Miguel John Versluys

About

Miguel John Versluys (1971) is a Dutch Professor of Classical & Mediterranean Archaeology working at the Faculty of Archaeology from Leiden University. He coordinated several large research projects that all concern the cultural dynamics of the Hellenistic-Roman world; a period in World History Versluys considers to be our “first Modernity”. He investigates these processes from a global, Afro-Eurasian perceptive and by means of a variety of methodologies and techniques derived from the Social Sciences & Humanities as well as the Natural Sciences.

Research focus

Versluys is one of the main proponents of the application of Globalisation theory to better understand connectivity in the past.

He coined the influential concepts Persianism and Objectscapes and wrote seminal contributions to the Romanisation debate. He regularly contributes to the media in order to show the importance of deep history for our present-day societies.

Publishing topics

Versluys has written extensively on the dialectical history of Egypt and the ancient Mediterranean and is a leading specialist on the World Heritage Site of Nemrud Dag in south-east Turkey, on which he wrote a monograph and where he did extensive fieldwork.