It is often claimed that the mortuary traditions that appeared in lowland Britain in the fifth century AD are an expression of new forms of ethnic identity, based on the putative memorialisation of a ‘Germanic’ heritage. This article considers the empirical basis for this assertion and evaluates it in the light of previously proposed ethnic con…[Read more]

This essay is an examination of Udjahorresnet’s Persian identity. Best known from the inscription on his naophorous statue now in the Vatican, Udjahorresnet was a high-ranking courtier in Egypt under the Saite pharaohs Amasis and Psamtik III, and subsequently under the Persian kings Cambyses and Darius. While his statue’s form, function and ins…[Read more]

This chapter explains the process by which the Linear B writing system was deciphered and shown to record a form of the Greek language, discussing the contributions of Emmett L Bennett, Alice E. Kober, Michael Ventris, and John Chadwick.

More than 60 years after Michael Ventris’ decipherment of Linear B, 14 of its syllabic signs remain ‘undeciphered’: despite many proposals to assign sound-values to these signs, none has yet been officially accepted. This paper is based on part of a study investigating new approaches to these undeciphered signs: as signs which cannot yet be read…[Read more]

This article re-examines the evidence for the value of the Linear B sign pu2, in particular its appearance in the term da-pu2-ri-to- ‘labyrinth’, and demonstrates that it stands specifically for the value /phu/ (contrary to the usual assumption that it represents both /phu/ and /bu/). It then discusses the further implications of this con…[Read more]

This is the accepted version of the paper; the published version is available at doi.org/10.1075/wll.00025.jud (or by contacting me). This paper investigates the issue of orthographic variation in the Linear B writing system in order to explore ways in which studying a writing system’s orthographic conventions may shed light on the history of i…[Read more]

The International Style is a theoretical model used to describe various objects from the Eastern Mediterranean Late Bronze Age that exhibit hybrid diagnostic features (iconography, media, form). Resulting in the inability for archaeologists over the past 150 years to identify cultural source. This paper is a reprint of the chapter on colour…[Read more]

PhD thesis, Freiburg im Breisgau 1999. On political institution in the Phoenician coastal cities

On Babylonia in the Seleucid Empire

This is the paper I gave at the Public Archaeology Twitter Conference 5 (2020). The conference theme was public archaeology in lockdown. The paper is about my digital landscape archaeology intervention called #DailySarsen which began on 6 April 2020 during the Covid-19 emergency. It focusses on one specific sarsen stone in Wiltshire (UK) and takes…[Read more]

Das Bild von Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftlern ist heute recht ambivalent und schwankt zwischen Heldinnen/Helden und Mad Scientists, nicht selten abhängig von der wissenschaftlichen Disziplin. Ausgehend von zwei Amateurarchäologen – Heinrich Schliemann und Ernst Boetticher –, die zudem aufgrund unterschiedlicher Deutungen einer archä…[Read more]

Historical and archaeological topics have been very popular for many years. This is witnessed by a variety of events and developments, as for example by time travel formats on television as well as by such performances at historic sites or at open-air museums. These historical performances and affective adoptions – bodily and sensual experiences t…[Read more]

This paper is a new examination of the original find context of the Saqqara lion tables (CG 1321–2) in ‘Gallery C’, an underground structure in the Step Pyramid complex. The substructure may date to the 1st millennium BCE, and this structure was likely part of an embalming complex for the Apis or other sacred animals. The adjacent Western Galle…[Read more]

This paper is a new examination of the original find context of the Saqqara lion tables (CG 1321–2) in ‘Gallery C’, an underground structure in the Step Pyramid complex. The substructure may date to the 1st millennium BCE, and this structure was likely part of an embalming complex for the Apis or other sacred animals. The adjacent Western Galle…[Read more]

The Egypt Exploration Society archive contains unpublished pencil drawings by A. Klasens of seal impressions found in the Step Pyramid complex of Saqqara. Digitally inked versions of these drawings are published here for the first time. The seal impressions can be sourced to the Northern Galleries of the complex. The impressions were sealed on…[Read more]

The Egypt Exploration Society archive contains unpublished pencil drawings by A. Klasens of seal impressions found in the Step Pyramid complex of Saqqara. Digitally inked versions of these drawings are published here for the first time. The seal impressions can be sourced to the Northern Galleries of the complex. The impressions were sealed on…[Read more]

Mémoire de master : analyse spatiale de sites protohistoriques d’Istrie (Croatie).

Masters thesis on systematic field survey in archaeology (Part 3: bibliography and appendices)

Masters thesis on systematic field survey in archaeology (Part 2 : survey of Bujstina area, Istria (Croatia))

Ancient astronaut speculation (also called paleo-SETI), often labeled pseudoscience or modern myth, still awaits in-depth research. Focusing on Erich von Däniken and reconstructing his views on god and cosmology from scattered statements throughout his books, this article analyzes his attitudes toward science and religion as well as his concepts…[Read more]