Scholarship Beasiswa | PhD Position at the Amsterdam Archaeological Centre, Netherlands

Scholarship Application Deadline: 10 January 2011

"Beasiswa di Amsterdam Belanda | Scholarship Description: The material culture of the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires offers crucial information for our understanding of these societies, which by their interaction with the West played a vital role in the formation of Early Modern Europe. However, at this moment both Byzantine and Ottoman archaeology still require an up-to-date typo-chronological framework as well as a solid social and historical perspective. This VIDI-project aims to provide a new approach to the material culture of these two subsequent and intertwined Mediterranean Empires, in relation to the rise of Islamic society and culture.

The project will use artefacts as a means to advance the understanding of historical developments and social change in a long-term (longue durée) or cross-chronological perspective (ranging from the 7th to the 20th centuries after Christ). The focus will be on the dynamics of Byzantine, Islamic and Ottoman societies, especially on the relation between changing forms and functions of artefacts, changing pottery production and trade patterns, changing cooking and dining habits as well as changing social identities (such as those of new outsiders, such as Western Crusaders in the Byzantine world; or of new elites, such as the bureaucrats at the Ottoman Court).

Data from four key city centres (Athens, Ephesus, Butrint and Tarsus) will be studied in a comparative perspective. The study is multidisciplinary, using archaeological artefacts (especially table and kitchen equipment), written texts and pictorial evidence as sources of information. The overall aim of the VIDI-project is to make a major contribution to Byzantine and Ottoman archaeology, and to shed light on the dynamics of material culture and daily life in the eastern Mediterranean from Late Antiquity to the Modern era.

Tasks

The candidate is expected to research and complete a PhD thesis within a period of four years, and to participate in the VIDI group’s research events and activities (such as conferences, workshops, exhibitions and publications). Apart from writing a PhD thesis in four years, he/she will also write a co-authored paper for a symposium/conference to be held at the Dutch Institute in Istanbul during his/her third year

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