Projects
Renovating the church: material culture, Habsburg ritual and early Counter-Reformation experiments in the Low Countries (c. 1535-1585) Ghent University
In the sixteenth century, the Protestant Reformation seriously challenged Catholicism According to the communis opinio, the Catholic Church only found an adequate answer towards the end of the century, when it launched a coordinated campaign that implemented the tenets of the Council of Trent (1545-63) In the historiography on the Low Countries, the Fall of Antwerp (1585) is usually designated as the starting point, which coincides with the ...
Early medieval farming communities in northern Francia. Rural settlement, domestic space and material culture from Clovis to the Counts of Flanders. Ghent University
The central objective of the research is to study the daily life, culture and socio-economy of the farming communities living in northern Francia during the Early Middle Ages (ca. AD 450 – ca. AD 1000). This will be tackled using a varied set of archaeological, historical and ecological sources, set in a wider comparative framework. The research will focus on settlement forms, house-building traditions, local domestic ceramics and the ...
Back to basics, with a twist. Applying visual and data analytics to constructing typology and chronology of material culture at ancient Sagalassos and for the discipline of Archaeology KU Leuven
The construction of narratives is a typical activity of archaeology. This can be done at a variety of scales, ranging from regional historical studies, the waxing and waning of specific sites or at the level of the individual object. The crucial difference between narratives and story-telling, is that the former is situated within a disciplinary conceptual and methodological framework, and fully respects the rules of the game called science. ...
Flemish pottery and stone reference collection (FLEPOSTORES): a "hands-on" and digital open access reference database for geological materials in archaeology and cultural heritage Ghent University
FLEPOSTORES will be a Ghent University based Flemish reference system for researchers and students working in archaeology, geology and cultural heritage studies. Further building on existing reference collections within Ghent University and with 3 external partners, the database will offer an online open access platform and a hands-on collection of worked natural stone and pottery, from prehistoric till pre-industrial times (ca. ...
The Sentimental Jewellery of Louise-Marie d'Orléans. An Artistic Reactivation of Material Memories. Hasselt University
The Sentimental Jewellery of Louise-Marie d'Orléans. An Artistic Reactivation of Material Memories. Hasselt University
Perspectives on the so-called 'late Middle Kingdom funerary assemblage'. A Middle Bronze Age Egyptian funerary practice in the light of urban culture, religion, and cultural interrelations. KU Leuven
The aim of the research is to offer a new perspective on the development of an important subset of funerary material culture during the Egyptian Middle Kingdom (c. 2000-1750 BC) and to offer a method for studying changes within funerary assemblages.
The Middle Kingdom was a period of profound socio-cultural changes and it has been argued that these changes are reflected in the evolution of the funerary material. During the later phase ...
The Nilgiri Archaeological Project: Culture and Environment in the Upland Forests of South India from Antiquity to Late Modernity Ghent University
Indian upland forest-dwellers – like many other indigenous communities around the globe – are under threat from resource extraction, agricultural development and de-forestation as are the material remains of their cultures. These people are still perceived as a-historical therefore research on their past is scant and inadequate. This is the result of a Eurocentric perspective that is still dominant today and relegates Indian upland ...
Sabbatical Dries Vanysacker: Catholicsm, body culture and sports In Western Europe (19th-21st centuries) KU Leuven
In the context of a broader international project (A Companion to Christianity and Sports in Europe and North America (19th-21st centuries)) that should be realized in 2024/25 and of which I am co-editor, I would like to realize a first phase within the five months of my sabbatical leave. This first stage concerns an overview on Catholicism, body culture and sport in Germany, the Benelux, France, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Spain and ...