Projects
Humanist Condolences. Funerary Collections in Quattrocento Italy. KU Leuven
How people express grief and sympathy in situations of death and loss is conditioned by culture. When, in fourteenth- and fifteenthcentury Italy, Renaissance humanism gradually replaced medieval ways of thinking, a new literary phenomenon emerged, as humanists began to compile funerary collections. These collections, preserved in both manuscripts and incunables, consist of treatises, letters, orations, poems, and dialogues that were composed ...
Life and death of legionary soldiers in third-century Agypt. An interdisciplinary study of tomb monuments of Legio II Traiana Fortis. KU Leuven
Cremations, Urns and Mobility U+2013 Ancient population dynamics in Belgium Ghent University
This project proposes to study the collections of cremated bone found in Belgium dating from
the Neolithic to the Early-Medieval period. CRUMBEL greatly improves the current
understanding of how people lived in Belgium between 3000 BC and 700 AD. Until now the
dominance of cremation as funeral practice from that period in Northern Europe led to
limited information on migrations and living conditions.
Over the ...
Mourning Alone and/or Together: Individuality and Collectivity in Dutch-Language Poetry of Mourning after 1968 KU Leuven
In general terms, this project aims to study the ways in which Dutch-language “poetry of mourning” or “funerary poetry” models an experience of loss and grief after a person’s death. The starting point is 1968, a moment in recent history which symbolizes an increasingly critical attitude toward traditional values and rituals. In particular, the proposed project will analyze if, and how, post-1968 funerary poems stage their possible uses ...
The palaeodemographic and palaeopathological study of the St.Rombout's cemetery, Mechelen KU Leuven
Contextual archaeo-anthropological studies – whereby skeletal and archaeological analyses are treated as one whole – are still uncommon. The detailed study of a sub-sample of 400 individuals from the excavation of St. Rombout’s cemetery in Mechelen, Belgium (10th-18th centuries AD) nevertheless demonstrates its enormous potential. A macroscopic study of mortality patterns and age and sex composition (palaeodemography) and the investigation of ...
The tomb of Djehutihotep within the Middle Kingdom elite cemetery of Dayr al-Barsha. Digital epigraphic documentation, analysis and interpretation. KU Leuven
The rock-cut tombs that make up the elite cemetery at Dayr al-Barshā rank among the most important private monuments of the Egyptian Middle Kingdom (c. 2050-1750 BC). Especially the funerary complex of Djehutihotep is well-known for the quality of its decoration and the unusual subject-matter of some of the figurative scenes contained within. Unfortunately, the cemetery has suffered greatly from later phases of reuse and vandalism, which led ...
Tracking regionality in Ancient Egypt: comparative analysis of archaeological remains from the 6th and 15th nomes of Upper Egypt between the Old and Middle Kingdoms (working title) KU Leuven
Within the framework of the C1 project entitled “Social dynamism as evidenced in archaeological remains from the sixth and fifteenth nomes of Upper Egypt between the Old and Middle Kingdoms (c. 2686-1650 BCE)” the PhD project will explore the question of regionality by means of a comparative investigation into the archaeological sites of Dendara and Dayr al-Barsha respectively. These two sites have both hosted important nomarchal metropoleis ...
Dying at the Margins of Athens: Burial Customs, Local Traditions, and Social Realities in the Attic deme of Thorikos (c. 900-300 BC) Ghent University
This research project will collect and evaluate all material and physical anthropological data from the cemeteries of Thorikos in an attempt to reconstruct social, ideological and political realities in this deme from the Early Iron Age (900 BC) to end of the Late Classical period (300 BC), especially in relation to the city of Athens. By adopting a multidisciplinary approach, following the latest developments in demographic studies, which ...