David Kertai | Rijksmuseum van Oudheden

Curator Ancient Near East collections

Dr. David Kertai
Phone number: +31 (0)71 5163 182
E-mail: send a message
See his Academia-page

Study and career

David Kertai (1978) studied architecture at Delft University of Technology, ancient history at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and archaeology at Leiden University. He received his PhD from Heidelberg in 2012 for a study of Assyrian palace architecture and kingship (2015, The Architecture of Late Assyrian Royal Palaces; Oxford University Press). He has worked as a researcher and lecturer at University College London, New York University, Tel Aviv University, Martin Buber Society of Fellows (Jerusalem) and the Freie Universität Berlin and has been active as a field archaeologist in Iraq, Syria and Turkey since 2005.

Research

David Kertai is particularly interested in the integration of historical, archaeological and art historical research to study the history of the ancient Near East in all its facets. In addition, David Kertai is interested in the genesis and development of ancient Near Eastern archaeology in the nineteenth century. From 2016, David Kertai has been involved in the British Iraq Emergency Heritage Management Training Scheme in the Darband-i Rania region of Iraqi Kurdistan.

Ask me a question about

Material and visual culture of the ancient Near East
The Assyrian Empire
Architectural history
History and development of the ancient Near East archaeology

Important research projects

Iraq Emergency Heritage Management Training Scheme, British Museum, the Darband-i Rania region, Iraqi Kurdistan (2016-2020)
Excavation Tell Halaf, Syria (2008-2010)

David Kertai

Important publications

Sonik, K. en D. Kertai, 2023. Between Science and Aesthetics in the Nineteenth-Century Public Museum: The Elgin Marbles, the Chain of Art, and the Victorian Assimilation of Assyrian Sculpture. In J. Caleb Howard (red.) Architecture, Iconography, and Text: New Studies on the Northwest Palace Reliefs of Ashurnasirpal II. Leuven: Peeters, 105-138.
Kertai, D., 2023, The Architectural Presence of the Assyrian King in His Palaces. In A. David, R. Milstein en T. Ornan (red.) Picturing Royal Charisma: Kings and Rulers in the Near East from 3000 BCE to 1700 CE. Oxford: Archaeopress, 62-75.
Kertai, D., 2022. The Architectural Inbetweenness of Assyrian Reliefs: On Cues and Settings of Architectural Decoration. In D. Nadali en F. Pinnock (red.) Moving on from Ebla, I crossed the Euphrates: An Assyrian Day in Honour of Paolo Matthiae. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 71-91.
Kertai, D., 2022, Assyria and Babylonia. In Oxford Bibliographies Online: Architecture, Planning, and Preservation.
Kertai, D., 2021. The News from the East: Assyrian Archaeology, International Politics, and the British Press in the Victorian Age. In K. Sonik (red.) Art/ifacts and ArtWorks in the Ancient World. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum Press: 367–413.
Sonik, K. and D. Kertai, 2021. Entangled Images: Royal Memory and the Afterlives of Assyrian Rock Reliefs. In J. Ben-Dov and F. Rojas (red.) Afterlives of Ancient Near Eastern Monuments. Leiden: Brill: 37–66.
Kertai, D., 2020. Libbali-sharrat in the Garden: An Assyrian Queen Holding Court, Source: Notes in the History of Art 39/4: 209–18.
Kertai, D., 2020. The Canon of Ancient Near Eastern Palaces. In A. Gansell and A. Shafer (red.), Testing the Canon of Ancient Near Eastern Art and Archaeology. Oxford: Oxford University Press: 195–213.
Kertai, D., 2020. Architectural Assemblages: The Northwest Complex at Zincirli, Cambridge Archaeological Journal 29/1: 81–101.
Kertai, D., 2020. The ‘sun(god) of all people’: Šamaš’s presence in the throneroom of Ashurnasirpal II at Kalḫu. In E. Katzy, S. Kulemann-Ossen, N. Cholidis (red.), Festschrift Lutz Martin. Münster: Zaphon-Verlag, 383–395.
Gross, M. and D. Kertai, 2019. Becoming Empire: Neo-Assyrian Palaces and the Creation of Courtly Culture, Journal of Ancient History 7/1: 1–31.
Kertai, D., 2019. The Thronerooms of Assyria. In M. Bietak, P. Matthiae, S. Prell (red.), Ancient Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Palaces Volume II. Proceedings of a workshop held at the 10th ICAANE in Vienna, 25–26 April 2016. Wiesbaden: Harassowitz, 41–56.
Kertai, D., 2018. The Assyrian Influence on the Architecture of Hospitality in the Southern Levant. In A. Faust and S. Z. Alster (red.). The Southern Levant Under Assyrian Domination. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns: 139–161.
Kertai, D. and O. Nieuwenhuyse (red.), 2017. From the Four Corners of the Earth. Studies in the Iconography and Cultures of the Ancient Near East in Honour of F.A.M. Wiggermann. Alter Orient und Altes Testament 441. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag.
Kertai, D., 2015. The Architecture of Late Assyrian Royal Palaces. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kertai, D. and P. A. Miglus (red.), 2013. New Research on Late Assyrian Palaces. Conference at Heidelberg January 22nd, 2011. Heidelberger Studien zum Alten Orient 15. Heidelberg: Heidelberger Orientverlag.
Kertai, D., 2013. The Queens of the Late Assyrian Empire, Altorientalische Forschungen 40/1: 108–124.

David Kertai

Important exhibitions

Byblos (2022-2023)
Het werk van de archeoloog (2021-2023)
Het werk van de assyrioloog (2023-2024)

Important lectures

2023, Assyrian eunuchs: social castration as imperial strategy. Freie Universität Berlin, Berlijn.
2022, Assyrian eunuchs. Trinity College Dublin, Dublin.
2021, The iconography of Assyrian Religion. University of Oxford, Oxford.
2021, Echte kunst is slechts door de Grieken gemaakt. Week van de Klassieken, Leiden.
2019, The Garden Scene of Libbali-šarrat: Elite Individuals in the Art of Assyria. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
2019, The Lady of Assyria: what made the goddess Ishtar-of-Arbela so important in Assyria? Arbela Symposium: 1st Erbil Design Exhibition. Erbil, Iraaks Koerdistan.
2019, Assyria Identities: The Role of Elite Individuals in the Art of Assyria. Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University, New York.
2017, The Architecture of the Gaze: Palace J/K at Zincirli. Annual Meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research, Boston.
2017, The Reimagining of Mosul: Contextualising the Emergence of Near Eastern Archaeology. 63rd Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Marburg.
2016, The Idols of Assyria: The Reception of the Neo-Assyrian Palace Colossi in Victorian Britain. 62nd Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
2016, The Architecture of Late Assyrian Royal Palaces: The Spatial Organisation of Kingship, Courtiers and Guests. Eötvös Lórand University, Budapest.
2013, The Assyrian Royal Palaces at Kalḫu (Nimrud). University of Cambridge, Cambridge.
2013, Spatial Multiplicities: A New Look at Late Assyrian Royal Palaces. Brown University (Providence), Yale University (New Haven), University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia) en The John Hopkins University (Baltimore).
2013, The Guardians at the Gate. Gulbenkian Museum, Lissabon.
2013, The Architectural Context of Ashurbanipal’s Garden Scene, British Museum, Londen.

In the media

2022, Byblos: Een Stad van Verhalen, Archeologie Magazine 5: 30–34.
2022, Byblos. Die älteste Hafenstadt der Welt, Antike Welt 6: 46–52.
2021, Een Asyrische handelspost, Archeologie Magazine 3: 28–31.
2021, Het beeld van Gudea dat een prins van Eshnunna werd maar wellicht een koning van Sippar was, Phoenix 66/3: 23–28.
2021, In the Spotlight: the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, Leiden, Mar Shiprim, the digital Newsletter of the International Association for Assyriology.
2018, Interview online: ERC project Persia and Babylonia “Architecture, Archaeology, and Iraqi Palaces”, by Uzume Wijnsma.
2015, The Destruction of an Assyrian Palace, Oxford University Press Blog Online.