Curriculum Vitae

• Since 10/2022 Assistant Professor (tenure track) for Explorative Visual Archaeology of the Ancient Near East at Freie Universität Berlin

• 2021–2022 Assistant Professor (tenure track) for Digital Humanities for Near Eastern Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at Julius-Maximilian-Universität Würzburg

• 2017–2020 Postdoctoral researcher at the LMU Munich, Graduate School Distant Worlds

• 2016–2017 Postdoctoral researcher at the LMU Munich, Center for Advanced Studies (CAS)

• 2014–2016 Postdoctoral fellow of the Bavarian Equal Opportunities Fund

• 2010–2014, 2016 Research and teaching assistant at the Institute for Near Eastern Archaeology at LMU Munich

• 2009–2010 Research and teaching assistant at the Institute for Near Eastern Archaeology at the University of Freiburg

***

• 2015 [2010] PhD at Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen; title of dissertation: “Jewelry for the Living and the Dead. The Jewelry Inventory of the Royal Tomb of Qatna in its Sociocultural Context” (published in 2015 as Qatna-Studien 4) [completed in 2010, summa cum laude]

• 2006–2009 PhD fellow of the DFG Research Training Group “Forms of Prestige in Ancient Cultures” at LMU Munich

• 2000–2006 Studies in Near Eastern Archaeology, Political Science (International Relations) and Ancient Near Eastern Studies in Munich, Beirut, and Tübingen

***

• Since 2000 Archaeological field research (excavation and small finds processing) in Ba'ja/Jordan, Giricano/Turkey, Tell Burak/Lebanon, Emar/Syria, Qatna/Syria, Tilla Bulak/Uzbekistan, Ur/Iraq

• Since 2003 Museum visits for research purposes, including the Oriental Institute Museum Chicago, British Museum London, Archaeological Museum Homs, National Museum Damascus

Winter semester 2025/26

Grundlagen der Altertumswissenschaften I / Vorderasiatische Archäologie (Vorlesung, BA Altertumswissenschaften)

Einführung in die Vorderasiatische Archäologie I (BA Altertumswissenschaften | Vorderasiatische Archäologie)

Sense and Sensibility: The Archaeology of Sensory Experience and Perception (mit H. Piezonka, MA Archaeologies of the Ancient World, MA Altvorderasien), Seminar und Colloquium in Kooperation mit der Universität Kopenhagen

Summer semester 2025

Aktuelle Forschungsfragen in Altorientalistik und Vorderasiatischer Archäologie (mit J. Klinger; Program of the research colloquium)

Dokumentieren – verstehen – vermitteln: Visualität und visuelle Methoden in der (Vorderasiatischen) Archäologie (BA Altertumswissenschaften | Vorderasiatische Archäologie)

Einführung in die Vorderasiatische Archäologie II (BA Altertumswissenschaften | Vorderasiatische Archäologie)

Winter semester 2024/25

Grundlagen der Altertumswissenschaften I / Vorderasiatische Archäologie und Digitale Archäologie (Vorlesung, BA Altertumswissenschaften)

Einführung in die Vorderasiatische Archäologie I (BA Altertumswissenschaften | Vorderasiatische Archäologie)

Exploring identity in archaeology and archaeological material (MA Archaeologies of the Ancient World, MA Altvorderasien), Seminar und Colloquium in Kooperation mit der Universität Kopenhagen

Kolloquium für Examenskandidat*innen (mit D. Bonatz)

Summer semester 2024

Grundlagen der Altertumswissenschaften II / Vorderasiatische Archäologie (Vorlesung, BA Altertumswissenschaften)

Einführung in die Vorderasiatische Archäologie II (BA Altertumswissenschaften)

Stories of Life and Death. Archaeological and Textual Sources on Funerary Traditions in Ancient Western Asia (mit M. Pallavidini; BA Altertumswissenschaften und MA Studiengänge)

Hinter dem Bauzaun: Schätze des Vorderasiatischen Museums neu entdeckt (mit G. Gabriel; Ringvorlesung im Rahmen des Offenen Hörsaals; siehe Programm)

Exkursion zu den Ausstellungen Mari en Syrie, Fustat Keramik und Susa an der BNU Straßburg (Exkursion BA, MA; 16.-19.05.24)

Winter semester 2023/24

Grundlagen der Altertumswissenschaften I / Vorderasiatische Archäologie und Digitale Archäologie (Vorlesung, BA Altertumswissenschaften)

Integratives Themenmodul: Geburt und Tod / Vorderasiatische Archäologie (Vorlesung, BA Altertumswissenschaften)

Einführung in die Vorderasiatische Archäologie I (BA Altertumswissenschaften | Vorderasiatische Archäologie)

Forschungskolloquium des Instituts für Vorderasiatische Archäologie

Summer semester 2023

Grundlagen der Altertumswissenschaften II / Vorderasiatische Archäologie (Vorlesung, BA Altertumswissenschaften)

Beyond Image & Text: Multimodal Artefact Analysis in Ancient Studies (mit C. Johnson, Seminar, MA Altvorderasien, MA Archaeology of the Ancient World u.a.)

Bild-Text-Objekte aus dem alten Westasien (mit C. Johnson, Colloquium, BA Altertumswissenschaften | Vorderasiatische Archäologie, MA Altvorderasien, MA Archaeology of the Ancient World u.a.)

Winter semester 2022/23

Grundlagen der Altertumswissenschaften I / Vorderasiatische Archäologie (Vorlesung, BA Altertumswissenschaften)

Bilder die verbinden. Westasiatische Siegel und gesiegelte Objekt verstehen und digital explorieren (BA Seminar)

Main areas of research

Archaeology of Iraq, Syria and the Levant in the 3rd and 2nd millennia BCE; visual culture and multimodality; digital humanities.

Third-party funded projects

Since 2025 Co-director of the interacademic long-term project “KIŠIB. Digital Corpus of Ancient West Asian Seals and Sealings” at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, together with Prof. Dr. Adelheid Otto (LMU Munich) at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities

2023 Project in the FU Spotlight Program “Things with History(ies). Synergies between university teaching, science communication, and museum public relations through digital storytelling”

2020–2023 Head of the BMBF eHeritage project “Annotated Corpus of Ancient West Asian Imagery: Cylinder Seals” (ACAWAI-CS)

2017–2018 Head of the BMBF eHeritage project “Concept for the Digitization of Ancient Oriental Cylinder and Stamp Seals” (DigANES)

Conferences

05/2025 (with M. Weiss et al.) Conference “Meant to Move. Kinetic expression in figurines from ancient Western Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean”

07/2023 Conference “Ancient West Asian Seals and Sealings. Ongoing Projects, Current Research, Digital Perspectives”

03/2021 (with P. Heindl) Conference “Multimodal Artefact Analysis in Ancient Studies. Investigating intersemiotic relations in pictorial and verbal communication in ancient Egypt, Western Asia and beyond”

11/2017 (with J. Evans) Conference “Ancient Near Eastern Temple Inventories. Integrating Archaeological, Textual, and Visual Sources”

Other

Since 2025 Member of the DFG network “Network for Archaeological Image Research: Limitations and Delimitations of Images” under the direction of Prof. Dr. A. Haug, CAU Kiel

Since 2024 Co-Chair of the NFDI4Objects Community Cluster “Objects as Information Carriers”

A.    Books

A.1 as author

2015: Schmuck für Lebende und Tote. Das Schmuckinventar der Königsgruft von Qaṭna in seinem soziokulturellen Umfeld, Qaṭna Studien 4, Wiesbaden.

In preparation: Visual Forms in Cultural Practice. A Semiotic Landscape of Early Babylonian Imagery in Clay (c. 2100–1700 BCE).

A.2 as editor

In press [publication in 2025] with P. Heindl: Multimodal Artefact Analysis in Ancient Studies. Investigating Intersemiotic Relations in Pictorial and Verbal Communication in Ancient Egypt, the Near East and Beyond, de Gruyter, Berlin.

2019 mit J. Evans, unter Mitarbeit von P. Paoletti: Ancient Near Eastern Temple Inventories. Integrating Archaeological, Textual and Visual Sources. Proceedings of an International Conference held at the LMU Centre of Advanced Studies Munich, November 14–15, 2016, Münchener Abhandlungen zum Alten Orient 4, Gladbeck. [Open Access]

2015 mit A. Schmölder-Veit et al.: anders – Ideal und Gegenbild. Katalog zur Sonderausstellung im Museum für Abgüsse Klassischer Bildwerke München

A.3 as series' editor

Münchener Abhandlungen zum Alten Orient (MAAO), PeWe-Verlag, Gladbeck.

Visual Culture of Ancient Western and Central Asia (Member of the Editorial Board), Palgrave Macmillan

B. articles

B.1 in journals

2021 [2020]: A Middle Bronze Age II Cylinder Seal of North Syrian Style from Tel Shimron, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 385, 119-130. [https://doi.org/10.1086/712486]

2018 [2020]: What’s Inside This Jar? Actual and Iconic Use of Vessels in Early Mesopotamia, KASKAL. A Journal of History, Environment and Cultures of the Ancient Near East 15, 111–138.

2017: Re-contextualizing Clay Figurines, Models, and Plaques from Iščali, Ash-Sharq. Bulletin of the Ancient Near East 1, 177–186.

2008 (with A. Mukherjee et al.): The Qatna Lion: Scientific Confirmation of Baltic Amber in Late Bronze Age Syria, Antiquity 82 (315), 49–59. [https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00096435]

B.2 in compilations

2025 Chariots and Thrones. Visual/Material Bonds in Old Babylonian Legal Practice, in: N. Kallas (ed.), Bridging the Gap: Disciplines, Times, and Spaces in Dialogue (Volume 2), herausgegeben von Nathalie Kallas, 65–88. Broadening Horizons 6. Oxford: Archaeopress. [Open Access: 10.32028/9781803277288].

2023 (mit A. Kurmangaliev): Integrating Knowledge from Ancient Near Eastern Seals and Sealings: The DigANES and ACAWAI-CS Projects, in: V. Juloux et al. (ed.), The Ancient World Goes Digital: Case Studies on Archaeology, Texts, Online Publishing, Digital Archiving, and Preservation, Digital Biblical Studies 6, Leiden: Brill, 112–136. [https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004527119_006]

2022: The “Annotated Corpus of West Asian Imagery: Cylinder Seals” (ACAWAI-CS) Project in the Context of Art Historical Research at LMU’s Institute of Near Eastern Archaeology, in: A. Otto/K. Kaniuth (eds), 50 Jahre Vorderasiatische Archäologie in München, MAAO 7, Gladbek. [ISBN: 978-3-935012-52-2; Open Access]

2022 (with A. Tamm): Excavations at Tell Abqaʿ, Iraq (1978–1979)
und: The “Annotated Corpus of West Asian Imagery: Cylinder Seals” (ACAWAI-CS) Project in the Context of Art Historical Research at LMU’s Institute of Near Eastern Archaeology, in: A. Otto/K. Kaniuth (eds), 50 Jahre Vorderasiatische Archäologie in München, MAAO 7, Gladbek.
[ISBN: 978-3-935012-52-2; Open Access]

2019: The Nude at the Entrance. Contextualizing Male and Female Nudity in Early Mesopotamian Art, in: S.L. Budin et al. (ed.), Gender, Methodology and the Ancient Near East. Proceedings of the Second Workshop Held in Barcelona, February 1–3 2017, Barcino. Monographica Orientalia, Barcelona, 223–240.

2019: Die Stratigraphie der älteren Nutzungsphasen G-VK 9a–G-VK 7b in der Vorkammer VK, in: S. Lange et al. (ed.), Die Königsgruft von Qatna I: Befunde und Fundverteilung. Korridor und Vorkammer zur Königsgruft, Qaṭna-Studien 8, Wiesbaden, 243–262.

2019 (with J. Evans): A World of Things. Investigating Ancient Near Eastern Temple Inventories through Space, Objects and Practices, in: J.M. Evans/E. Roßberger (ed.), Ancient Near Eastern Temple Inventories. Integrating Archaeological, Textual and Visual Sources, MAAO 4, Gladbeck, 7–12. [Open Access]

2019: A Contextual and Sensory Studies Approach to the Object and Image Assemblages of the Kitītum-Temple at Iščali, in: J.M. Evans/E. Roßberger (ed.), Ancient Near Temple Inventories. Integrating Archaeological, Textual and Visual Sources, MAAO 4, Gladbeck, 63–82. [Open Access]

2018: Showing Off: Old Babylonian ‘Goddess in a Structure’ Plaques Revisited, in: P. Attinger et al. (ed.), Text and Image. Proceedings of the 61e Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, Geneva/Bern, 22-26 June 2015, OBO.A 40, Fribourg, 383–398. [Open Access]

2018: Refiguring the Body. From Terracotta Figurines to Plaques in Early Second Millennium Mesopotamia, in: M. Luciani (ed.), Proceedings of the 10th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East. Images in Context: Agency, Audiences & Perception. Wiesbaden, 523–538.

2018: Shining, Contrasting, Enchanting: Composite Artefacts from the Royal Tomb of Qaṭna, in: S. di Paolo (ed.), Composite Artefacts in the Ancient Near East: Exhibiting an Imaginative Materiality, Showing a Genealogical Nature, Ancient Near Eastern Archaeology 3, Oxford, 39–50.

2016: Dedicated Objects and Memory Construction at the Ištar-Kitītum Temple at Iščāli, in: O. Kaelin et al. (ed.), Proceedings of the 9th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East in Basel, 9-13 June 2014, Wiesbaden, 419–430.

2015: Local, Foreign and ‘International’ Arts and Crafts at Late Bronze Age Qaṭna, in: B. Eder/R. Pruzsinszky (ed.), Policies of Exchange: Political Systems and Modes of Interaction in the Aegean and Near East in the 2nd Millennium BC, OREA 2, Wien, 97–115.

2015: Why Gold is not Forever: Giving and Taking of Jewellery in the Royal Tomb of Qaṭna, in: P. Pfälzner et al. (ed.), Qaṭna and the Networks of Bronze Age Globalism, Qaṭna Studien Supplementum 2, Wiesbaden, 229–238.

2014: Things to Remember – Jewellery, Collective Identity and Memory at the Royal Tomb of Qaṭna, in: P. Pfälzner et al. (ed.), Contextualising Grave Inventories in the Ancient Near, Qaṭna Studien Supplementum 3, 201–216.

2012: Just a white elephant?— Eine goldbeschlagene Stoßzahnflasche aus der Königsgruft von Qaṭna, in: H. Baker/K. Kaniuth/A. Otto (ed.), Stories of Long Ago. Festschrift für Michael D. Roaf, AOAT 397, Münster, 517–541.

2011: Perlenschmuck aus der Königsgruft von Qaṭna: Verteilung, Rekonstruktion und Funktion, in: P. Pfälzner (ed.), Interdisziplinäre Studien zur Königsgruft von Qaṭna, Qaṭna Studien 1, Wiesbaden, 121–136.

B.3 in catalogues, newsletters, varia

2021: Bilder neu verknoten. Das ACAWAI-CS Projekt erschließt Rollsiegel und Siegelabrollungen auf Tontafeln digital, Alter Orient aktuell.

2021 (with P. Heindl): Rückblick auf die Tagung Multimodal Artefact Analysis in Ancient Studies an der LMU München, , Newsletter des Münchner Zentrums für Antike Welten 2021-2, 4.

2021: Bilder neu verknoten. Das ACAWAI-CS Projekt erschließt vorderasiatische Rollsiegel digital, Newsletter des Münchner Zentrums für Antike Welten 2021-1, 10.

2021: Tagungsband erschienen: Ancient Near Eastern Temple Inventories in the Third and Second Millennia BCE, Newsletter des Münchner Zentrums für Antike Welten 2021-1, 4.

2018: Das „Bild im Bild“ im altbabylonischen Terrakottarelief, Newsletter des Münchner Zentrums für Antike Welten 2018-2.

2015: Schmuck für Lebende und Tote. Blüten und Pflanzen im Schmuckinventar der Königsgruft von Qaṭna, Alter Orient aktuell 13, 25–31.

2015: „Macht Macht schön?“ und verschiedene andere Kurzbeiträge in A. Schmölder-Veit et al. (ed.), anders – Ideal und Gegenbild. Katalog zur Sonderausstellung im Museum für Abgüsse Klassischer Bildwerke München.

2009 (with P. Pfälzner): Das Gold des Nordens – Die Bernsteinobjekte, in: Schätze des Alten Syrien. Die Entdeckung des Königsreichs Qaṭna, Ausstellungskatalog Württembergisches Landesmuseum, Stuttgart, 212–215.

2009: Schmuck für Könige und Götter, in: Schätze des Alten Syrien. Die Entdeckung des Königsreichs Qatna, Ausstellungskatalog Württembergisches Landesmuseum, Stuttgart, 228–233.

B.4 in press / in preparation

Water and Oil. Tracing Hand-washing and Annointing in the Textual and Visual Record of Early Babylonia (and Beyond), in: Portuese, L. (ed.), Mind Your Manners: Etiquette Rules from Mesopotamia and Beyond, Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis. Leuven; Paris; Bristol: Peeters.

Kings, Gods, and Thrones. Life-sized and Miniature Versions of Figuratively Decorated Thrones of the Old Babylonian Period

C. reviews

2024: Rezension zu Evelyn Klengel-Brandt Und Hans-Ulrich Onasch: Die Terrakotten aus Assur im Vorderasiatischen Museum Berlin (Wissenschaftliche Veröffentlichungen Der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft 156). Zeitschrift Für Assyriologie und Vorderasiatische Archäologie 114 (2): 242–47. [https://doi.org/10.1515/za-2024-0022]

2023: Review of D. Bonatz (2021), Middle Assyrian Seal Motifs from Tell Fekheriye (Syria), Bulletin of the American Society of Overseas Research 389, 246-248. [https://doi.org/10.1086/724837]

2019: Review of S. Scott et al. (2018), Seals and Sealings in the Ancient World: New Approaches to Glyptic Studies, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2019.01.24.

D. online-publikations

Website of the project Annotated Corpus of Ancient West Asian Imagery: Cylinder Seals (ACAWAI-CS).

2020/2021: Website of the conference Multimodal Artefact Analysis in Ancient Studies. Investigating intersemiotic relations in pictorial and verbal communication in ancient Egypt, the Near East and beyond.

2020: Thin End of the Wedge Podcast Episode 9: Reflections in clay: the tactile art of terracottas.