complex systems theory, offering an alternative to traditional Military Revolution Theory.

More information about Casper van Dijk

Casper van Dijk is a PhD candidate researching the transformation of military as complex adaptive systems. His dissertation, Military Metamorphosis: Warfare in the Northern Netherlands, 1425–1560, reinterprets late medieval warfare through the lens of emergence and complex systems theory, offering an alternative to traditional Military Revolution Theory.

Integrating philosophy of science, complexity studies, archaeology and history, his work examines how material technologies, human cognition, and social organisation interacted to produce military innovation. He combines textual and material analysis – from arms and armour to chronicles and financial records, and city defence – to trace transformations in fighting power across military in the Northern Netherlands (above the river Waal).

Van Dijk has published on the subject of historical arms, artillery, and military martial culture, including studies into late medieval gunpowder weaponry, halberds, sword fighting, and experimental archaeological research into bronze age spears.

Key publications

• Gentile, V., C. J. Van Dijk, and O. Ter Mors. "Multi-stage experiments in Bronze Age spear combat: insights on wear formation, trauma, and combat contexts." Journal of Archaeological Science 170 (2024): 106044.
• Nijdam, J. A., Diana Spiekhout, and Casper van Dijk. "De culturele betekenis van het tweesnijdende zwaard." De Vrije Fries 103 (2023): 146-163.
• Van Dijk, Casper Johann (2021), ‘Het kanon uit de gracht. Een uniek laatmiddeleeuws (1450-1600) stuk geschut uit Culemborg’, ARMA: Jaarboek Nationaal Militair Museum 51 (Walburg Press: Zutphen), 94-109.
• van Dijk, C., and O. ter Mors. "The Art that Hans Lecküchner Made and Devised Himself." The Martial Arts Tradition of a Fifteenth Century Bavarian Priest', in: Michael Chidester (ed.), Kunst und Zettel im Messer. Bavarian State Library Cgm 582 (2021): 203-228.
• Van Dijk, Casper J. "A New Halberd Typology (1500-1800): Based on the Collection of the National Military Museum, The Netherlands." Arms & Armour 17.1 (2020): 1-26.

Publications