Michel de Vreeze

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

Dr. Michel de Vreeze is an archaeologist and ceramicist specializing in Bronze and Iron Age archaeology of the Levant and Southeast Arabia. He has researched topics on Late Bronze Age and Iron Age Jordan, Early and Middle Bronze Age Lebanon, and Bronze and Iron Age Southeast Arabia. His main interests are societal organization, cultural evolution, foremost of ceramics, heterarchical organization, ancient ritual and religious practices and the role of ancient writing in the Levant. He obtained a BA and Ma from Leiden University, and a PhD in Archaeology and Anthropology from the University of Durham. His PhD research focused on ceramic evolution in Levant and Southeast Arabia using phylogenetic approaches and cultural evolutionary theory. Currently an Honorary Research Fellow at Durham and self-employed archaeologist working in the Gulf (Abu Dhabi), his research focusses on Bronze and Iron Age archaeology, ceramic studies, high-resolution excavation methods, social-cultural change, climate adaptation and heterarchical organization of society and the role of ritual and religious practices.

Dr. de Vreeze has authored various articles on the archaeology of the Levant and Southeast Arabia, with a monograph on Middle Bronze Age ceramics in Southeast Arabia forthcoming, an assistant-edited volume on the Iron Age settlement at Tell Damiyah in Jordan, as well as monographs on excavations in the UAE. His fieldwork experience spans Southwest Asia (Jordan, Lebanon, the UAE, Oman and Kuwait). Dr. de Vreeze was actively involved with the excavations at Tall Dayr ʿAlla (2004-2009), directed or co-directed excavations in the UAE (Al Ain region, Shimal) and Lebanon (Tell Koubba), and currently co-directs the Tall Dayr ʿAlla Project (2022-present). Together with co-Investigator Dr. Diederik J. H. Halbertsma, he oversees the publication project of Tall Dayr ʿAlla Phase IX.