Mink W. van IJzendoorn is PhD candidate and teacher at the Faculty of Archaeology. He investigates ceramic production, exchange and consumption in the Byzantine and Frankish Aegean (ca. 1100-1500 AD). His teaching is concerned with (post-)medieval archaeology, primary on the eastern Mediterranean, the crusades and Byzantium and thematic topics on economy, globalisation and maritime connectivity.

More information about Mink van IJzendoorn

Office days

Generally from Monday to Friday.

Research

I am a PhD candidate and a teacher at the Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University. My research is concerned with the causes and consequences of past globalisation processes. I study maritime connectivity's social and economic impact, as seen through the 'flows' of persons, ideas, and objects. Utilising archaeological data and theory, I try to see how human mobility and interaction came about, how this linked dispersed local groups, and how mutual influence and interdependence took place and helped form cultural identities. For this, I investigate ceramic production, exchange and consumption in the Byzantine and Frankish Aegean (ca. 1100-1500 AD).

Currently, I am involved in several international projects in Greece, Turkey, and Albania. These projects include (post-)fieldwork studies at Chalcis (Euboea), Almyros (Thessaly), Agios Vasilios (Peloponnese), Ephesus (Ionia), Shkodër (North-Albania), Sardis (Lydia) and Gortyn (Crete). I am also involved in Leiden Inventory Depot (LID) Project.

I am also involved in material studies in the Netherlands. As such, I am part of the ‘Kennemerland in metaalvondsten’-project, Huis van Hilde Archeologiemuseum Provincie Noord-Holland. Furthermore, in the Faculty, I am involved in the ‘Leiden Inventory Depot’-project. This project aims to manage depot material and make it available for future education and research purposes.

Teaching activities

The subjects I teach include Byzantium, the crusades and, more generally, Europe and the Mediterranean from post-Roman to post-medieval times, seen from an archaeological perspective. The emphasis lies on medieval and early modern socio-economic development and (inter)regional connectivity by sea, mainly regarding the Aegean region.

Curriculum vitae

I studied archaeology at the Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, with a specialisation on the Roman provinces, the Middle Ages and the modern period, as well as the prehistory of Europe. During my MA in 2016, I studied Byzantine archaeology and focused on the medieval eastern Mediterranean pottery. In 2017, I was a project assistant of Prof. Joanita Vroom as part of an NWO-DANS Klein DataProject-grant project. Since 2018, I have been involved in research and education at the Faculty. In 2019, I started my Ph.D. research as part of an Aspasia-grant project of Prof. Vroom.

Publications