I am an Associate Professor in Archaeology at UvA, specialising in the Bronze Age Aegean and ceramic studies.
Previous positions include Departmental Lecturer in Aegean Prehistory at the University of Oxford (2015-16) and postdoctoral researcher in Mediterranean Archaeology at UvA (2011-15). I have also held a postdoctoral fellowship in the Aegean Material Culture Lab at the University of Toronto (2009-11) and the Williams Fellowship in Ceramic Petrography in the Fitch Laboratory of the British School at Athens, Greece (2002-05).
I obtained my PhD in 2009 from the University of Exeter, focusing on the Middle Bronze Age potting communities of Akrotiri on Thera, and I have an MSc in Archaeomaterials from the University of Sheffield (2001). My undergraduate degree was a joint honours programme in Archaeology and Geology at the University of Bristol (2000).
I am an archaeologist specialising in ceramics, with research interests stretching across the Aegean and wider East Mediterranean region. My dual training in archaeology and geology has allowed me to become a leading specialist within the field of ceramic analysis, in particular ceramic petrography. My work anchors scientific data within broader approaches to material culture, in order to understand patterns of craft production and exchange in past societies, and addresses broad questions of human interaction and technological transmission across different spatial and temporal scales of analysis.
NWO Open Science (2022-3)
New tools are urgently needed for 3D datasets to improve accessibility, facilitate engagement/interaction with the datasets and promote two-directional knowledge transfer. 3DWorkSpace will adapt the open source Voyager 3D digital museum curation tool suite (Smithsonian Institute) to promote interactive engagement with traditionally complex digital datasets. Embedded structured guidance/training for gaining competence and skills for interpreting 3D datasets will allow broader narratives to be generated and open up new avenues for knowledge publication through the creation of annotated personal 3D collections that can be tailored to specific learning goals or interests.
VIDI project (NWO) 2016-22
This project will shed new light on the trajectories of technological innovations within the ancient Aegean, and offer alternative perspectives on how the humanities can address human-object-technology interactions within complex societies. The aim of the proposed project is to assess the appearance of the potter’s wheel as a technological innovation within two distinct chronological horizons of the Bronze Age Aegean: the later Early Bronze Age (ca.2500-2100BC) and the transition between the Middle and Late Bronze periods (ca.1800-1600BC). This approach uses the potter’s wheel as prism through which to investigate the transmission of craft knowledge during these two periods and the configuration of Aegean potting communities through time. A key project objective is to better understand the multi-scalar material, technological and social interactions that facilitated the transmission of the potter’s wheel in this region.
I have supervision experience at (Research) MA and PhD levels, focusing on ceramic-based investigations, both analytical and methodological. I am happy to consider supervision within the following themes:
Dr Caroline Campolo-Jeffra (UvA) - Postdoctoral researcher: Tracing the potter's wheel: investigating technological trajectories and cultural encounters in the Bronze Age Aegean
Loes Opgenhaffen (UvA) - PhD project: Visualising the potter's wheel. Developing integrated 'digital science' approaches for identifying wheel use in pottery production
Ayla Krijnen (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) - PhD project: A Ceramic Compositional and Socio-Technological Perspective on FN Late to EH Late Geraki