Mink W. van IJzendoorn is a PhD candidate and is involved in teaching at the Faculty of Archaeology in Leiden. He studies cycles of socioeconomic innovation and decline across the Mediterranean world. Mink’s research revolves around premodern pottery, most notably transport amphorae. Thematically, he is concerned with change and continuation, containerisation, and maritime connectivity. Mink teaches Late Roman, medieval and early modern archaeology of Europe and the Mediterranean.

More information about Mink van IJzendoorn

Office days

Monday to Friday

Research

I am a PhD candidate and a teacher at the Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University. My research concerns the causes and consequences of past innovation and globalisation processes. I study connectivity, commodification and containerisation and the social and economic impact thereof, as seen through the 'flows' of persons, ideas, and objects. I use archaeological data and theory to see how human mobility and interaction came about, how this linked dispersed local groups, and how mutual influence and interdependence took place. For this, I investigate the decline and end of the amphora tradition and its ‘replacement’ by alternative container types, packaging styles and transport strategies, and the broader implications of this major transition for travel and trade.

I have been involved in several international research and teaching in Greece, Turkey, Italy and Albania. The projects include (post-)fieldwork studies at Chalcis (Euboea), Almyros (Thessaly), Agios Vasilios (Peloponnese), Ephesus (Ionia), Shkodër (North-Albania), Sardis (Lydia) and Gortyn (Crete).

I am also involved in material studies in the Netherlands. As such, I have been involved in the ‘Kennemerland in metaalvondsten’-project of the North-Holland centre of archaeology ‘Huis van Hilde’. Furthermore, I am involved in the ‘Leiden Inventory Depot'-project in the Faculty of Archaeology.

Teaching activities

The subjects I teach include premodern economies and trade networks, Byzantium, the Crusades and, more generally, Europe and the Mediterranean from post-Roman to post-medieval times, seen from an archaeological perspective. The emphasis lies on medieval and early modern socioeconomic development and (inter)regional connectivity by sea regarding the Mediterranean world and beyond.

I have been involved in teaching at the KNIR (Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome) in the BA and MA course ‘Byzantine Rome: Unknown Archaeology and History of the Eternal City (400-1000 AD)’.

Curriculum vitae

I studied archaeology at the Faculty of Archaeology, specialising in the Roman provinces, the Middle Ages and the modern period, and the prehistory of Europe. During my MA in 2016, I focused on eastern Mediterranean archaeology and medieval ceramic studies. Since 2018, I have been involved in research and education at the Faculty. In 2023, I started my PhD research, supervised by Prof. Dr. Miguel John Versluys and Prof. Dr. Pieter ter Keurs.

Publications