EVENTS
Assembling the Past: Narratives, Materials and Archaeologists – 18 December 2025
Assembling the Past is an international conference that aims to contribute to the study of material culture – a fundamental aspect of our discipline. It is this year’s iteration of a symposium organised by Research MA students as part of the University of Amsterdam’s course ‘Matter, Materialities and Material Cultures’ in conjunction with the National Research School ARCHON. As such the Symposium seeks to present discussions, debates and research that engage the material both theoretically and through material findings, and from a variety of perspectives, including but not limited to Symmetrical Archaeology, new materialism(s), posthumanism, Material Engagement Theory, Speculative and Agential Realism.
Romeinensymposium 2025 (in Dutch) – 19 December 2025
The Annual Conference on the Roman archaeology of the Netherlands and adjacent areas aims to provide a platform for the exchange of knowledge between professionals working in universities, archaeological companies, heritage institutions, and government. The program includes reports of recent fieldwork as well as analyses of find categories and more synthesizing studies. Since 2017, the symposium is supported by the National Research School ARCHON.
Mortuary Archaeology Workshop Burials without Borders: Diversity in Mortuary Archaeology – 22 January 2026
In this conference, we will focus on the diversity in mortuary practices from around the world and throughout time. Consequently, we will hear from varied specialists with expertise from different focuses within the field and hope to demonstrate the many ways in which mourning, burial, grief, and mortuary rituals are practiced.
Workshop ‘How to get a Postdoc’ – 23 January 2026
ARCHON is organizing a workshop for PhD students: How to get a postdoc. This workshop will be organized with the aim to offer PhD students information about what they can expect from a postdoc position and how to (successfully) apply for one. Topics such as different kinds of postdoc-positions, how to apply for positions and how to write an application will be discussed. The workshop will be given by research grants specialist Marco Last.
Farewell Symposium for Prof. Ton Derks (in Dutch) – 23 January 2026
Onlangs heeft collega Ton Derks de pensioengerechtigde leeftijd bereikt. Ter markering van zijn pensionering organiseert de Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam op vrijdag 23 januari in het NU-gebouw, De Boelelaan 1111, een symposium met als thema: De materialiteit van religie: cultusplaatsen en godheden in de West-Europese en Mediterrane Oudheid. Direct aansluitend aan het symposium zal Ton een afscheidscollege verzorgen onder de titel Macht en religie in het Romeinse rijk: de altaren van keizer Augustus . U bent van harte uitgenodigd beide onderdelen bij te wonen.
Continuous online courses
ARCHON has selected some skills courses that can be followed online at your own pace:
- QGIS course
- Working with databases course
- Rchon statistics course
- Drone Archaeology course
- Agent-Based Modeling for Archaeologists
ARCHON members can obtain credits by submitting a report afterwards.
NEWS
NEW BOARD MEMBER
As of May 2024, Dr. Heleen van Londen is taking the place of Prof. Vladimir Stissi in the ARCHON Board on behalf of the University of Amsterdam. We are looking forward to have her on board, and extend our thanks to Vladimir for his long service in the ARCHON Board.
NEW ARCHON COORDINATOR
We are happy to announce that from 1 January onward Myrthe Sassen will be the new coordinator of ARCHON. Myrthe is a former RMA student from the University of Leiden, and will take over from Yannic Rabou who has chosen a new direction in her career. We want to thank Yannic for her commitment and enthusiasm over the past two years, and are looking forward to having Myrthe on board.
NEW CCvD REPRESENTATIVE
As of 13 December 2023, Dr Rien Polak (Radboud University Nijmegen) is the ARCHON representative in the Centraal College van Deskundigen (CCvD) of SIKB. In this position, he will advocate the interests of academic archaeological research within Dutch archaeological heritage management, in collaboration with Femke Tomas (Saxion University), who holds the seat for education.
TRAVEL TO AND FROM GRONINGEN
In order to facilitate student mobility, ARCHON reimburses up to 60 euros per year (per student) for traveling to and from Groningen for attending educational activities. Travel is only reimbursed for students who send in an evaluation report in order to claim ECTs. Contact our secretary for more information.
ARCHON NEWSLETTER AND MAILINGS
Do you want to stay up to date on ARCHON supported events, funding opportunities and calls for poster/papers/abstracts? Both ARCHON members and non-members can subscribe to out mailinglist. Her you can find the sign up form to the ARCHON mailing list.
MEMBERSHIP
RMA students, PhD students and staff members of the participating institutions can all become members of ARCHON. Membership of ARCHON will give you access to its educational activities, bring you into contact with fellow students and researchers and will provide opportunities to present your work. Read more >>
EVENT FUNDING
Are you a staff member, PhD researcher or RMA student and are you considering organizing an event on your research topic? Did you know that Archon can help you organize and host such events? Read more >>
CONFERENCE SUBSIDY
ARCHON encourages PhD and RMA students to attend and speak at conferences abroad. Therefore we annually award a limited number of conference subsidies to RMA and PhD students for presenting a paper or poster at an international conference. Read more >>
PUBLISH YOUR RESEARCH
ARCHON wants to motivate PhD and RMA students to publish their research! To help you get started, we organize a workshop Publishing for Early Career Researchers, and we have listed a number of online journals that are are open to, or especially meant for, publishing research from Graduate and PhD students. Read more>>
JOBS ETC.
VACANCIES:
The Early Career Archaeologist community created an extensive resource including vacancies, upcoming conferences, data archives and more! More information >>
CONFERENCES:
This index offers an extensive list of upcoming conferences about archaeology. More information >>
PRIZES AND AWARDS:
A number of prizes and awards are available for RMA and PhD students in the Netherlands. We keep track of them in a spreadsheet that you access here.
PHD AND POSTDOC POSITIONS:
Check out Erik Rossenberg’s blog postgraduate opportunities in Archaeology for an up-to-date list of PhD and postdoc positions in archaeology.
John’s Hopkins University has set up a continuously updated repository of federal and private funding opportunities that are intended for postdoctoral investigators. The opportunities are pre-sorted chronologically and alphabetically, and can be searched by funding amount and subject matter.
Arches project (open source software platform) job opportunities.
Fund┋it collects and presents on a single website all research grants and fellowships (post-PhD) available for scholars in the social sciences and humanities in France.
