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University of Leeds - School of Languages, Cultures and Societies  / British Museum London

AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership Award - Disruption and Diversity: Understanding the Impact of Alexander the Great Through the Material Culture of the Hellenistic World

Session 2025/26 - Closing Date 17:00 (UK time) 15th May 2025

Award provides fees and maintenance at UKRI Rates (£20,780 in Session 2025/26), a London allowance of £1000 per annum plus a £600 enhancement per annum, a Research Training Support Grant and other allowances (pro rata for part-time study).
The School of Languages, Cultures and Societies at the University of Leeds and the British Museum are pleased to announce a fully funded<https://phd.leeds.ac.uk/project/2239-ahrc-cdp-disruption-and-diversity-understanding-the-impact-of-alexander-the-great-through-the-material-culture-of-the-hellenistic-world> Collaborative doctoral studentship, from October 2025.
This project explores how Alexander the Great's conquests and the resulting cultural and political changes can be understood through material culture, focusing on objects from the British Museum's collections.
Project overview
Alexander the Great's conquests (336-323 BCE) were one of the most disruptive periods in history, leading to the fall of the Achaemenid Empire and the establishment of new Graeco-Macedonian and local power structures. This project will explore how these transformations are reflected in material culture. The analysis of artifacts provides fresh perspectives on how Alexander's empire-building affected the everyday lives of people in different regions, offering a more nuanced and accessible understanding of ancient history and allowing for a more comprehensive interpretation of the cultural and political transformations during this period. The analysis will start out from the changes that can be observed in coinage. The evidence of coinage is particularly important as often it is the most precisely dateable and most demonstrative of political changes given the status of coins as 'official documents'. The coins' place of production, material, and iconography clearly express Alexander's impact on everyday life using a distinctly local vocabulary. Such changes will be compared to those present in other object groups, particularly in jewellery, figurines and vessels such as table ware. The successful candidate will have significant scope to shape the project by choosing particular object types on which to focus their study.
Research questions include:

  *   What can material culture reveal about cultural and political changes under Alexander's rule?
  *   How did different regions experience these transformations?
  *   Were Alexander's campaigns homogenising, or did they further diversity local identities?
  *   How does Macedonian influence appear in various forms of material culture?
About the British Museum
The British Museum was the first national museum to cover all fields of human knowledge, open to visitors from across the world. It is driven by an insatiable curiosity for the world, a deep belief in objects as reliable witnesses and documents of human history, sound research, as well as the desire to expand and share knowledge. You will be expected to spend time carrying out research and gaining experience at the Museum.
Outcomes, benefits and opportunities
The findings will contribute to a major British Museum exhibition on Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic World in 2030. You will be encouraged to participate in professional development events and activities organised for all Collaborative Doctoral Partnership students who are registered with different universities and studying with cultural and heritage organisations across the UK. These activities are organised by a coordination team based at the V&A and are designed to provide you with the skills to thrive in your future career.
For further project information contact Dr Samuel Gartland<Diese E-Mail-Adresse ist vor Spambots geschützt! Zur Anzeige muss JavaScript eingeschaltet sein.>    

CALL FOR PAPERS
The International Association for Research on Pottery of the Hellenistic Period (IARPotHP)
announces its
7th CONFERENCE
HELLENISTIC POTTERY IN CONTEXT:
A WORLD OF DYNAMIC INTERACTIONS BETWEEN PEOPLE AND
POTTERY
BRUSSELS, 6th-9th of OCTOBER 2025

The geographical expansion, increased mobility, and cosmopolitan spirit evident in the
Hellenistic period created for the first time a truly globalized world. In this world people from
“old Greece”, the newly-conquered areas, as well as the western Mediterranean, became
receivers of exogenous, overarching cultural trends against the backdrop of their own local
cultural backgrounds. This made for a particularly complex and ever-evolving cultural
reality/identities, which archaeology strives to unlock and understand. Pottery, arguably the
most abundant find in any excavation, can offer invaluable insights and facilitate such an
effort, if treated accordingly. Provided that ceramic vessels are – more often than not –
culturally charged, playing an integral role in a plethora of social and religious events, their
rigorous examination and a clarification of the way they were employed can shed light on
these events. In this regard, we believe that focusing on the “contexts” of pottery (production
and geographical contexts and contexts of use) can be a very constructive way forward. We
invite papers on Hellenistic pottery, which concentrate on the above notions in an effort to
reconstruct the dynamic cultural reality of Hellenistic societies at both a regional and inter-
regional level.

Topics of the conference
1. Production contexts
Pottery production has received a lot of interest in recent years. Although there have been
publications on this subject relating to the Hellenistic period, there is still much ground to be
covered. This rich area of research can offer insights into production installations, the
locations and conditions of manufacture, spatial and professional organization of pottery
workshops, the place of manufacture in urban and rural landscapes and economy, as well as in
the way this aspect of production was embedded in other economic and social networks. We
therefore invite participants to propose papers which focus on any of the above themes, as
well as on other issues relating to pottery production, such as the tools used, the chaîne
opératoire, special pottery products, the combination of different product categories (e.g.
vases and lamps), supply and demand, as well as the impact of clientele on various aspects of
manufacture.

2. Contexts of use
Pottery was made to be used, and even reused. It is the many facets of this topic that we
propose to explore in this section. The functions of pottery in relation to their contexts of use,
the different sets found in residential, funerary, production or sacred contexts, all fit into this
topic, as well as how different shapes were utilized in isolation or in varying combinations.
The distribution and positioning of pottery in specific spaces can help define the function of
these areas. This aspect of the study of pottery can shed light on social organization, daily or
extraordinary practices which involve vases, as well as local economies or religious practices.
The composition of assemblages can also provide information on the behavior of producers
and consumers and the production of certain ceramics for specific contexts of use. The issues
of repair and reuse of pottery, and the conditions in which this happened, are also of interest.

3. Regional interactions and identities
Scholars have long argued for the capacity of virtually any ancient settlement/city to be a
pottery production center, albeit with varying qualitative and quantitative traits. At the same
time, pottery has been among one of the most frequently traded commodities throughout the
Hellenistic world. Under this theme, we invite questions about the impact of location on the
two other themes of production and consumption of pottery. This can range from the micro
level (a specific location in the city/settlement) to the regional. Papers in this section aim to
define local ceramic identities, local practices, local shapes and their contexts of use, specific
combinations of local and imported pottery and how this could vary depending on location,
period, and the identity of the users. Particularly welcome is the comprehensive examination
of locally-produced pottery and imports, especially when informed by quantitative
evaluations and scientific analysis, as they are expected to clarify the ceramic character of a
site or a (micro-) region, highlight the presence and extent of commercial networks, and
evaluate the ever-present entanglement of the “global” with the “local”.

4. Ceramic and scientific intersections in a digital era
The application of scientific analysis to various types of ancient material evidence, Hellenistic
pottery included, as well as the use of a multitude of digital tools, represent a growing
phenomenon in recent times. Connected with different aspects of the above topics, such as the
provenance of vases and the clarification of commercial networks, archaeological science
continues to prove its value, while digital tools, like databases, photogrammetry, and 3D
scanning offer new possibilities for the study, documentation, and presentation of pottery. Via
this topic we want to motivate participants to communicate case studies that showcase the
way, in which these research tools can be useful for the study of any of the three topics
detailed above and for the overall progression of the study of Hellenistic pottery.
Finally, we strongly encourage participants to propose panels, which could investigate a topic
of their preference in a more detailed and thorough manner. Depending on the total number of
presenters, participants in a panel may not be able to present a paper in any of the other
sessions too.

If you wish to present a short paper or a poster, or organize a panel at the conference, please
send a completed registration form and a short abstract (max. 500 words) in English, French,
German or Italian by May 31st, 2025, to:

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The languages of the conference are – as in previous meetings – English, French, German,
and Italian.
NOTE: English is the only accepted language for abstracts, as well as for the captions in
Power Points.
Further information on the conference and a registration form are available on our homepage:
https://iarpothp.org/news/

Early bird registration fee: The conference fee for non-IARPotHP members is 60€ due May
31st, 2025. For later payments, the conference fee will be raised to 80€. It should be noted that
the conference fee is waived only for IARPotHP members, who have paid their Association
fees (including the calendar year 2025) by May 31st, 2025.

Account owner ULB UNIVERSITE LIBRE DE BRUXELLES
Bank Belfius Banque SA
IBAN BE62 0689 3186 3061
BIC GKCCBEBB
Purpose of bank transfer 4R00D000296 + name of participant + IARPotHP 7
The 7th IARPotHP conference is organized by the CReA-Patrimoine (the Research Centre in
Archaeology and Cultural Heritage of the Université libre de Bruxelles, ULB) and the Royal
Museums of Art and History in Brussels.

The Organizing Committee:
Dr. Alexandros Laftsidis (CReA-Patrimoine, Université libre de Bruxelles)
Dr. Natacha Massar (Royal Museums of Art and History)
Prof. Athena Tsingarida (CReA-Patrimoine, Université libre de Bruxelles)
The Scientific Committee:
Dr. Vasilica Lungu (Institute for South East European Studies, Romanian Academy, Chair of
IARPotHP)
Dr. Guy Ackermann (University of Geneva, Board of IARPotHP)
Dr. Zoi Kotitsa (Independent Researcher, Board of IARPotHP)
Dr. Alexandros Laftsidis (CReA-Patrimoine, Université libre de Bruxelles, Board of
IARPotHP)
Dr. Edyta Marzec (PCMA University of Warsaw, NCSR Demokritos, Fitch Laboratory BSA,
Board of IARPotHP)
Dr. Natacha Massar (Royal Museums of Art and History, Board of IARPotHP)
Kamila Niziolek (Jagiellonian University, Board of IARPotHP)