Dit project ontwikkelt Virtual Reality-omgevingen om het archeologieonderwijs te verbeteren door opgravingsscenario’s zoals stratigrafie en context te simuleren. Deze simulaties bieden studenten praktijkervaring en verbeteren hun begrip van complexe concepten. Geïntegreerde evaluatietools zorgen ervoor dat studenten essentiële opgravingsvaardigheden beheersen, waardoor ze beter voorbereid zijn op veldwerk en het archeologieonderwijs wordt versterkt.

This project will focus on the evidence for material life, ethnicity, and diet in the district of Vlooienburg, Amsterdam (1600-1800). It is motivated by a desire to develop an integrated archaeological methodology that enables personal possessions, tableware and food waste recovered from cesspit deposits to be linked to historically-documented households. The project seeks to refine archaeological understandings of the material expressions of ethnicity, status, gender, and religious beliefs in relation to the Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jewish inhabitants and other residents of the Vlooienburg. The project will also, significantly, enhance contemporary public understandings of the multi-ethnic roots of Amsterdam. The project is timely, as in 2016, the City of Amsterdam, office for Monuments and Archaeology will begin a new project to re-evaluate and complete the analysis of materials excavated in 1980-81 ahead of the construction of the Stopera. This NWO application has been devised to enhance and deepen the impact of this initiative and has been structured to create an overarching framework that will deliver international academic guidance, access to new state-of-the-art forms of scientific analysis, hands-on training for two Phd students, and a robust platform for the dissemination of knowledge in a variety of formats including specialist academic publications, museum exhibitions, public open-days, and a television documentary. The collaborative impact of the three-way public private partnership that has been established between the University of Amsterdam, the City of Amsterdam, office for Monuments and Archaeology, and the Jewish Historical Museum, will deliver a landmark project of national and international significance.

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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. To achieve this, comparative frameworks from island archaeology and Mediterranean network perspectives will be integrated with technological, compositional and 3D analysis for distinguishing local vs. imported vessels, as well as investigating processes of production, distribution and consumption of ceramic vessels. This integrated methodology will be used to identify and visualise the many interactions that constitute prehistoric Aegean communities across multiple geographical and chronological horizons. The geographical setting of the region under study is characterised by islands, coastlines and hinterlands, and offers a valuable arena for assessing the dynamics behind past cultural encounters and interaction networks. Using GIS to map the appearance and distribution of local and imported pots manufactured with the potter?s wheel will allow the trajectories of this new technology to be traced across the Aegean throughout the Bronze Age. Digital visualisation techniques will be used to refine the methodology and promote public engagement with technological approaches to material culture.

Site Sound uses acoustic site analysis and the latest in digital reconstruction technologies to determine whether and how sounds were consciously used in designing and building the sanctuary to Zeus on Mount Lykaion, Greece. Little about ancient life at the site is known today, as only isolated literary references and deteriorated ruins have survived. Yet Mount Lykaions mountainous setting enables surprising moments of easy communication between distant locations, seemingly coinciding with prominent overlooks or building ruins. This suggests the soundscape may still provide unique insights into ancient practice at Mount Lykaion and other sanctuary sites.