Dr Elsbeth van der Wilt

In my academic work, my interests lie in the interaction between the Egyptian temples, military, and people, with non-Egyptian political and economic parties in the first millennium BC. 

I received my doctorate in archaeology from Oxford University (2014), where I was part of the Oxford Centre for Maritime Archaeology. I studied Egyptology at Leiden University (2008) with a specialization in Greco-Roman Egypt.

In Berlin, my project took my doctoral work on the lead weights from Thonis-Heracleion as a point of departure to focus on long-distance trade in the Eastern Mediterranean and market places in Egypt. The economy of the fourth century BC is little studied, but it forms a crucial link between the Egyptian Saite dynasty, the Greek world, the Persian Empire, and the subsequent Hellenistic world. Thonis-Heracleion, a port and customs post on the Egyptian Mediterranean coast from the late seventh century onward, has a good archaeological context and thus acts as a crucial case study for understanding the economic processes involved in maritime long-distance trade. This city experienced its heyday during the fourth and third centuries BC, and its submerged archaeological remains permit detailed contextual analysis. 

Please note that I took a different professional path after my postdoc at the Freie Universität Berlin. I am still active in egyptology, but at a different pace these days! If you would like to reach me, please go to my LinkedIn profile.