Rogier Kalkers | University of Amsterdam (original) (raw)
Papers by Rogier Kalkers
TMA70, 2024
Despite increasingly stringent legal and ethical frameworks, the illicit trade in antiquities sti... more Despite increasingly stringent legal and ethical frameworks, the illicit trade in antiquities still flourishes. This concerns objects that have been illegally excavated, stolen or unlawfully exported from their country of modern discovery. The archaeological collections of the University of Amsterdam at the Allard Pierson include objects with a problematic or untraceable provenance. How did these objects end up in the collection and how will the Allard Pierson deal with this legacy? In this article we will take a closer look at the museum’s collection history, its changing policy with regard to the acquisition of antiquities, and the extensive provenance research project that it started in 2023. Several objects from the collection with problematic provenance histories will be presented to illustrate these issues.
Allard Pierson Magazine 129, 2024
Het voormalige Allard Pierson Museum, in 1934 opgericht als archeologisch museum, heeft sindsdien... more Het voormalige Allard Pierson Museum, in 1934 opgericht als archeologisch museum, heeft sindsdien een groot papieren archief opgebouwd. Het bevat een schat aan informatie voor het herkomstonderzoek naar de archeologische collecties, waarover in eerdere bijdragen in het Allard Pierson Magazine bericht is. De essentiële eerste stap in het herkomstproject bestaat uit het ontsluiten van dit interne archief. In deze bijdrage bieden we een kijkje achter de schermen
van dit archiefonderzoek, dat inmiddels bijna is afgerond.
Montagne e Archeologie, 2023
Challenging accessibility and visibility conditions limit our understanding of mountain sites in ... more Challenging accessibility and visibility conditions limit our understanding of mountain sites in the Apennine areas. Given the difficult terrain, the archaeological information currently at our disposal has, as a rule, been collected in a non-systematic way. This hampers comparison and integration within wider, regional landscape archaeological projects. In this paper, we present a field method applied to two mountain sites with different characteristics in the province of Isernia, Molise. The hillfort of La Romana near Castelromano presents monumental walls enclosing an area of c. 20 ha, and is almost fully covered with forest and shrubs. The site of Lo Monaco near Longano, is smaller, with c. 0.6 ha, and has a barren, rocky surface. We applied a systematic point sampling strategy, collecting all finds within circles with a 1 m radius, combined with diagnostic sampling in larger spatial units. We also used various remote sensing and fieldwork methods to map structural remains. This combined method aimed to strike a balance between adaptation to the particularities of different mountain sites, and comparability of the results. We offer a new reconstruction of the walled area(s) of La Romana, and propose a chronological and functional interpretation discerning an Archaic-Hellenistic phase and a Late Roman-Medieval phase. For Lo Monaco, we propose a main Classical-Hellenistic phase of the settlement, and present evidence for (semi)permanent habitation as well as metal-working at the site. We conclude that the point sampling method is labour-intensive, but effective in better understanding the internal configuration and chronological development of mountain sites. Keywords: Samnites; hillforts; mountain archaeology; archaeological survey; remote sensing.
Congreso Internacional Las villas romanas Bajoimperiales de Hispania – Actas, Palencia, 15-17 Noviembre 2018, 2020
The development of large, Roman-style villae have been seen as powerful illustrations of the cons... more The development of large, Roman-style villae have been seen as powerful illustrations of the consolidation of Roman administrative and economic control, even in supposed backwater territories in far- flung areas of the Roman Empire. Their demise, moreover, sheds light on the collapse of Roman con- trol and the appearance of new social realities. In this paper, we approach these research questions from the point of view of a new landscape archaeology project launched in 2018, researching North Alentejo (Portu- gal) from the Roman conquest to the Late Roman Em- pire. Our research, still work in progress, deploys non-destructive methods such as archaeological sur- vey, landscape photogrammetric reconstruction, ground penetrating radar (GPR) surveys and several excavation campaigns. Here, we preliminarily discuss the examples of Horta da Torre and Monte de São Francisco to illustrate the situation in this rural area in the Late Roman period.
FigShare, 2021
Soil maps, soil unit and soil profile descriptions, soil analyses, background information, connec... more Soil maps, soil unit and soil profile descriptions, soil analyses, background information, connected with soil map at scale 1:25,000 of the Upper Volturno Basin, Molise, Italy.
Supplementary dataset of paper: Van Otterloo & Sevink, 'Soils and soilscapes of the Upper Volturno Basin: A detailed survey of a large intermontane basin in the Central-Southern Apennines, Italy', Journal of Maps (2021), DOI: 10.1080/17445647.2021.1875064
Landscapes of Early Roman Colonization project.
Al-madan Online 22.3, 46-54., 2019
https://issuu.com/almadan/docs/al-madanonline22\_3
Brief overview in Italian of recent and ongoing fieldwork projects (survey, excavation, prospecti... more Brief overview in Italian of recent and ongoing fieldwork projects (survey, excavation, prospection) in ancient Samnium, modern Molise, including the Tappino Valley (Campobasso area), the territory of ancient Aesernia (modern Isernia), and the territory of ancient Larinum (modern Larino).
This paper presents the first results of a landscape archaeological project carried out in the te... more This paper presents the first results of a landscape archaeological project carried out in the territory of the ancient colony of Aesernia, modern Isernia, in Molise, Central-Southern Italy. The nature of Roman Republican colonization is currently heavily debated, and the field project aims to contribute to this discussion by investigating the non-urban aspect of a Roman Republican colony that was established in the midst of the Apennine mountains in 263 BC. Through a combination of extensive field surveys (seasons 2011-2013) and geological and geomorphological analysis, the preliminary results show the potential of a landscape archaeological approach and the diversity of settlement strategies within the colonized areas according to different landscape conditions.
The practice of using mobile survey applications (or a digital fieldwork assistant, dFA) has a tr... more The practice of using mobile survey applications (or a digital fieldwork assistant, dFA) has a tradition of more than a decade in the context of archaeological field survey. In their 2002 CAA paper “Educating the Digital Fieldwork Assistant”, Martijn van Leusen and Nick Ryan wrote extensively about the advantages and practicalities of using a digital field notebook combined with a GPS receiver for field surveys. The OpenArchaeoSurvey project is aimed at improving such applications, building on recent developments in mobile technology. The ‘open’ in our project stands for ‘open source software’, but also for allowing real-time data exchange and communication using the fieldwork application. In addition to the practical advantages, this creates the possibility for all participants to reflect on the collected data. Therefore, the development of the OpenArchaeoSurvey goes hand in hand with a tentative exploration of improved possibilities for Mobile Learning, or, how students can be ‘educated by the fieldwork assistant’.
Research introductions by Rogier Kalkers
Posters by Rogier Kalkers
Poster at Archaeological Prospection September 2015, presenting results from a combined approach ... more Poster at Archaeological Prospection September 2015, presenting results from a combined approach of gpr, resistivity, and magnetometer at a large, complex rural site in the territory of the colony Aesernia, founded by Rome 263 BC.
Conferences and Sessions by Rogier Kalkers
by Tesse D Stek, Andre Carneiro, Carlos Fabião, Emma Ljung, Jesus Garcia Sanchez, João Fonte, Manuel Fernández-Götz, Marco García Quintela, Pieter Houten, Victorino Mayoral Herrera, Rogier Kalkers, Lázaro Lagóstena, Mónica Rolo, Joey Williams, and Devi Taelman
The Faculty of Archaeology of Leiden University hosts an international conference on the archaeol... more The Faculty of Archaeology of Leiden University hosts an international conference on the archaeology of the Roman period in Portugal and its place in the Roman West. The conference brings together archaeologists and ancient historians from different academic backgrounds who are working in the Iberian peninsula and the wider Western Mediterranean. It aims to present new data and insights from various fields and approaches, and to discuss their significance for our understanding of Roman expansion and colonialism.
Five sessions revolve around new insights from landscape archaeological projects, developments in the economy, the process of military expansion, processes of centralization and urbanization, and the ritual and religious sphere. A key goal of the conference is to discuss how the Portuguese panorama compares to other areas in the Iberian peninsula, and to foreground its contribution to current debates about Roman expansion and incorporation in the Central and Western Mediterranean.
With a view to assess the potential of integrating best practices in archaeological approaches and methodology, different national and disciplinary research traditions and historical frameworks will be explicitly discussed. As such, the conference aims to explore ways to collaborate more closely between various Mediterranean areas and research projects, and to develop a shared research agenda.
Roman colonization and expansionism in the Republican period, and its impact on the ancient Medit... more Roman colonization and expansionism in the Republican period, and its impact on the ancient Mediterranean and beyond, are intensely debated in current ancient historical and archaeological research. Traditional, diffusionist views from the late 19th and especially the 20th century have recently been heavily criticized, and many socio-economic and cultural developments in ancient Italy (e.g. agricultural developments, 'romanization') have been disconnected from Roman conquest and expansionism. Although this development has been extremely important and salutary, this session departs from the idea that we should be careful not to throw away the baby with the bathwater. Very recent and ongoing research can be seen as pointing at real Roman impact in various spheres - if in different ways and places than often assumed. In this session, we investigate whether, and if so to what extent, we can invert the causal logic between a series of new socio-economic and cultural developments in the ancient Mediterranean and Roman colonization. In particular, we will explore the notion that Roman expansionism actively targeted hotspots in both economic ánd cultural networks of special interest in the conquered areas. Seeing local cultural resources at equal footing with more standard local economic resources, and exploring the ways the Roman conquest further enabled and energized these hotspots, stimulates us to rethink the primary workings of Roman expansionism.
Conference Presentations by Rogier Kalkers
Paper to be presented at the International Conference: "Las Villas ROmanas Bajoimperiales de Hisp... more Paper to be presented at the International Conference: "Las Villas ROmanas Bajoimperiales de Hispania", Palencia, del 15-17 de noviembre de 2018
TMA70, 2024
Despite increasingly stringent legal and ethical frameworks, the illicit trade in antiquities sti... more Despite increasingly stringent legal and ethical frameworks, the illicit trade in antiquities still flourishes. This concerns objects that have been illegally excavated, stolen or unlawfully exported from their country of modern discovery. The archaeological collections of the University of Amsterdam at the Allard Pierson include objects with a problematic or untraceable provenance. How did these objects end up in the collection and how will the Allard Pierson deal with this legacy? In this article we will take a closer look at the museum’s collection history, its changing policy with regard to the acquisition of antiquities, and the extensive provenance research project that it started in 2023. Several objects from the collection with problematic provenance histories will be presented to illustrate these issues.
Allard Pierson Magazine 129, 2024
Het voormalige Allard Pierson Museum, in 1934 opgericht als archeologisch museum, heeft sindsdien... more Het voormalige Allard Pierson Museum, in 1934 opgericht als archeologisch museum, heeft sindsdien een groot papieren archief opgebouwd. Het bevat een schat aan informatie voor het herkomstonderzoek naar de archeologische collecties, waarover in eerdere bijdragen in het Allard Pierson Magazine bericht is. De essentiële eerste stap in het herkomstproject bestaat uit het ontsluiten van dit interne archief. In deze bijdrage bieden we een kijkje achter de schermen
van dit archiefonderzoek, dat inmiddels bijna is afgerond.
Montagne e Archeologie, 2023
Challenging accessibility and visibility conditions limit our understanding of mountain sites in ... more Challenging accessibility and visibility conditions limit our understanding of mountain sites in the Apennine areas. Given the difficult terrain, the archaeological information currently at our disposal has, as a rule, been collected in a non-systematic way. This hampers comparison and integration within wider, regional landscape archaeological projects. In this paper, we present a field method applied to two mountain sites with different characteristics in the province of Isernia, Molise. The hillfort of La Romana near Castelromano presents monumental walls enclosing an area of c. 20 ha, and is almost fully covered with forest and shrubs. The site of Lo Monaco near Longano, is smaller, with c. 0.6 ha, and has a barren, rocky surface. We applied a systematic point sampling strategy, collecting all finds within circles with a 1 m radius, combined with diagnostic sampling in larger spatial units. We also used various remote sensing and fieldwork methods to map structural remains. This combined method aimed to strike a balance between adaptation to the particularities of different mountain sites, and comparability of the results. We offer a new reconstruction of the walled area(s) of La Romana, and propose a chronological and functional interpretation discerning an Archaic-Hellenistic phase and a Late Roman-Medieval phase. For Lo Monaco, we propose a main Classical-Hellenistic phase of the settlement, and present evidence for (semi)permanent habitation as well as metal-working at the site. We conclude that the point sampling method is labour-intensive, but effective in better understanding the internal configuration and chronological development of mountain sites. Keywords: Samnites; hillforts; mountain archaeology; archaeological survey; remote sensing.
Congreso Internacional Las villas romanas Bajoimperiales de Hispania – Actas, Palencia, 15-17 Noviembre 2018, 2020
The development of large, Roman-style villae have been seen as powerful illustrations of the cons... more The development of large, Roman-style villae have been seen as powerful illustrations of the consolidation of Roman administrative and economic control, even in supposed backwater territories in far- flung areas of the Roman Empire. Their demise, moreover, sheds light on the collapse of Roman con- trol and the appearance of new social realities. In this paper, we approach these research questions from the point of view of a new landscape archaeology project launched in 2018, researching North Alentejo (Portu- gal) from the Roman conquest to the Late Roman Em- pire. Our research, still work in progress, deploys non-destructive methods such as archaeological sur- vey, landscape photogrammetric reconstruction, ground penetrating radar (GPR) surveys and several excavation campaigns. Here, we preliminarily discuss the examples of Horta da Torre and Monte de São Francisco to illustrate the situation in this rural area in the Late Roman period.
FigShare, 2021
Soil maps, soil unit and soil profile descriptions, soil analyses, background information, connec... more Soil maps, soil unit and soil profile descriptions, soil analyses, background information, connected with soil map at scale 1:25,000 of the Upper Volturno Basin, Molise, Italy.
Supplementary dataset of paper: Van Otterloo & Sevink, 'Soils and soilscapes of the Upper Volturno Basin: A detailed survey of a large intermontane basin in the Central-Southern Apennines, Italy', Journal of Maps (2021), DOI: 10.1080/17445647.2021.1875064
Landscapes of Early Roman Colonization project.
Al-madan Online 22.3, 46-54., 2019
https://issuu.com/almadan/docs/al-madanonline22\_3
Brief overview in Italian of recent and ongoing fieldwork projects (survey, excavation, prospecti... more Brief overview in Italian of recent and ongoing fieldwork projects (survey, excavation, prospection) in ancient Samnium, modern Molise, including the Tappino Valley (Campobasso area), the territory of ancient Aesernia (modern Isernia), and the territory of ancient Larinum (modern Larino).
This paper presents the first results of a landscape archaeological project carried out in the te... more This paper presents the first results of a landscape archaeological project carried out in the territory of the ancient colony of Aesernia, modern Isernia, in Molise, Central-Southern Italy. The nature of Roman Republican colonization is currently heavily debated, and the field project aims to contribute to this discussion by investigating the non-urban aspect of a Roman Republican colony that was established in the midst of the Apennine mountains in 263 BC. Through a combination of extensive field surveys (seasons 2011-2013) and geological and geomorphological analysis, the preliminary results show the potential of a landscape archaeological approach and the diversity of settlement strategies within the colonized areas according to different landscape conditions.
The practice of using mobile survey applications (or a digital fieldwork assistant, dFA) has a tr... more The practice of using mobile survey applications (or a digital fieldwork assistant, dFA) has a tradition of more than a decade in the context of archaeological field survey. In their 2002 CAA paper “Educating the Digital Fieldwork Assistant”, Martijn van Leusen and Nick Ryan wrote extensively about the advantages and practicalities of using a digital field notebook combined with a GPS receiver for field surveys. The OpenArchaeoSurvey project is aimed at improving such applications, building on recent developments in mobile technology. The ‘open’ in our project stands for ‘open source software’, but also for allowing real-time data exchange and communication using the fieldwork application. In addition to the practical advantages, this creates the possibility for all participants to reflect on the collected data. Therefore, the development of the OpenArchaeoSurvey goes hand in hand with a tentative exploration of improved possibilities for Mobile Learning, or, how students can be ‘educated by the fieldwork assistant’.
Poster at Archaeological Prospection September 2015, presenting results from a combined approach ... more Poster at Archaeological Prospection September 2015, presenting results from a combined approach of gpr, resistivity, and magnetometer at a large, complex rural site in the territory of the colony Aesernia, founded by Rome 263 BC.
by Tesse D Stek, Andre Carneiro, Carlos Fabião, Emma Ljung, Jesus Garcia Sanchez, João Fonte, Manuel Fernández-Götz, Marco García Quintela, Pieter Houten, Victorino Mayoral Herrera, Rogier Kalkers, Lázaro Lagóstena, Mónica Rolo, Joey Williams, and Devi Taelman
The Faculty of Archaeology of Leiden University hosts an international conference on the archaeol... more The Faculty of Archaeology of Leiden University hosts an international conference on the archaeology of the Roman period in Portugal and its place in the Roman West. The conference brings together archaeologists and ancient historians from different academic backgrounds who are working in the Iberian peninsula and the wider Western Mediterranean. It aims to present new data and insights from various fields and approaches, and to discuss their significance for our understanding of Roman expansion and colonialism.
Five sessions revolve around new insights from landscape archaeological projects, developments in the economy, the process of military expansion, processes of centralization and urbanization, and the ritual and religious sphere. A key goal of the conference is to discuss how the Portuguese panorama compares to other areas in the Iberian peninsula, and to foreground its contribution to current debates about Roman expansion and incorporation in the Central and Western Mediterranean.
With a view to assess the potential of integrating best practices in archaeological approaches and methodology, different national and disciplinary research traditions and historical frameworks will be explicitly discussed. As such, the conference aims to explore ways to collaborate more closely between various Mediterranean areas and research projects, and to develop a shared research agenda.
Roman colonization and expansionism in the Republican period, and its impact on the ancient Medit... more Roman colonization and expansionism in the Republican period, and its impact on the ancient Mediterranean and beyond, are intensely debated in current ancient historical and archaeological research. Traditional, diffusionist views from the late 19th and especially the 20th century have recently been heavily criticized, and many socio-economic and cultural developments in ancient Italy (e.g. agricultural developments, 'romanization') have been disconnected from Roman conquest and expansionism. Although this development has been extremely important and salutary, this session departs from the idea that we should be careful not to throw away the baby with the bathwater. Very recent and ongoing research can be seen as pointing at real Roman impact in various spheres - if in different ways and places than often assumed. In this session, we investigate whether, and if so to what extent, we can invert the causal logic between a series of new socio-economic and cultural developments in the ancient Mediterranean and Roman colonization. In particular, we will explore the notion that Roman expansionism actively targeted hotspots in both economic ánd cultural networks of special interest in the conquered areas. Seeing local cultural resources at equal footing with more standard local economic resources, and exploring the ways the Roman conquest further enabled and energized these hotspots, stimulates us to rethink the primary workings of Roman expansionism.
Paper to be presented at the International Conference: "Las Villas ROmanas Bajoimperiales de Hisp... more Paper to be presented at the International Conference: "Las Villas ROmanas Bajoimperiales de Hispania", Palencia, del 15-17 de noviembre de 2018
Dear all, The Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome (KNIR) has rescheduled its education and rese... more Dear all,
The Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome (KNIR) has rescheduled its education and research programme for 2020/21. The Institute offers (Research)Master and PhD student courses, as well as fellowships, research stays and internships at all levels.
In autumn 2020, students can discover ancient hill-forts and other highland sites in the Apennines by signing up for the Practicum Exploring Mountain Society. Doing field work with an international team, students acquire various field and (digital) lab methodologies.
The Practicum runs from 14 September to 4 October, with a minimum stay of 2 weeks (3 ECTS).
Deadline for applications: 1 July 2020.
See https://www.knir.it/nl/tile/exploring-mountain-society-2020/ and the enclosed flyer.
Information about the upcoming campaign in North Alentejo. Co-organized by Leiden University and ... more Information about the upcoming campaign in North Alentejo. Co-organized by Leiden University and Universdade de Évora, with the support of Prins Bernahard Cuulturfonds.
The aim of the project is to investigate the long term impact of Roman expansionism in the Western Mediterranean. And engages with further research done in Central-South Italy and the river Duero valley.