Ann Brysbaert is Professor in Ancient technology, crafts and materials at the Faculty of Archaeology.

More information about Ann Brysbaert

Office days

Because Ann runs her ERC project as PI she is regularly away from her office for fieldwork and conferences, but she can always be reached by email. 

Research

Ann works on aspects of monumental architecture and human ecology in Bronze Age Greece and the East Mediterranean, pre-industrial technologies and related social practices, the integration of science-based studies with theoretical approaches and science-based topics relating to pyrotechnologies, painted plaster and mortars, and workshop contexts.

From 2015 until 2020, Ann is Principal Investigator of an ERC Consolidator Grant project (grant nbr. 646667), based at the University of Leiden, entitled:

‘SETinSTONE. A retrospective impact assessment of human and environmental resource usage in Late Bronze Age Mycenaean Monumental Architecture, Greece’.

Ann continues to work for SETinSTONE on a full-time basis until the end of the project (August 2020). This work often takes her to libraries and archives abroad and, therefore, she is not always present at the Faculty. She can, however, be reached by email. 

Since 1998, Ann’s work focussed on the following projects, some are still ongoing:

• 1999-2008: Technologies and social agency of painted plaster in the East Mediterranean Bronze Age
• 2008-2013: Cross-craft interaction in the cross-cultural context of the Late Bronze Age East Mediterranean

In 2007 when still at University of Leicester (U.K.), Ann initiated the ‘Tracing Networks’ project, and together with Lin Foxhall, they applied and received a large Leverhulme Research Grant of 1.8 million pounds for 5 years (2008-2013); this was divided over three UK universities and nine sub-projects. Ann has been the PI for the ‘Cross-craft interaction in the cross-cultural context of the Late Bronze Age East Mediterranean’ project, based at Tiryns, Greece (via Leicester University) and Dr. M. Vetters worked on the project from 2009-13 as research associate. Currently, Ann is finalizing the co-authored monograph on this project: ‘Tracing Local, Regional and Interregional Craft Networks Viewed through a Technological  Lens at Late Bronze Age Tiryns. A Comparative Mycenaean Workshop Study. Universitätsforschungen zur Prähistorischen Archäologie. Reihe Heidelberg. Bonn: Rudolf Habelt’.

Teaching activities

Ann has been teaching regularly since 1994, both in the field (first aid for finds on excavations), hands-on and preventive conservation in field and museum laboratories, and in university courses: in class room, in the field and distance learning (Leicester, Glasgow, Bordeaux, Amsterdam). She developed and taught both practical and theoretical courses in the fields of conservation and heritage, Aegean, Greek and East Mediterranean Archaeology, Theory in Archaeology, Ancient Materials and Technologies in the Ancient Greek World, and many others. In Leiden Ann has been (co)teaching in both BA and MA programmes in Material Culture Studies and World Archaeology (Mediterranean Archaeology).

Curriculum Vitae

• 2018- Professor of Ancient Technologies, Materials and Crafts, Leiden University, Fac. of Archaeology, The Netherlands, (LU, FdA).
• 2015-20 Principal Investigator of project: SETinSTONE. Awarded an ERC Consolidator grant. LU, FdA
• 2018-20 Expert member of the International Research Program: ‘Material Entanglements in the Ancient Mediterranean and Beyond’. PIs: prof. M. Feldman (J. Hopkins University, USA), dr. A. Zournatzi (National Research Foundation, Athens, Greece). Funding: J.P. Getty Foundation.
• Athens, Greece). Funding: J.P. Getty Foundation.
• 2016- Member of the Conseil Scientifique International du LaScArBx, University of Bordeaux Montaigne.
• 2015-12/2017 Associate Professor, Material Culture Studies & Archaeological Sciences, LU, FdA.
• 2016-2018 Director of Research, LU, FdA.
• 01-06/2015 Lecturer in Archaeological Sciences, School of Humanities (Archaeology), University of Glasgow, Scotland.
• 2008-2013/4 Principal Investigator of: ‘Cross-Craft Interaction at Tiryns, Greece’ and co-initiator of the ‘Tracing Networks in the Mediterranean and Beyond’ project, funded by Leverhulme Research Grant. Universities of Leicester, Glasgow, and Exeter.
• 2014 Invited Professor, University of Bordeaux Montaigne, Maison Ausonius and LaScArBx, France.
• 2013-15 Senior Marie Curie – Gerda Henkel Research Fellow, M4Human Programme. LU, FdA.
• 2010-13 Senior A. von Humboldt Research Fellow, University of Heidelberg, Germany.
• 2009-13 Academic course tutor for the Distance Learning (DL) MA programme, University of Leicester, School of Museum Studies.
• 2008-12 Professor in Ancient Greek Studies, DIKEMES, Athens, Greece.
• 2004-2009 Lecturer of Archaeology & Anthropology, Collections Care. Programme Director of the DL courses, University of Leicester, Dept. of Museum Studies.
• 2000-2004 PhD degree, University of Glasgow. Supervision: Dr. R.E. Jones, Prof. A.B. Knapp.
• 1998 ICCROM Course: Conservation of Mural Paintings and Related Architectural Surfaces, Rome, Italy.
• 1993-1996 BSc. in Archaeological Conservation, Institute of Archaeology, U.C.L. London, UK.
• 02-04/1991 Erasmus Exchange Programme, Egyptology, Universitat Autonoma & Universitat de Barcelona, Spain.
• 10/1987-09/92 M.A. in Archaeology, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven-Belgium. Major in Egyptian and Aegean Archaeology

Publications

Activities