Dr Beatrijs de Groot (PhD)
Teaching Fellow in European Archaeology
Contact details
- Email: Beatrijs.de.Groot@ed.ac.uk
Address
- Street
-
Room 3.12
William Robertson Wing - Old Medical School
Teviot Place - City
- Edinburgh
- Post code
- EH8 9AG
Availability
My office hours for students are Tuesday 11am - 1pm during the semester
Background
I am currently a Teaching Fellow in European Archaeology at the School of History, Classics and Archaeology of the University of Edinburgh.
I obtained my undergraduate and Research MA degree from the Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, focusing on Mediterranean and Near Eastern Archaeology and specialising in ceramic analysis. I undertook my PhD at the UCL Institute of Archaeology as part of a Marie Curie-funded multi-disciplinary project entitled ‘Bridging the European and Anatolian Neolithic’. After my PhD I worked in contract archaeology in London and as assistant curator of the Stonehenge touring exhibition, with Mike Parker Pearson as lead curator. In 2019 I obtained funding from the Leverhulme Trust for an Early Career Fellowship develop a project entitled ‘Economies of innovation: tracing the potter’s wheel in Iron Age Southern Europe’.
I have a broad interest in theoretical and methodological approaches to studying long-term technological change, mobility, globalisation and trajectories towards mass production. I specialise in ceramic analysis and spatial visualisations of culture change processes, working predominantly on Mediterranean Later Prehistory but also cross-contextually on topics such as Ottoman ceramics, Iron Age southern Germany and Scottish Later Prehistory.
Undergraduate teaching
Course organiser: Archaeology 1B (ARCA08005) 2023/24
Course co-organiser: Archaeology in Practice (ARCA10065) 2023/24
Course co-organiser: Archaeological Fieldwork (ARCA10013) 2023/24
Guest lecturer for Archaeology 2A and Theoretical Archaeology (ARCA10064)
Course organiser: The Archaeology of Technology: from prehistory to the present (ARCA10094)
Postgraduate teaching
Course organiser: The Archaeology of Technology: from prehistory to the present (online) (PGHC11547) 2022/23
Guest lecturer for The Origins of Agriculture: Reconsidering the Neolithic (Online: PGHC11511) 2021/22
Course organiser: The Archaeology of Technology: from prehistory to the present (PGHC11524) 2021/22
Open to PhD supervision enquiries?
Yes
Areas of interest for supervision
I am open to supervising students on projects relating to archaeological ceramic analysis, technology and technological change, material culture analysis, Material Science, European and Mediterranean Neolithic, Mediterranean Iron Age, long-term culture change and evolutionary approaches in archaeology, craft production, identity, archaeology and globalisation, post-colonial approaches in archaeology, gender and technology.
Past PhD students supervised
Research summary
European and Mediterranean Prehistory, Technology and Society, Craft Production, Long-Term Cultural Dynamics, Ceramic Petrography, Material Knowledge, Spread of Farming
Ongoing research collaborations
- Castro de Capote research project (Extremadura, Spain), with HCA and Universidad Autonoma Madrid.
- The many lives of Chikaba's jar: biography of an 18th century pot from a convent in Salamanca, Spain, Incipit, CSIC.
- Technology of Neolithic ceramics from Tell Yunatsite (Bulgaria)
Completed projects:
- Barcin Höyük Excavation Project (ceramic petrography specialist; 2014-2017)
- Ceramic assemblages of Early Neolithic Bulgaria (ceramic petrography; 2012-2016)
- The adoption of the potter's wheel in NW Iberia (Monte Bernorio, La Loma, El Cerrito), IMBEAC, Durham University, Leiden University.
- Iron Age ceramic technology at El Castru, Vigaña (Asturias, Spain), Incipit, CSIC.
- Ceramic Technology at the Heuneburg, Landesamt für Denkmalpflege, Stuttgart.
- Archaeological excavation of an Iron Age promontory fort at Peña Castiel (Luarca, Spain), Incipit, CSIC.
Current research interests
I currently work on a book about my most recent project 'Economies of innovation: tracing the potter's wheel in Iron Age SW Europe'. This Leverhulme Trust-funded project examined the varied levels of adoption of the potter's wheel in southern Europe during the first millennium BCE. I explored the socio-economic conditions underpinning its adoption and study how the potter's wheel transformed the organisation of ceramic production and consumption patterns in the long term. I use ceramic petrography to study long-term changes in clay recipes alongside the adoption of the potter's wheel, as well as spatial statistics to examine shifts in settlement and networks before during and after this technological change. I am co-editing a volume about mass production in archaeology with Dr Roberta Mentesana (University of Barcelona).Past research interests
My PhD research (2012-2016) was hosted by the UCL Institute of Archaeology and funded by the Marie Curie ITN 'Bridging the European and Anatolian Neolithic' considered spatio-temporal dynamics in the similarity between Neolithic ceramic assemblages from South-East Europe and West Anatolia. I conducted a statistical study of changing relationships between sites based on shared ceramic attributes, visualising similarity patterns using network approaches and spatial statistics. I also undertook a number of petrographic studies to considered local technological processes at Neolithic founder sites (Barcin Höyük, Aktopraklik C and Dzhulyunitsa-Smardesh). The project was supervised by Prof Stephen Shennan.Knowledge exchange
'Stonehenge: ancient mysteries and modern discoveries' travelling exhibition (assistant curator).
Invited speaker
Producing for the city: urbanism and technological change in Iron Age Europe. Varieties of Urbanism, Settlement and Climate Change workshop, HCA, Edinburgh 2023
Mass production and the spread of ceramic workshops in Iron Age Iberia: an archaeometric perspective. HCA Archaeology Seminar Series 2022
What makes a workshop? Ceramic production in Late Bronze Age and Iron Age Iberia. EAA annual meeting, Budapest 2022
Tracing the Potter’s wheel in Iron Age SW Europe. Archaeology seminars, Bournemouth University 2022
Container revolutions: Tracing the Potter’s wheel in the Iron Age western Mediterranean. Capita Selecta Seminar, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (online) 2022
Shaping Societies: the spread of the potter’s wheel in the western Mediterranean (1000-1 BCE). MaVis Seminar, Durham University, Department of Archaeology 2021
Style below the surface: technological variation in ceramic surface treatments in Neolithic SE Europe and W Anatolia, EAA annual meeting (online) 2021
The spread of the potter’s wheel in Southern Europe: a case study from Iron Age NW Iberia. Research Talks Programme of the Institute of Heritage Sciences (Incipit) of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Santiago de Compostela. 2019
Conformity and divergence: technological traditions in the first ceramics of NW Anatolia and SE Europe. Prehistory of Eurasia seminar. Durham University, Department of Archaeology 2018
Ceramic assemblages and the Neolithisation of SE Europe: examining similarity networks and technological change. HCA Archaeology Seminar Series 2018
Organiser
Session organiser ‘Specialisation, standardisation and diversity’: re-examining the role of mass production in archaeology. Standard paper session at the European Association for Archaeology (EAA) annual meeting 2023 in Belfast (with Dr Roberta Mentesana, University of Barcelona)
Co-organiser Theoretical Archaeology Group (TAG) conference, HCA, 2022. 400+ participants
Session organiser Revolutionary Innovations? Rethinking Long-Term Technological Change. Standard Paper Session at TAG2022, HCA (with Maria de Falco, Durham University)
Co-organiser Crossdem: Cross-disciplinary Approaches to Ancient Demography conference, UCL 2019
Co-organiser Simulating the Neolithic 2-day workshop and conference, UCL 2015
Papers delivered
Technological innovations and mass production: considering the spread of the potter’s wheel. European Association for Archaeology Conference September 2023, Queens University Belfast
The many lives of Chikaba’s jar: biography of an 18th century pot from a convent in Salamanca, Spain (with Sirio Canós Donnay). Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) annual meeting 2023.
The many lives of Chikaba’s jar: biography of an 18th century pot from a convent in Salamanca, Spain (with Sirio Canós Donnay). EAA annual meeting, Budapest 2022
Standardisation and surplus production: tracing the potter’s wheel in Iron Age SW Europe. Society for American Archaeology (SAA) annual meeting, Chicago 2022
Integrating the potter’s wheel in narratives of long-term socio-economic change in the western Mediterranean. EAA annual meeting (online) 2021
Chronologies of a new mode of production: the spread of the potter’s wheel in Iron Age Iberia (1000 BC – 0 AD) Archaeological Approaches to the Study of the Potter’s Wheel (online): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQt6vQDE-XM&t=4s
Labour and mobility in Iron Age rural landscapes: an archaeometric study of ceramics of El Castru in Vigaña (Asturias, Spain). EAA annual meeting (online) 2020
Resisting technological change: how does it work and (how) can we recognise it? TAG conference, UCL 2019
Technology and function of the first ceramics in North-West Anatolia: a case study of ceramics from Neolithic Barcın Höyük. Ceramic Petrology Group (CPG) annual meeting, UCL 2019
Ceramic assemblage similarities and the process of Neolithisation. BEAN project closing conference, Kemer, Antalya 2016
Social interactions as mechanisms for change: ceramic production and style in Neolithic Anatolia and the Balkans. Settlements, culture and population dynamics in Balkan prehistory, conference in Skopje, Macedonia 2015
Ceramic assemblages as evidence of social interaction in Neolithic Anatolia and the Balkans. EAA annual meeting, Istanbul 2014
Articles
Canos Donnay, S. and B.G. de Groot, forthcoming. The many lives of Chikaba's jar. Selected Papers in Ancient Art and Architecture (SPAAA)
Boyadzhiev, K., Boyadzhiev, Y., Haleva, V., Popova, T., García-Granero, J.J., Jovanović, M., Karastoyanova, N., Russeva, V., McIlfatrick, O., de Groot, B. and Sirakov, N., 2023. The Late Copper Age building BII-21B at Tell Yunatsite, south central Bulgaria. Studia Praehistorica, 17, pp.133-216. https://doi.org/10.53250/stprae17.133-216
de Groot, B. G., Braekmans, D., Fernández-Götz, M., Hansen, L., Stegmaier, G., & Krausse, D. (2023). Technological dynamics of Early Iron Age ceramics from the Heuneburg (SW Germany): A synthesis of 50 years of research. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 15(8), 129. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-023-01832-2
de Groot, B.G., Badreshany, K., Torres-Martínez, J.F., Fernández-Götz, M. 2023. Capturing technological crossovers between clay crafts: An archaeometric perspective on the emergence of workshop production in Late Iron Age northern Spain. PLoS ONE 18(5): e0283343. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0283343
de Groot, B.G. and A. Bloxam. 2022. Radiocarbon approaches for mapping technological change: The spread of the potter’s wheel in the Iberian Peninsula, 1000–0 BCE. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 41. 103288. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2021.103288
de Groot, B.G. 2021. Material Methods: Considering ceramic raw materials and the spread of the potter's wheel in Early Iron Age southern Iberia. IANSA (Interdisciplinaria Archaeologica) 12(2): http://iansa.eu/papers/IANSA-2021-02-groot_onlinefirst.pdf
de Groot, B.G. and D. González‐Álvarez. 2021. Autonomous but not isolated: A petrographic study of Iron Age ceramics from a ‘deep-rural’ community in Asturias (NW Iberia). Archaeometry 64(1), 100-117. https://doi.org/10.1111/arcm.12695
de Groot, B.G. 2020. The impact of population fluctuations on the spatial spread of Neolithic ceramic traditions in West Anatolia and South-East Europe. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology57. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2019.101121
de Groot, B.G. 2019. A diachronic study of networks of ceramic assemblage similarity in Neolithic western Anatolia, the Aegean and the Balkans (c. 6600-5500 BC). Archaeometry 61 (3), 600-613. https://doi.org/10.1111/arcm.12450
de Groot, B.G., Thissen, L., Özbal, R., Gerritsen, F., 2017. Clay preparation and function of the first ceramics in NW Anatolia: a case study from Neolithic Barcın Höyük. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 16, 542-552. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2017.06.028
de Groot, B.G. 2013. Hybriditeit in tijden van kolonisatie: wat greyware kan vertellen over de Phoenicische kolonisatie van het Iberisch Schiereiland. Tijdschrift voor Mediterrane Archeologie 49, 41-46.
Chapters
de Groot, B.G. 2019. Clay recipes, pottery typologies, and the Neolithisation of SE Europe; a case study from Džuljunica-Smărdeš. In: Amicone, S., Quinn, P., Radivojević, M., Marić, M., Mirković, N. (Eds.), Tracing pottery making recipes in the Balkans, 6th–4th millennium BC. Archaeopress: Oxford, 54-64.
Books
Parker Pearson, M. and de Groot, B.G. 2018. Stonehenge (exhibition catalogue). MuseumsPartner GmbH, ISBN 978-3-9504664-3-0.