1,738 search results for “ancient dna” in the Public website
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200 years Archaeology
200 years ago, in 1818, Caspar Reuvens was appointed Professor in Archaeology at Leiden University. This was effectively the start of the academic study of archaeology in the Netherlands. To celebrate this occasion, the faculty organises events related to the future of archaeology throughout the yea…
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Resolving a bioindicator diatom species complex using genomic approaches for freshwater biomonitoring
This thesis pioneers diatom molecular identification and quantification through genome-scale methods, with four key aims: (i) reviewing DNA/RNA sequencing methods in aquatic biomonitoring to highlight their strengths and limitations;
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Integrating cellular and tissue dynamics with cell fate decisions through computational modeling
There is a need for alternative methods to replace, reduce and refine (3R) animal experimentation. Combining experimental data from high-throughput in vitro studies with in silico modeling is a promising approach to unravel the effect of chemicals on living cells and to gain a better understanding of…
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Just published: The Materiality of Texts from Ancient Egypt
Just published:
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Political Memory in and after the Persian Empire
An interdisciplinary study of the Persian Period
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Saqqara Excavations and Fieldschool (Egypt)
Our recent excavations have focused on the more recent New Kingdom/Late Period (ca. 1500-332 BCE) material.
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Gli artigiani e la città
Over the last decades, the systematic investigation of urban settlements in Central-Tyrrhenian Italy led to the discovery of a growing number of contexts revealing both direct and indirect evidence of artisanal workshops. Such research commitment has yielded a vast amount of new data that greatly contribute…
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Nucleosome stacking in chromatin fibers probed with single-molecule force- and torque-spectroscopy
In human cells, a meter-long DNA is condensed inside a micrometer-sized cell nucleus. Simultaneously, the genetic code must remain accessible for its replication and transcription to functional proteins.
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Woolly rhino site reveals ancient British temperature
Scientists, including our faculty colleague Dr. Mike Field, studying an exceptionally well-preserved woolly rhinoceros have revealed details of what Britain's environment was like 42,000 years ago. The beast's remains were discovered in Staffordshire in 2002, buried alongside other preserved organisms…
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Berkel receives Vidi for research into economics and anthropology in ancient Greece
University lecturer Tazuko van Berkel has obtained a Vidi grant of 800,000 euros. This will enable her to research the image of man that emerges from economic texts from ancient Greece.
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Course: Introduction to Ancient Egypt (7-26 May, 2018)
Do you live in Egypt and have you always wondered about all the pharaonic heritage surrounding you? This spring NVIC organizes a beginner’s level, introductory course in Egyptology. In 6 richly illustrated lessons, the history of ancient Egypt will be brought to life, both chronologically as well as…
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Claiming Ancient Rome’s Heritage: Translatio imperii as an Anchoring Device in the Neo-Latin Poetry of Florence in the Age of Lorenzo de’ Medici
In Renaissance Florence, humanists wrote Latin poems fashioning their city as the new Rome, and members of the Medici family as Roman rulers. How can we explain this practice?
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Radboud Ancient and Medieval Lecture Series (Feb-June 2024)
The chair group of Ancient and Medieval History at the Radboud University organizes a series of lectures that are held between February and June 2024. The exact dates and titles can be found in the programme below.
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Leiden researchers organise first Week of Ancient Writing
This month marks the two-hundredth anniversary of the deciphering of Egyptian hieroglyphic writing. NINO, the Language Museum, Things that Talk and the National Museum of Antiquities are seizing the opportunity to organise the first Week of Ancient Writing.
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Ancient populations pioneered the idea of recycling waste
The circular economy is typically seen as the progressive alternative to our wasteful linear economy, where raw materials are used to make the products that feed today’s rampant consumerist hunger, which are then thrown away. In a fascinating article, archaeologist Maikel Kuijpers reflects on the recycling…
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Coping with Versnel: A Roundtable on Religion and Magic
Henk Versnel's work on ancient religion has been seminal. For his 80th birthday, a group of scholars assembled to celebrate and analyze his oeuvre.
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Ancient water management and field systems in southern Jordan
About 15 km to the south of the ancient city of Petra, archaeologists from the University of Leiden have discovered an impressive network of ancient water conservation measures and irrigated field systems.
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Investigating ancient irrigation tunnels with a remote controlled car
In ancient times, the desert in the Udhruh region in Jordan was transformed into a green oasis. An intricate network of underground water channels was part of an ancient system of water management, storing water and preventing loss through evaporation. Archaeologist Mark Driessen found a new way to…
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Foreign Minorities in Babylonia in the 7th–5th Centuries BCE
This PhD project studies immigrant groups in ancient Babylonia and aims at investigating their identities, socioeconomic status, and integration into an ancient multicultural society.
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Innovative research offers new insight into ancient infant feeding practices
New sampling and analytical strategies give archaeologists a better understanding of the nutrition and survival of ancient populations. Publication in PLOS One.
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Executive Board column: Our institutes abroad are part of our international DNA
Ever since its foundation, Leiden University has turned its gaze outwards to other cultures, languages and forms of academic practice. It is only natural, therefore, that we as a university have four institutes abroad: the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV-KNAW)…
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Approaching ancient Assyria through archaeology leads to new insights
Dr Bleda Düring deemed it was time for an archaeological approach on the imperialisation of Assyria. ‘While there are lot of archaeological studies of Assyrian sites, they are not really trying to address this broader picture of imperialism and how this imperialisation actually worked.’ These imperialisation…
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Ancient Greek decision making with help from the gods
In the world of Ancient Greece the interpretation of supernatural signs was a versatile tool to facilitate decision-making. This is the central hypothesis of the PhD dissertation of historian Kim Beerden. Defence on 14 February.
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Reception in Nietzsche’s Concept of Amor Fati
To what extent can Nietzsche's Amor Fati be seen as a Stoic concept?
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Podcast Finally Friday with ancient-fire expert Femke Reidsma
Pyrotechnology – the manipulation and control of fire – is one of the defining characteristics of humanity, and has impacted nearly every technology that we used in the past and study archaeologically in the present. Our PhD researcher Femke Reidsma joined EXARC's podcast for May’s #FinallyFriday to…
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Archaeological explorations in Jordan unveil traces of ancient caravan routes
Systematic aerial surveys carried out in Jordan’s Eastern Badia region since 1998 and about 10 years of simplified satellite image analysis have led to the discovery of multiple prehistoric sites, according to archaeologist Peter Akkermans. The Jordan Times interviewed him about the new insights.
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Reuse of Tombs in Eastern Arabia
The main focus of this research project is to investigate why people in Eastern Arabia chose to reuse ancient tombs and how this can be linked to collective memory.
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Macrophage activation and cholesterol accumulation in atherosclerosis development
Promotores: Prof. Dr. Th.J.C. van Berkel, Prof. Dr. M. van Eck
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Leiden archaeologist discovers unique ancient horse grave in Sudan
A unique archeological find near Tombos in Northern Sudan. Archaeologist Sarah Schrader from Leiden University, working with a team of international researchers, has discovered a grave of a ritually buried horse that is over 3000 years old. Both the grave and the skeleton are in perfect condition. The…
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Systematics, Epidermal defense and Bioprospecting of Wild Orchids
This thesis presents the systematics, epidermal defense, and bioprospecting of wild orchids.
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Irene Vikatou
Faculteit Archeologie
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Persia and Babylonia: Creating a New Context for Understanding the Emergence of the First World Empire
The Persian Empire (539-330 BCE) was the first world empire in history. At its height, it united a territory stretching from present-day India to Libya - and it would take 2,000 years before significantly larger empires emerged in early modern Eurasia. This territorial sweep is both a source of fascination…
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3 October University: from Russian DNA to drug-related violence
In prehistoric times there was a huge wave of migration, from the steppes in Russia and Ukraine to West Europe. The newcomers’ genes began to dominate. Archaeology research in Leiden into burial mounds in the Veluwe and Utrechtse Heuvelrug areas of the Netherlands yielded this spectacular conclusion.…
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From Sasanian Mandaeans to Sabians of the Marshes
This historical study argues that the Mandaean religion originated under Sasanid rule in the fifth century, not earlier as has been widely accepted. It analyzes primary sources in Syriac, Mandaic, and Arabic to clarify the early history of Mandaeism.
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Fungi of the greening Arctic: compositional and functional shifts in response to climatic changes
Promotor: E.F. Smets Co-promotor: J. Geml
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Gene regulation in embryonic development
The human body consists of hundreds, perhaps thousands of different types of cells, each with different morphologies and functions, despite having the same genome.
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Comparative ecology and genetics of sympatric wild cats in relation to human wildlife conflict in Bardia National Park, Nepal
What is the population size/structure and distribution of tiger and leopard inside the Bardia National Park (BNP) compared with the population outside? What is the movement and home range and conflict pattern in time and space of tigers and leopards inside the BNP compared with outside? What constitutes…
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By the rivers of Babylon: New perspectives on Second Temple Judaism from Cuneiform texts
“BABYLON” investigates the extent of the similarities between Babylonian and post-exilic forms of cultic and social organization and explores the question how Babylonian models could have influenced the restoration effort in Jerusalem.
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Can we live longer? Leiden physicist makes discovery in protective layer in genes
With the aid of physics and a minuscule magnet, researchers have discovered a new structure of telomeric DNA. Telomeres are sometimes seen as the key to living longer. They protect genes from damage but get a bit shorter each time a cell divides. If they become too short, the cell dies. The new discovery…
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Integrative taxonomy of araneomorph spiders: Breathing new life into an old science
Taxonomy as a science has accumulated data and knowledge for more than 250 years.
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Proteins are not distributed equally in ancient teeth
In a study led by Leiden alumnus Jan Dekker, based on his research master’s thesis, he applied Mass Spectrometry Imaging to archaeological human teeth. The research shows that there are large differences in the intensity of proteins across the teeth, opening new avenues of investigation.
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Digging up new information from ancient Chinese texts
How were ideas about politics and society distributed in ancient China? Hilde De Weerdt, Professor of Chinese History, investigates this using new digital methods. We speak with her about networks, big data and digital humanities.
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Biophysicists unravel exact folding of a single gene
The way genes are folded determines their activity in our body. Leiden biophysicists are now the first to unravel this structure molecule-by-molecule. Publication on December 1st in Nature’s Scientific Reports.
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The rise of a capital: on the development of al-Fusṭāṭ‘s relationship with its hinterland, 18/639-132/750
This thesis studies the relationship of the town al-Fusṭāṭ, located at the southern end of the Nile delta in Egypt, and its hinterland in the period between the town’s foundation in A.D. 641 and the arrival of the Abbasids in 750.
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Two graphene layers lean in for a kiss
Leiden physicists and chemists have managed to bring two graphene layers so close together that an electric current spontaneously jumps across. In the future this could enable scientists to study the edges of graphene and use them for sequencing DNA with a precision beyond existing technologies. Publication…
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Ancient fire expert Femke Reidsma on Tea-Break Time Travel Podcast
In her podcast Tea-Break Time Travel Matilda Siebrecht is joined by fire expert Femke Reidsma, to talk all about how this essential tool was made and used by our ancient human ancestors. How can you recognise an ancient hearth? Why is it so important to study the first use of fire? When was the first…
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Archaeology
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.
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‘Even Ancient and Medieval ideas can help the Modern World’
Ahab Bdaiwi, University Lecturer of Islamic history, religion and philosophy, was received the first Faculty Impact Award. His interest lies in ‘everything that has to do with antiquity’, especially the religious and philosophical ideas that arose at that time. ‘They can move people. And many of those…
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Beyond Egyptomania: Objects, Style and Agency
The material and intellectual presence of Egypt is at the heart of Western culture, religion and art from Antiquity to the present. This volume aims to provide a long term and interdisciplinary perspective on Egypt and its mnemohistory, taking theories on objects and their agency as its main point of…
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Tilling and manuring prehistoric and early historic fields in western Europe
Since the adoption of agriculture people have cultivated fields. The project concerns all kinds of aspects related to raising crops.