I am an Egyptologist, archaeologist, and jewellery historian specialising in personal adornment from Southwest Asia and North Africa as a historical source. My work spans both 19th and 20th-century adornment and archaeological material. As a NINO Visiting Research Fellow, I will explore how these two worlds intersect, and how their entanglement is reflected in both museum collections and in the ways we present the past to a wider audience.
I earned my MA and PhD at Leiden University. My doctoral research, Silver of the Possessed, traced how jewellery used in a 19th- and 20th-century possession ritual entered museum and private collections, how it became detached from its original context, and how its interpretation shifted through scholarly writing and online circulation. I examined possible functions of the jewellery within the ritual as well. I completed my dissertation with support from a Juynboll Grant, and the GemX 2024 Scholarship Prize enabled its publication in full open access.
Through my consultancy, Bedouin Silver, I work with museums and private collectors of traditional jewellery from North Africa, Southwest Asia, and Europe. I research collections, develop exhibition concepts, and design public-facing programmes. I also give talks, teach workshops and courses, and write books and articles on personal adornment. Online, I enjoy blogging on all things jewellery at bedouinsilver.com.
My NINO Visiting Fellowship allows me to work on my project Jewellery Between Worlds: the afterlives of adornment in Near Eastern museum collections. By examining altered ancient jewellery and cases in which traditional pieces have been misidentified as ancient, the project considers how museum practices shape our understanding of the ancient Near East and how these narratives are conveyed to the public. Jewellery here serves not only as object, but also as a methodological entry point into broader issues of disciplinary history and curatorial approaches that frame the region’s past.
