Dr Beatrijs de Groot (PhD)

Teaching Fellow in European Archaeology

Biography

Background

I obtained my BA and MA (Research) degrees in Mediterranean and Near Eastern Archaeology from the Leiden University, Faculty of Archaeology (2005-2012), after which I conducted my PhD research at the UCL Institute of Archaeology (2012-2016).

My PhD was part of the Marie Curie FP7 funded 'Bridging the European and Anatolian Neolithic (BEAN)' project, which combined archaeology, computational modelling and aDNA research to study the spread of farming to Europe.

More recently I worked as an assistant archaeologist for UCL Archaeology South-East and as an assistant curator of the 'Stonehenge' touring exhibition (UCL, MuseumsPartner GmbH). 

Undergraduate teaching

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

Research summary

Places: 

  • Mediterranean

Themes: 

  • Material Culture

Periods: 

  • Prehistory

Research interests

European and Mediterranean Prehistory, Technology and Society, Craft Production, Long-Term Cultural Dynamics, Ceramic Petrography, Material Knowledge, Spread of Farming

Current research activities

My most recent work 'Economies of innovation: tracing the potter's wheel in Iron Age SW Europe' examines the varied levels of adoption of the potter's wheel in southern Europe during the first millennium BCE. I explore 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. 

Research projects

I am currently involved in a number of research projects:

  • Archaeological excavation of an Iron Age promontory fort at Peña Castiel (Luarca, Spain), Incipit, CSIC.
  • The adoption of the potter's wheel in NW Iberia (Monte Bernorio, La Loma, El Cerrito), IMBEAC.
  • Iron Age ceramic technology at El Castru, Vigaña (Asturias, Spain), Incipit, CSIC.
  • Ceramic Technology at the Heuneburg, Landesamt für Denkmalpflege, Stuttgart.
  • 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)

 

Knowledge exchange

'Stonehenge: ancient mysteries and modern discoveries' travelling exhibition (assistant curator).

Articles

de Groot, B.G., Braekmans, D., Fernández-Götz, M., Hansen, L., Stegmaier, G., Krausse, D., forthcoming, Technological dynamics of Early Iron Age ceramics from the Heuneburg (SW Germany): A synthesis of 50 years of research.

Canos Donnay, S. and B.G. de Groot, forthcoming. The many lives of Chikaba's jar. Selected Papers in Ancient Art and Architecture (SPAAA)

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.

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