Samatar (Sam) Ahmed Botan is a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Archaeology.

More information about Sam Botan

Office days

Monday to Thursday

Research

Samatar (Sam) Ahmed Botan’s PhD is centered around Aksumite ceramics and aims to create a more detailed and nuanced understanding of the Afro-Eurasian maritime trade routes in the first half of the first millennium CE and therefore provide for more a comprehensive understanding of the role of the Aksumite Empire as integral part of the Indian Ocean trade networks.

This is achieved through archaeometric and statistical analyses of ceramic datasets attesting to Aksumite trade activity in multiple regions from East Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and the Indian Subcontinent. The results will be compared to textual data and interpreted within the frameworks of ancient globalization and network theory. Thus, the research will offer a substantial archaeological overview of the flux of Aksumite trade activity as part of local and global exchange networks, which in turns allows for the reconstruction of actual Aksumite trade routes, as well as for the interpretative study of Aksumite patterns in ancient material cultural interactions.

This PhD is conducted as part of the broader research project Routes of Exchange, Roots of Connectivity, which is headed by Dr. Marike van Aerde.

Simultaneously, Sam continues to be involved in projects in the Persian Gulf as a ceramics specialist, such as the Hili 14 project and the Understanding Prehistoric Settlement Dynamics at Shimal project.  His extensive experience with archaeological fieldwork has so far included campaigns in Syria, Portugal, Kurdistan, Oman  and the United Arab Emirates, and he has co-authored several academic publications and excavation reports from sites in Oman.

Sam previously completed his Bachelor's and Master's degrees at the Faculty of Archaeology in Leiden, as well as a secondary Research Master's at the Sultan Qaboos University in Muscat, Oman.

Teaching activities

Up till the start of his PhD reserach, Sam has been giving guided tours and online classes to children and adults alike on ancient Egypte, ancient Greece and acient Near East at the Rijksmuseum voor Oudheden in Leiden.

He has also given several guest lectures to undergraduates on the Early Bronze and Iron Age of Oman, while doing his Research Master's at the Sultan Qaboos University

Curriculum vitae

• 2009: 8 weeks of internship at Tell Sabi Abyad in Syria.
• 2010: 4 weeks of internship at Koroneia, Boeotia in Greece
• 2013: 4 weeks of internship at Viseu in Portugal
• 2013: 4 weeks of internship at Tell Begum in Iraqi Kurdistan
• 2015: 4 weeks of internship at Wadi al Jizzi Archaeological Project (WAJAP) in Oman
• 2015: 6 weeks of internship at Rustaq Wilyat in Oman
• 2016: 4 weeks of internship at Wadi al Jizzi Archaeological Project (WAJAP)  in Oman
• 2017: 8 weeks as ceramic specialist and Finds Director on the Rustaq Batinah Archaeological Survey (RBAS) in Oman.
• 2017: 4 weeks as ceramic specialist on the Wadi al Jizzi Archaeological Project (WAJAP)  in Oman.
• 2018: 6 weeks as ceramic specialist and Finds Director on the Rustaq Batinah Archaeological Survey (RBAS) in Oman.
• 2018: 4 weeks as ceramic specialist on the Wadi al Jizzi Archaeological Project (WAJAP)  in Oman.
• 2019: 3 weeks as ceramic specialist and Finds Director on the Rustaq Batinah Archaeological Survey (RBAS) in Oman.
• 2019: 6 weeks as ceramic specialist on the project Understanding Prehistoric Settlement Dynamics at Shimal in the United Arab Emirates.
• 2020: 8 weeks as ceramic specialist on the Hili 14 Archaeological Project in the United Arab Emirates.

Publications