Nina Jaspers is a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Archaeology.

More information about Nina Jaspers

Office days

No fixed days.

Research

Nina Jaspers completed her MA-thesis on 16th- and 17th-century Italian imported ceramic from Dutch soil in 2007 at the University of Amsterdam. Prof. dr. J.H.G. Gawronski and S. Ostkamp MA coordinated the research, which resulted in a classification model for Italian ceramics among Dutch archaeological finds.

She continued this research which will result in a PhD-thesis at Leiden University. The classification model focusses on providing the correct attributions concerning decorative groups, provenance and dating Italian ánd French tin glazed ceramics that archaeologists encounter in Dutch soil. Several hypotheses on provenance from this research have been tested and confirmed by conducting various types of archaeometric analyses (pXRF, SEM-EDS, ICP-MS) by Simone Casale in cooperation with the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands. The cultural and economic exchange of these colourfully decorated imports will be placed in a broader international context.

The Dutch cesspits provide for extraordinarily well preserved finds. Most shards are refitted to more or less complete objects of imported table ware. Therefore, this dissertation will be richly illustrated and with the potential to be used internationally as a handbook for Italian and French export wares.

The research has been made possible thanks to stipendia, funds, assignments and prizes by the Ottema-Kingma Foundation/ GWO Foundation/ Istituto Universitario Olandese di Storia dell’Arte,  Florence (Italy)/ Modderman Foundation/ Elly Cassée Foundation/ Stichting Fries Aardewerk/ Stichting Het Nederlands Gebruiksvoorwerp/ H.J.E. van Beuningen Award.

Teaching activities

Workshops/ lectures/ classes/ thesis supervision for University of Amsterdam/ Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam/ Leiden University/ Saxion Hogeschool/ Cultural Heritage Agency/ Rijksmuseum/ Historical Archaeological Associations, on:

• (post-)medieval ceramics (ca. 1100-1850 AD)
• production and production waste of tin glazed ceramics in the Netherlands: Antwerp, Utrecht, Bergen op Zoom, Haarlem, Harlingen, Delft (16th-18th century)
• international maritime trade ceramics: Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French and Mexican maiolica and faience (16th-17th  century)
• interdisciplinary cooperation archaeometry and archaeology: historical ceramic production techniques and provenance analyses

Curriculum vitae

Nina Jaspers studied Medieval and Early Modern Archaeology at the University of Amsterdam (MA in 2007), with an Erasmus-year at the Universidade de Coimbra in Portugal. She also participated in archaeological excavations on a Dutch-Portuguese fortification on the Isle of Itamaracá in Brazil. She specialized in South-European tin glazed ceramics that have been imported into the Dutch Republic in the 16th and 17th centuries, and international maritime trade ceramics in general. During her studies she worked as a research assistant for the Servatius Project at the University of Amsterdam.

From 2006-2014 she worked as a specialist for medieval and early modern ceramics at ADC-ArcheoProjecten, where she analysed finds and wrote many reports on archaeological ceramics from the period between 900 AD until the subrecent past, excavated all over the Netherlands. In 2009 she founded Terra Cotta Incognita, an archaeological research and design studio for (post-)medieval material culture, while continuing at ADC ArcheoProjecten. Since 2014 she works fulltime for Terra Cotta Incognita.