Diederik J.H. Halbertsma

Tell Deir ʿAlla Phase IX: A Rural Iron Age Village in the Jordan Valley at the Heart of Religious Literature Formation

Dr. Diederik J. H. Halbertsma is an archaeologist specializing in the Late Bronze and Iron Age southern Levant, specifically Jordan, with a particular focus on societal organization, ancient religious practices, and the use of legacy data. He obtained a BA from Leiden University, an MPhil and a PhD from the University of Liverpool. His PhD research focused on how early Iron Age communities on the arid fringes of Jordan adapted to environmental and political shifts, drawing on ‘architectural energetics’, heterarchical organization, and collective action theory. Currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Netherlands Institute for the Near East (NINO) at Leiden University and an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Liverpool, his recent work focuses on high-resolution chronological modeling, resilience studies, settlement archaeology, and ancient religious practices.

Dr. Halbertsma has authored various articles on the archaeology of the southern Levant, with a monograph forthcoming in the Archaeology of the Mediterranean World series, published by Brepols. His fieldwork experience spans numerous regions (Jordan, Egypt, Cyprus, Türkiye, Israel, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands). Dr Halbertsma was actively involved with the excavations at Tall Damiyah (2015-2019), directed an archaeological survey at Khirbet al-Mudayna al-ʿAliya (2022), and currently co-directs the Tall Dayr ʿAlla Project (2022-present). Together with co-Investigator Dr Michel de Vreeze, he oversees the publication project of Tall Dayr ʿAlla Phase IX.