One and half years ago, Lewis Borck exchanged the arid and hot Southwest of the USA for the Netherlands. While an expert in Ancestral Pueblo and Hohokam archaeology, he switched to the Caribbean as a researcher in the NEXUS 1492 project. “Theories and methods brought me in first.”

A mere day after setting foot ashore in the Bahamas on October 13th 1492, Christopher Columbus notes the broad foreheads of the inhabitants of the Americas. These permanently altered cranial shapes are deliberately created through the application of pressure to the head of the infant in the first years…

Historical figures such as Columbus have returned to the centre of public debate. Much remains to be discovered about his legacy and current impact on our society. A new study shows the ecological footprint that the arrival of Europeans left in the Caribbean islands.

On Wednesday January 25, Hayley Mickleburgh was hosted by the radio show de Kennis van Nu (NPO radio 1). Here she told about her work on a body farm in Texas. She investigates the decomposition processes of human remains.

On Thursday January 19, 2017, Hayley Mickleburgh was invited to speak at the Dutch talkshow RTL Late Night. Here she talked about her research on so called 'body farms', where the decomposition of bodies is being investigated.

On 26 and 27 September 2016, the Faculty of Archaeology of Leiden University hosted the closing symposium of the HERA-CARIB project “Caribbean Connections: Cultural encounters in a New World setting”.

Priya Swamy defended her thesis on 27 October 2016

What can continuity and change in the manufacturing of locally made ceramics from the early colonials Spanish towns of Concepción de la Vega, Cotuí and Nueva Cádiz (1492-1600) tell us about the choices people made in ceramic production as a reaction the the changing social environment?

The role of material culture in early colonial encounters in the Caribbean

An overview of the courses

In the week of 14 to 18 January the Lorentz workshop 'Intersecting Worlds. The Interplay of Cultures and Technology' took place at the Lorentz Center in Leiden. Attracting many scholars from across the world, the workshop explored the transformations and responses of indigenous societies around the…

Retrospection over the last 40 years the most important changes in care and research, where transparency accountability and guidelines became leading. On Huntington’s disease and cerebrovascular disorders the most important changes are illustrated.

Back in 2008, Jason Laffoon moved from Chicago to Leiden. He came to join the Faculty of Archaeology’s Caribbean research group as a PhD candidate. Now he is an assistant professor, bridging departments through his innovative research methods. ‘I focus both on the archaeology of the Americas, as well…

The Faculty of Archaeology of Leiden University ran an excavation project in Northern Syria, at Tell Hammam al Turkman, some 80 km north of Raqqa. The Faculty of Archaeology and the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research N.W.O. finance the undertaking, which is directed by dr Diederik J.W.…

Contraband and forced recruitment: How rebels' exploitation of natural resources can increase their willingness to forcibly recruit children.

In Indigenous Ancestors and Healing Landscapes Jana Pešoutová presents new interpretations of current healing practices in Cuba and the Dominican Republic juxtaposed against the European colonization of the Caribbean after 1492.

This research combines archaeological, archaeometric and ethnohistorical research to study the organisation of settlement space and residence rules among the Taino Indians during the Late Ceramic Age (AD 1000-1492).

Bringing Dominican indigenous collections back to the community

The rise and fall of the cesspit in an urban context

In 1989 the Board of Governors and the Council of Leiden University granted the establishment of a special Chair for Central European Studies with a focus on Austria: 'Lehrstuhl für mitteleuropäische Studien mit besonderer Berücksichtigung Österreichs'.

The month of October saw LUGO host an active Green Morning to celebrate the opening of the largest green solar roof of the Benelux (located on the rooftop of the Snellius building!).

This volume is themed around the interdependent relationship between humans and the environment, an important topic in the work of Corrie Bakels

A Study of Middle Palaeolithic Riverside Settlements at Maastricht-Belvédère (The Netherlands).

A research agenda

Report on the Excavations of the University of Amsterdam (1988) and the National Museum of Antiquities Leiden (1991-1993) in Syria.

Marietje Beemsterboer defended her thesis on 12 June 2018 (in Dutch)

The focus of this programme is the inter-community social relationships and transformations of island networks in the Lesser Antilles across the historical divide.

This project investigates how the first generation of Dutch printed books (the incunabula, 1473-1501) affected late medieval spirituality, religious practice and visual culture in the Low Countries.

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Meet the people of our team.

The precolonial inhabitants of the Caribbean islands communicated, travelled, and exchanged objects and ideas along an expansive inter-island network. New methods of computer modeling shed light on these networks. Emma Slayton is set to discuss her work on this topic at her Defense on the 12th of Se…

Astronomical observations in Chile, research into native heritage or the treatment of eye diseases in Brazil - Leiden is researching a large number and a wide variety of different topics in Latin America and the Caribbean. Researchers and representatives from 20 countries met on 11 May in Leiden to…

The project concerns the nature, the usages and functions of pictographic systems in relation to writing in societies with (restricted) literacy.

The research programme of the Prehistoric Farming Group (European Prehistory) has several research projects. The largest and longest in terms of continuity is the Maaskant project directed by prof. dr. Harry Fokkens.

the production, use and exchange of bodily accoutrements through the lenses of the microscope

Amerindian settlement patterns and early colonial cartography in Northern Hispaniola

Amerindian intra- and inter-insular relationships and social organization in the pre-colonial Windward Islands.

Organisation of settlement space and residence rules among the Taino, the indigenous people of the Caribbean encountered by Columbus

The Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (LIACS) of Leiden University proudly establishes the Blaise Pascal chair. The chair applies for one year and is meant to strengthen the cooperation of the Leiden computer science research with foreign institutes.

PhD at Leiden University and Bruker - the Netherlands

Mathilde Mechling defended her thesis on 28 january 2020.

Metabolomics group, LCQUI, Universidade UENF, Campos dos Goytacazes/Rio de Janeiro - Brazil

This thesis seeks to examine the emergence of Persian novels and short stories during the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988).

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Subproject of

North, Middle and South America together constitute the single largest area in World Archaeology that is taught as a single focus. It is also the only major world area that saw societies develop from hunter-gatherers to early empires entirely independent from developments in Eurasia & Africa. It is,…