Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

Graduate Student, Archaeology

Thesis Title: Galilee during the Second Century AD: A Period of Political, Socio-cultural and Economic Change.

About

I am specialized in the archaeology and historiography of Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine Palestine and Material Culture Studies, and have conducted fieldwork in Israel, Greece, Italy and the Netherlands.

I received my MA degree in Classical Archaeology at Leiden University, The Netherlands (cum laude 2008). My thesis was on the possibility of Roman cadastres in the Roman Northwest, especially the area around the provincial city of Tongres. The thesis was awarded the W.A. van Es-prize by the Dutch Institute for Cultural Heritage and was nominated for the Leiden University thesis prize 2007-2008.

Currently, I am doing a PhD research at the K.U.Leuven (University of Leuven, Belgium) with a grant from the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO). The focus on historical texts, figures and events related to Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism in Galilee (northern Israel) has constrained scholarly interest to two large timespans during the Roman period in this region. The first period is from the reign of Herod (40 BC) to the aftermath of the First Jewish Revolt (AD 70), while the second starts from the editing of the Mishnah (early-third century AD) to the Gallus Revolt (AD 351-352). In between these ‘periods of interest’ however lies a gap, which conforms approximately to the second century AD. In the last decades however, archaeology has uncovered new information on the second century AD, which suggests that in the wake of and during the second century AD the archaeological record in the region shows numerous signs of change.

The central aspect of my PhD research is to interpret the archaeologically-visible ‘material transformation’ during the second century AD in light of the socio-cultural, political and economic context of the Galilee. Another goal is to put a predominant Jewish and Christian focus in the region of Galilee in balance by addressing the Roman influence in its history. Furthermore, by studying the causes and outcomes of a change in the archaeological record, this research aims at contributing to the recent debate on cultural change in Classical Archaeology, especially concerning what has often been called ‘Romanization’. Lastly, it will give context to the two more intensively studied periods before and after, which is important in order to better interpret and understand these periods.

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