The Netherlands Institute for the Near East

Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten  -  Institut néerlandais du Proche-Orient

Georg Cyrus is a Postdoctoral Fellow at NINO (2022-2024), who is specialised in household archaeology and the study of ancient architecture in south-west Asia.

His focus lies on the people that have been marginalised throughout history, such as inhabitants of squatter occupations, the urban lower-class, and deported forced labour in the Neo-Assyrian Empire. He started this research with his doctoral dissertation that investigated the nature and longevity of squatter occupations (see bibliography). These studies he is now continuing with the current project “Lower Classes in the Neo-Assyrian Empire – Reconstructing Standards of Living”. In this project he aims to investigate the living conditions of lower-class people through the domestic architecture they lived in.

He has furthermore been engaged in several excavation projects. Most recently in the excavation of the multi-period settlement Tepe Rivi, which is a joint Iranian-German Mission in the North-Khorasan Province of Iran, covering the Late Bronze Age to Early Islamic period.

Research Interests

Southwest Asian Archaeology, household archaeology, domestic architecture, inequality, agency theory, theory of space, subaltern studies, squatter occupations

Education

Publications

forthcoming: “The Production of Space in the Iron Age Squatter Occupation of Godin Tepe”, Proceedings of the 12th ICAANE.

forthcoming: “Der Geltungsanspruch archäologischer Praxis – wissenschaftliches Arbeiten zwischen Wahrheits- und Normdiskurs“ (the claim of validity in the archaeological practice – scientific work between truth and ethics). In: Theorie | Archäologie | Reflexion. Kontroversen und Ansätze im deutschsprachigen Diskurs.

2021: with Philipp Tollkühn: “Neuzeitarchäologie, Unipolitik und die Macht der Lehre – Susan Pollock an der FU-Berlin” (Archaeology of the modern era, university politics and the power of teaching – Susan Pollock at the Fu-Berlin). In: Pearls, Politics and Pistachios. Essays in Anthropology and Memories on the Occasion of Susan Pollock’s 65th Birthday, S. 533-545.

2021: co-editor of Festschrift Pearls, Politics and Pistachios. Essays in Anthropology and Memories on the Occasion of Susan Pollock’s 65th Birthday.

2020: “The Cultural Aspect of Cleaning in Archaeology – a Case Study from the late Neolithic Site of Fıstıklı Höyük.” In: Cleaning and Value. Interdisciplinary Investigations, S. 89-103.

2018: with Susan Pollock, „Skelettreste unklarer Herkunft. Untersuchungen in Berlin-Dahlem” (human remains of unknown provenance. Research in Berlin Dahlem). In: Archäologie in Berlin und Brandenburg 2016, S. 140-142.

Further information

Academia.edu profile

Leiden University profile page