Head of collections and research

Dr. Lucas Petit
Phone number: +31 (0)71 516 3149
Mobile phone number: +31 (0)6 8294 6307
E-mail: send a message
See his Academia-page
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-0314-0741

Study and career

Lucas Petit (1973) studied Palestinian archaeology at Leiden University. After graduating in 1997, he was involved in several archaeological projects, among others in Syria, Jordan and Palestine. From 1999 to 2002 he worked as executive project leader for the University of Frankfurt am Main in Benin (West Africa). This resulted in his PhD in 2003. A year later he returned to Leiden University to work as a postdoc in the NWO project Settling the Steppe. He was also substitute lecturer in archaeology of the southern Levant. In 2010 he succeeded Akkermans as Curator of the Near Eastern collection of the National of Antiquities. Since 2019 Lucas Petit is the head of the collections and research department and a member of the management team.

Research

After his graduation, Petit was active in the field of archaeology in various countries in Africa and the Middle East. Together with two colleagues, he initiated the construction of a museum in Burkina Faso, investigated rock art in the Sahara and excavated a water tunnel in Palestine. Within the NWO project Settling the Steppe (2004-2008), he was responsible for research into settlement cycles in the Jordan Valley. Since 2012, Petit leads the research at Tell Damiyah, a settlement mound in the Jordan Valley, together with Zeidan Kafafi.

Ask me a question about

  • Archaeology of Jordan, Israel and Palestine
  • Archaeology of Benin
  • Archaeology of Burkina Faso
  • Querns and other stone objects
  • Excavation methods

Important research projects

Lucas Petit

Lucas Petit

Important publications

Lucas Petit

Lucas Petit

Important exhibitions

Important lectures and conferences

  • 2020, Tell Damiyah. Een klein, maar belangrijke IJzertijd heiligdom in de Jordaanvallei. Ex Oriente Lux, Rotterdam.
  • 2019, Archeologie 2.0. Ons verleden heeft nooit bestaan. Oog op de Oudheid, Leiden.
  • 2018, Tell Damiyah. Artistic Expression from the Late Iron Age until the Ottoman Period. ICAANE, München.
  • 2018, Creating and Recreating Nineveh. Scientific conference, Leiden.
  • 2018, The Iron Age Shrine at Tell Damiye (Jordan). Congress Sacred Architecture in Palestine from the Bronze Age to Medieval Time, Mainz, together with Kafafi.
  • 2017, 3D Reconstruction of Nineveh. Congres 3D Imaging in Cultural Heritage, The British Museum, London, together with Van Apeldoorn, Lenseigne, Jonker and Dik
  • 2017, Cultuurterrorisme in het Midden Oosten. SIB, Utrecht.
  • 2016, Current situation in Syria and Iraq. 3rd Meeting of the Informal Network of the Law Enforcement Authorities and Expertise Competent in the Field of Cultural Goods, Den Haag.
  • 2016, Tell Damiyah. A Late Iron Age Sanctuary for Traders and Travellers? ICHAJ, Amman, together withmet Kafafi.
  • 2015, Museums and the ancient Middle East: curatorial practices and audiences. Workshop, Atlanta, together with Emberling.

In the media

Ancillary activities