Archaeology alumnus Valerio Gentile wins W.A. van Es Award
Valerio Gentile received the award during the Reuvensdagen for his master's thesis 'Martiality in Practice'. He is the first international student who wins this prestigious award. The W.A. van Es Prize is annually awarded by the Dutch Cultural Heritage Agency.
According to the jury, Valerio's arguments were clear and to the point. In Martiality in Practice "the construction of theory, experiments, and analysis of usage traces on swords from the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age, were brought together in an excellent manner and analysed in relation to each other."
Also see the full jury report (in Dutch).
Valerio studies Prehistoric Framing Communities of North-Western Europe, a specialisation of the master's in Archaeology (research). Currently he is a PhD candidate funded by NWO at the Faculty of Archaeology of Leiden University.
Check out the thesis' summary in Open Access.
Congratulating the top three
While we congratulate Valerio Gentile with this award, we would also like to name our alumni Mette Langbroek and Wytze Stellingwerf, who ended up in the second and third position.
Congratulations with this great achievement!
About the W.A. van Es Award
The W.A. van Es Award aims to encourage young talented researchers who focus on the archaeology of the Netherlands. Attached to the award, which is handed out annually during the Reuvensdagen, is a certificate and a monetary sum of €2000, made available by the Dutch Cultural Heritage Agency.
The W.A. van Es Award is alternately awarded to a dissertation and a master's thesis. This year, the prize goes to the best master's thesis of the past 2 years.