Sarah Cramsey, Special Chair for Central European Studies and Assistant Professor of Judaism and Diaspora studies, recently received an ERC grant for historical research into early child care in Central and Eastern Europe. In this short interview, she will give some more information on her grant, her…

Learn about the newest research from the researchers who are performing it.

Get the most out of your studies at Leiden University by taking part in our extracurricular activities.

Find out how to apply for Hebrew and Aramaic Studies (research) at Leiden University by following our step-by step guide.

Find out how to apply for Assyriology (research) at Leiden University by following our step-by step guide.

The Archaeology of Imperial Landscapes examines the transformation of rural landscapes and societies that formed the backbone of ancient empires in the Near East and Mediterranean. Through a comparative approach to archaeological data, it analyses the patterns of transformation in widely differing imperial…

Inspired by a critical reconsideration of current monolithic approaches to the study of Greek religion, this book argues that ancient Greeks displayed a disquieting capacity to validate two (or more) dissonant, if not contradictory, representations of the divine world in a complementary rather than…

The Leiden Papyrological Institute is the only papyrological institute in the Netherlands. The members of our staff publish Greek (and Latin), Demotic (and Abnormal-Hieratic) and Coptic papyri from collections all over the world, including our own collection.

Find out how to apply for Assyriology at Leiden University by following our step-by step guide.

Find out how to apply for Classics at Leiden University by following our step-by step guide.

News, events, announcements, social media and more about the building of the new Middle Eastern Library in Leiden

Find out how to apply for Classics (research) at Leiden University by following our step-by step guide.

Find out how to apply for Egyptology at Leiden University by following our step-by step guide.

Find out how to apply for Hebrew and Aramaic Studies at Leiden University by following our step-by step guide.

Find out how to apply for Egyptology (research) at Leiden University by following our step-by step guide.

To be eligible for Egyptology at Leiden University, you must meet the following admission requirements.

Neuroscientist Anne Urai has been awarded a Veni subsidy to further develop her ideas over the coming four years on how the brain makes choices. Why did she receive the award? Urai answers five questions about her Veni grant for young researchers.

A marvelous mosaic synagogue floor has been discovered at the Israeli excavation site of Horvat Kur. The timeworn stones of the mosaic clearly form the name ‘El’azar’. Leiden University researcher Jürgen Zangenberg and a group of Leiden students played a role in the excavation. ‘El’azar was likely an…

Arts and culture

Professor Caroline Vout, Cambridge University, was awarded the Leiden University Byvanck Chair in 2020. In a pre-Covid-19 world, the Byvanck Chair would stay in Leiden for seminars, lectures, and research activities. Instead, the pandemic disrupted this schedule. Last month, Vout taught her masterclass…

Professor Sandra Groeneveld’s inaugural lecture is getting closer. On May 27 she will deliver her lecture called: “The relevance of bureaucracy. How to deal with ambivalence in public management”. Ahead of this inaugural lecture, professor Groeneveld gave us an interview last week. In this interview…

At the Faculty of Archaeology, we investigate the development of human societies worldwide, from the earliest beginnings to modern times. We also study the heritage of mankind, which evokes this deep history, and which connects with, and informs, contemporary society.

The Leiden Papyrological Institute is the only papyrological institute in the Netherlands, and one of the few institutes in the world where study of Greek and Demotic Egyptian is combined. This is reflected in both teaching and research. Members of the Institute are active in publishing texts from various…

Tracking early human behaviour through plant processing and -exploitation.

Mazatec chants and ancient Mesoamerican pictography

How can theories about modern disinformation help to understand how Roman documentary fictions functioned?

To be eligible for the MA Ancient History at Leiden University, you must meet the following admission requirements.

To be eligible for Hebrew and Aramaic Studies at Leiden University, you must meet the following admission requirements.

On 3 March 2021 Zuzana Vikarská presented some of her work in progress research at the Europa Institute's

Conference, Penn-Leiden Colloquium on Ancient Values XIII

This project receives funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101054849 (PURANA).

This seminal volume covers the entire global history of urbanization since the rise of cities in Mesopotamia in the 6th millennium BC. Leiden historians Wim Blockmans, Leonard Blussé, Luuk de Ligt and Leo Lucassen contributed survey and thematic chapters.

Papyrology+, founded in 2014, is a collaboration of Leiden scholars studying (Abnormal) Hieratic, Demotic, Aramaic, Greek, Latin, Coptic, and Arabic papyri from a socio-historical, economic and linguistic perspective. Papyrology+ aims to explore new opportunities and directions in the study of ancient…

PhD candidate Jonathan Ouellet is a guest on the latest episode of the Wetenschappelijke Wezens podcast. As a researcher specializing in the numismatics of the Middle East, Central Asia, and China, Jonathan discusses currency and trade networks during the Early Islamic Period of said area. Hence, listen…

As an artist Clevis is fascinated by the phenomenon of place in relation to beginnings and final destinations.

The prehistory of communication metaphors

Memoria de un Paisaje Sagrado

This project focuses on urban commercial space in Roman Italy and deals with the impact of economic growth on urban communities in the late Republic and the Imperial period (200 BCE – 300 CE).

Lecture, Digital Archaeology Group

For thirty years, the Dutch Newspaper AD conducted an annual search for the best herring. This came to an end when economist Ben Vollaard, based on a statistical analysis, claimed it was rigged. But that claim doesn't smell right, says Leiden statistician Richard Gill. ‘The way you code and process…