Ex Oriente Lux? A Eurasian Perspective on the Formation of the Roman Empire

The research and teaching of Professor Miguel John Versluys explore the cultural dynamics of the Hellenistic-Roman world (roughly 200 BCE – CE 200) from the point of view of Afro-Eurasia. He investigates these processes from local, regional and global perspectives and by means of a variety of methodologies and techniques derived from the Social Sciences & Humanities as well as the Natural Sciences. Interdisciplinarity is key to his research in all respects, as he believes that this approach is the only way to arrive at a comprehensive understanding of the big and long-term picture he is interested in. His research has two distinct focus points: the interconnection of cultures and their various identities (‘Globalisation’), and the interdependence of objects and people (‘Material Culture Studies’). His ambition is to rewrite the history of Antiquity from the perspective of increasing connectivity and developments that took place in (wider) Afro- Eurasia – as part of the Global History of the ancient world – and to do so with a focus on objects and their affordances.