Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Augustan Rome: Greek culture in the Roman world.

On 25 November 2018, Laurens de Hoog defended his thesis 'De prioriteitsregel in het vermogensrecht'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. mr. W.G. Huijgen.

This thesis attempts to describe the entire corpus of Latino-Punic inscriptions, found in Tripolitania.

Which plants in the Mediterranean garden were already known to the ancient Greeks and Romans, and how were they utilized?

Towns and elites in Merovingian northern Gaul, 450-650

On October 9th, Peter Alexander Kerkhof succesfully defended his doctoral thesis and graduated. The Leiden University Centre for Linguistics congratulates Peter Alexander on this great result.

The Pontine Region Project (PRP) is an on-going archaeological project that aims to study the long-term history of settlement and landscape in the Pontine region

The Garden Club is a ProParte sub-group.

As of 1 May 2025, Professor Kartica van der Zon has been appointed professor by special appointment of Family Law, Law of Persons and Juvenile Law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Groningen.

The National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden features a small photo exhibition on Mark Driessen's fieldwork research project in Southern Jordan. In this small exhibition you will see a selection of nine photos, made in Udhruh. This ancient Jordanian settlement lies fifteen kilometres east of Petra,…

What does the excavated material tell us about the continuation and/or change of urban life during the transitional phrases from Antiquity to the Middle Ages on Crete and in the eastern Mediterranean more generally?

Dozens of Dutch nationals are being held in detention facilities in Northeast Syria or have been transferred to Iraq, risking torture or the death penalty. PhD candidate Ida Asscher says the Netherlands should repatriate them. 'States must comply with international law, even in difficult situations.…

The Journal of the LUCAS Graduate Conference was founded in 2013 to publish a selection of the best papers presented at the biennial LUCAS Graduate Conference, an international and interdisciplinary humanities conference organized by the Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society (LUCAS). The…

The Leiden Center for the Study of Ancient Religions (L*CeSAR) facilitates the integration of scholarly expertise and resources, promoting interdisciplinary collaboration and intellectual exchange among researchers of ancient religions, both within Leiden University and in the broader academic commu…

Lecture, Ancient History Research Seminar

Conference

Assistant professor Ancient History Rafal Matuszewski has been honored with the prestigious 2026 Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. This distinguished award, accompanied by 60,000 € in funding, recognizes Matuszewski’s outstanding contributions to research…

This project is about a funerary altar with a Latin inscription for Q. Petronius Turnus. It was found in Rome and dated to the first century CE. It became part of the collection of Baron van Westreenen, and is now in Museum The House of the Book in The Hague.

King Willem-Alexander has commissioned independent research into the role of the House of Orange-Nassau in Dutch colonial history. The research will take three years to complete and will cover the period from the late 16th century to the postcolonial present. The research will be carried out at Leiden…

Leiden alumni find work in all kinds of interesting places. We gather the stories of our alumni and publish then regularly in our alumni newsletter and in Leidraad magazine. You can find all their stories on this page. They give a good impression of what life is like for Leiden alumni after they have…

A project aimed at understanding the complicated process of religious transformation in one of the centres of the early Muslim world.

This is a good time for it to happen, in the opinion of Professor of Fatherlands History, Henk te Velde. The abdication of Queen Beatrix is a good starting point for celebrating 200 years of the Dutch monarchy, in 2013. Te Velde is a member of the National Committee for 200 Years of Monarchy: 'By standing…

King Willem-Alexander celebrated his 52nd birthday on 27 April. He studied at Leiden University and is a regular visitor here.

This Festschrift in honour of Cary J. Martin

The journey of sugar from east to west

A scientific assessment of the site selection for the ‘Frontiers of the Roman Empire’ Unesco World Heritage Site.

In ancient Greece and Rome, nighttime encompassed a distinctive array of cultural values that went far beyond the inversion of daytime. Night was a mythological figure, a locus of specialized knowledge, a socially significant semantic space in various literary genres, and a setting for unique experi…

The academic staff of the Leiden University Institute for History.

The culture and texts of the classical antiquity are still a source of inspiration for our modern world. In the Dutch-taught Bachelor's programme Greek and Latin Language and Culture you will examine all aspects of the Greek and Roman antiquity. From Homerus to Horatius. From Plato to Cicero.

In summer 2018 classical archaeologist Hanna Stöger passed away. At that moment she was in the midst of several cutting-edge research projects on the use of space in the Roman city of Ostia. To make sure that her groundbreaking work would not go unpublished, long-time colleagues Hans Kamermans and Bouke…

The combination of global questions and a wide range of local sources characterizes the Leiden University Institute for History.

TEXTS FROM ANCIENT EGYPT. Highlights from the Collection of the Leiden Papyrological Institute. Online exhibition on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the foundation ‘Het Leids Papyrologisch Instituut’ in 2015.

Princess Beatrix celebrated her eightieth birthday on 31 January. She has a warm bond with Leiden University, having studied Law and Sociology here. Since graduating, she has been a frequent visitor to the University, to receive an Honorary Doctorate, for example, and at the re-opening of the Academy…

Vandaag de dag liggen statistische methodes aan de grondslag van beslissingen in allerlei facetten van het leven, van de gezondheidszorg en agricultuur tot de financiële sector en marketing.

Jos Gommans is guest curator of the exhibition

The first decade of excavations at Oss

Following its foundation in 1575, Leiden University was quick to incorporate Roman goddess Minerva in its coat of arms. This explains why Rembrandt’s Minerva from 1635 can be seen on the façade of the Academy Building, which has been in use by the University since 1581. This is where, in the Senate…

LUCDH is creating a community of LU scholars researching in Digital Humanities. A selection of their DH Projects are listed on this page. If you are an Affiliated member and would like your project listed here or would like to be an Affiliated member, please email us at lucdh@hum.leidenuniv.nl

Case Studies in Etruscan Ritual Behaviour

Rembrandt painted this Flora, the Roman goddess of spring, in 1635. She is on display above the archway leading from the Academy Building to the lush flora of the University’s Hortus Botanicus. Rembrandt, who had his own cabinet of curiosities, almost certainly knew this botanical garden, the oldest…

Lecture, Global Questions Seminar

On 18 July, Olga Ceran held a presentation titled ‘Family law in a united Europe: Child abduction and child relocation’ at a summer school on 'European integration at the Franco-Spanish border: A cross-border perspective' which took place at the Cité des Arts in Bayonne (France).