Patrick Degryse is part-time professor at the Leiden Faculty of Archaeology, as well as full professor at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.

More information about Patrick Degryse

Office days

Tuesdays (mostly)

Research

My research focuses on the exploitation and use of industrial minerals and ores in ancient times. In particular, my group develops way of fingerprinting raw materials, so that their origin and use in man-made materials can be reconstructed. Especially isotope ratio approaches are important in this research, though we also use other geochemical methods next to petrography and mineralogy.

We often analyse ancient artefacts, but also look at modern-day materials, to reconstruct how they were made, and which raw materials were used. In this way, we can place objects and their raw materials in space and time, or inter compare them on the basis of their chemical or mineralogical composition, or texture.

We develop these methods with the primary purpose to understand ancient technology, reconstruct ancient economies, and assess the use, exchange and trade of materials, but this also finds applications in sediment tracking, environmental research, forensics or engineering.

Teaching activities

Courses taught in Leiden and Leuven include general  geology, analytical and isotope geochemistry and archaeological science, next to study of ancient materials and fakes and forgeries

Curriculum vitae

Patrick Degryse is full professor (ordinarius) at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium) and part-time professor (Hoogleraar) at Leiden University (the Netherlands). His research is done at the division Geology of the KU Leuven and he is director of the Centre for Archaeological Sciences (CAS) there. Outside the laboratory, Patrick is active in several field projects in the eastern Mediterranean and the Caribbean. He is an A. von Humboldt Fellow and European Research Council Grantee, and is chair-elect of the Standing Committee of the International Symposium on Archaeometry. He is supervisor of 20 finished doctorates (with currently 4 PhD’s ongoing), and over 40 Ma and MSc theses in archaeology and geology.

Publications