Diederik Halbertsma
Episodic Labour Mobilisation During the Levant’s ‘Dark Ages’: The View from Khirbet al-Mudayna al-‘Aliya.
Biography
Diederik was awarded a BA degree at Leiden University and an MPhil degree from the University of Liverpool. He is currently a doctoral candidate the University of Liverpool. His main area of interest is Near Eastern archaeology, focussing on early state formation in the Bronze and Iron Ages of the Levant. He has extensive archaeological fieldwork experience from working on various archaeological projects in Jordan, Egypt, Cyprus, Israel, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands. Furthermore, as assistant director of the Tell Damiyah project he investigates ritual and religion in the Late Iron Age Jordan Valley.
Research Interests
Diederik’s PhD research focusses on the early Iron Age in the Southern Levant (ca. 1200-900 BCE), a period that is often described as ‘dark ages’ during which the region had to reconfigure after the Late Bronze Age collapse, adapting to newly emerging power structures. It is seen as a period devoid of a fixed social hierarchy, with a focus on smaller-scale architecture and isolated village structures. In contrast to this picture, the early Iron Age archaeological record shows ample evidence for large-scale building works. In a period characterised by decentralisation of power this sudden appearance of highly organised building projects at numerous sites in the Southern Levant is unexpected and shows that the idea of this period being ‘dark ages’ is outdated. This research project focusses on investigating the large fortification structures, construction events and archaeological material from the early Iron Age site of Khirbet al-Mudayna al-‘Aliya, Jordan, and their implications for the archaeological debates on Early Iron Age social organisation and complexity.