Lennart Kruijer returns to Archaeology: ‘It’s good to be back!’
After a three-year absence, Lennart Kruijer has returned to the Faculty of Archaeology. He previously completed his PhD within the VICI project Innovating Objects, and now returns as a postdoctoral researcher in the Anchoring Innovation programme.
Istanbul and Exeter
‘I’ve been away for three years. First, I spent a year in Istanbul with an ANAMED Fellowship (Koç University), where I completed my monograph. After that, I got a permanent position in Exeter as an Assistant Professor, which I really enjoyed. But for family reasons, I wanted to return to the Netherlands fairly quickly.’
The application process for his current postdoc position was intense, he shares: ‘Naturally, it was all through the official channels, with an interview and presentation – including with Professor Ineke Sluiter, the project leader. In the end, it worked out. It’s incredibly nice to be back.’
A different researcher
Lennart feels he has grown as a researcher. ‘I believe I’m a different researcher than I was three years ago when I left. My time in Istanbul and Exeter broadened my perspective, especially in how textual and material approaches can be integrated.’
Home decoration
His new research focuses on the embedding and impact of innovations in floor and architectural decoration in Commagene (southeastern Turkey), with a long-term focus on three archaeological sites from 300 BCE to 200 CE.
‘For example, we’re looking at the introduction of tessellated mosaics in the second century BCE: how was such a new technique successfully anchored in existing, familiar practices, and what intended and unintended consequences did it bring forth? This aligns with the concept of Anchoring Innovation, but I’m also trying to take it a step further by exploring the active role objects play in such anchoring strategies.’
This relevance spans all eras, even today’s world. ‘Innovations need to gain local meaning to be successful. This might be somewhat hopeful for people who currently feel overwhelmed by the globalized world, being faced with new ideas, objects and technologies at lightning speed. Even in antiquity, people had agency and managed to make innovations their own on a local level. At the same time, we also see that innovations can be demanding and even treacherous, like a kind of Trojan horse.’
‘For instance, the production of mosaic floors depended on an increasingly trans-local network of quarries and specialized, traveling workshops; such dependency naturally also creates vulnerability.’