Our research deals with the deep history of Europe and Eurasia, from the inception of farming up until the beginning of the Roman Period. This was a period in which key developments took place that had a profound impact on European landscapes and society until the present day. Our research and teaching…

In the new board game Epoch – Early Inventors you explore the prehistoric landscape. You gather food and raw material to develop tools and skills, and you try to appease the gods. Dr Maikel Kuijpers was involved in its development from the start and he is very happy with the result. “There is a lot…

Archaeologist Quentin Bourgeois received an NWO Vidi grant to investigate the emergence of a pan-European culture in the third millennium BC. ‘We see ideas being shared across the entire continent in pre-literate societies. And not only that, for a thousand years, the same cultural ideas persist.’

How is it possible that people kill each other? And above all: how is it possible that people who are able to peacefully live with each other at one moment, can kill each other at another one?

The Latin language is a descendant of the widespread Indo-European family of languages. Recent ancient genetic studies have helped shed light on the likelihood that the Indo-European languages spread into a Europe that had already been populated by farmers for thousands of years.

From Complex Hunter-Gatherers to Early Urban Societies

This is a book about the rich archaeological record of the Dutch municipality of Oss, written for its inhabitants and other interested members of the general public.

This dissertation investigates the impressive prehistoric cultivated landscape of the eastern part of West Frisia.

The role of grave sets in Corded Ware and Bell Beaker funerary practices

This volume of Analecta Praehistorica Leidensia focuses on how local communities in prehistory define themselves in relation to a bigger social world.

This book aims to unravel some of the mysteries surrounding this exceptional group of larger-than-life Bronze Age blades.

On the 1st of November, Andrew Wigman successfully defended a doctoral thesis. The Leiden University Centre for Linguistics congratulates Andrew on this achievement!

Essays in Honour of Olivier P. Nieuwenhuyse

Reconstructing language history and prehistory in the context of the Indo-European language family.

Investigating domestic crafts and subsistence activities through experiments and material analysis

How the systematic destruction of valuables created value in Bronze Age Europe, c. 2300-500 BC

This study analyses the prehistory of a northeastern Siberian population, the Sakha, from both a molecular-genetic and a linguistic perspective.

The Heritage Quest project is a citizen science project in which volunteers participate in archaeological research.

Voor zowel archeologen, paleontologen en geologen als vrijwilligers in de archeologie en paleontologie is het geen verrassing meer dat op de stranden van de Nederlandse kust fraaie vondsten gedaan kunnen worden. Vele artikelen, boeken, tentoonstellingen, congressen, lezingen, ‘zoekdagen’, krantenberichten,…

This abrupt climate change of 8200 years ago (the so-called 8.2k calBP climate event) has received wide attention among natural scientists, also because of today's rapid climate changes and their impact on our own society. The archaeological implications, however, have not been investigated so far.…

Almost all languages of Europe and of a large part of western Asia belong to a single language family, which is called Indo-European, and which includes modern languages like English, Dutch, Russian, Farsi, but also ancient ones like Ancient Greek, Latin, Hittite and Sanskrit.

The project aims to explore Eurasian elk's role in the ecosystems of the past and its relationship with humans through analysis of its distribution and habitat in the Netherlands.

The excavation of three Bronze Age barrows and surrounding landscape at Apeldoorn-Wieselseweg

Leiden alumnus Luc Amkreutz is a curator at the National Museum of Antiquities. His exhibition about the submerged landscape of Doggerland highlights what we can learn from prehistory. ‘Just like the people of Doggerland, we are confronted with climate change, but we are responsible for the speed of…

Heritage Quest is a large-scale citizen science project in the field of archaeology that allows anyone to contribute to scientific research. It is the first large-scale archaeological citizen science project in The Netherlands and one of the few of its kind in the world. As part of the Cultural Heritage…

The reconstruction of a dress worn in the Netherlands nearly 3000 years ago has gone on display in Oss, and shows that, contrary to popular opinion, woman from that time liked cheerful colours. Leiden archaeologists were involved in both the find of the dress as well as its reconstruction.

Students of the Leiden University Faculty of Archaeology once again explore the archaeology of Oss between April and May of 2023. New areas along the Gewandeweg will be investigated. The local news platform DTV Nieuws featured an article about it.

The handbook is a wide-ranging survey of a crucial period in prehistory during which many social, economic, and technological changes took place. Written by specialists in the field, the book provides coverage both of the themes that characterise the period, and of the specific developments that took…

On May 4, 2024, from 10.00 to 16.00 hours, a festive day took place in Oss, celebrating the fact that staff and students of the Leiden Faculty of Archeology have been doing fieldwork in and around Oss for 50 years in good collaboration with the municipality of Oss, the local heritage and archaeological…

Analecta Praehistorica Leidensia is the annual journal of the Faculty of Archaeology (formerly the Institute of Prehistory), Leiden University.

Analecta Praehistorica Leidensia is the annual journal of the Faculty of Archaeology (formerly the Institute of Prehistory), Leiden University.

Japanese was not always the language spoken in Japan. Researchers link the arrival of the language in Japan with the migration of farmers around 400 BC. Linguist Elisabeth de Boer has been awarded an ERC Starting Grant to carry out research on the further spread of the language in Japan.

I. Die Ausgrabungen am Weinberg 1965 bis 1970. Mit Beiträgen von A.T. Clason, M.E.Th. de Grooth, L.H. Keeley und K.J.H. Vriezen.

Our alumna Victoria van der Haas was interviewed by The Female Scientist. Read her interview on why she chose Archaeology, her biggest achievements and failures, and what her hopes are for the future.

Analecta Praehistorica Leidensia is the annual journal of the Faculty of Archaeology (formerly the Institute of Prehistory), Leiden University.

Analecta Praehistorica Leidensia is the annual journal of the Faculty of Archaeology (formerly the Institute of Prehistory), Leiden University.