Diederik Halbertsma is Postdoctoral Fellow at NINO (2025–2027) and is an Honorary Research Fellow at the Department of Archaeology, Classics & Egyptology at the University of Liverpool.
He specialises in the archaeology of the Late Bronze Age and the Iron Age Southern Levant, with particular focus on societal organisation, the materiality of religious practices, chronological dating methods, and working with legacy data. He is co-director of the Renewed Tell Deir 'Alla Temple Project, which investigates Late Bronze Age Canaanite religious practices in the Jordan Valley.
During his postdoctoral stay at the NINO, his research focusses on how communities in Transjordan and the northern Hejaz adapted to environmental and political changes before and during the Early Iron Age (ca. 1200–950 BCE). While this period is often associated with partial decline in neighbouring regions, it appears that Transjordan and the Hejaz prospered during this period. This is witnessed in, for example, developments such as fortified ephemeral settlements, intensified copper production, and increased interregional exchange. Producing a high-resolution, integrated regional chronological mode will enable detailed comparisons of settlement patterns, economic activity, and cultural interaction in relation to climate data, clarifying whether these developments were, for example, short-term responses to external pressures or long-term adaptive strategies. Thus, it can also contributing to broader debates on resilience in arid landscapes.
In addition to this research project, Diederik will both teach an RMA course and organise an international conference on resilience in the Ancient Near East.
Diederik has participated in and directed archaeological fieldwork in Jordan, Türkiye, Egypt, Cyprus, Israel, the UK, and the Netherlands.
Research interests
Ancient Near East – Southern Levant – Bronze and Iron Age – Societal Organisation – Resilience – Religious Practices – Archaeological Excavation – Architectural Energetics – Chronological Dating Methods – 3D Modelling
Education
2025: PhD in Archaeology (University of Liverpool). Thesis title: States or Mates? Investigating Collective Action in Iron Age I Jordan.
2019: MPhil in Archaeology (University of Liverpool). Thesis title: Revisiting Tell Deir 'Alla: a Reinterpretation of the Early Iron Age Deposits.
2016: BA in Archaeology (Leiden University).
Selected recent publications
Forthcoming: Halbertsma, D.J.H., M. de Vreeze, M.L. Steiner and E.J. van der Steen. Investigating the Tell-Tales of Time: Preliminary Results from the 2022 Season of the Renewed Tell Deir 'Alla Temple Project. Levant.
2025: Halbertsma, D.J.H., J.R. Peterson, C.B. Scott, L. Alshboul, R. Stokes, J. Plug and B. Routledge. Ground-Based Photogrammetry at an Aerial Scale: Preliminary Results from the 2022 Survey at Khirbat al-Mudayna al-'Aliya, Jordan. Archeologia e Calculatore 36(1), 153-170.
2024: Routledge, B. and D.J.H. Halbertsma. Boz el-Mushelle Revisited: Casemates, Copper and “Early Moab”. Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins 140(2), 162-189.
2022: Halbertsma, D.J.H. Does Practice Make a Place 'Perfect'? Approaching 'Utopia' in the Archaeology of Iron Age Southern Levantine Religion. Semitica 64, 237-254.
2022: Halbertsma, D.J.H. The 2022 Survey at Khirbet al-Mudayna al-'Aliya, Jordan. Palestine Exploration Quarterly 154(4), 328-332.
2021: Halbertsma, D.J.H. and B. Routledge. Between Rocks and 'High Places': On Religious Architecture in the Iron Age Southern Levant. Religions 12: 740.
