Multisensory archaeology focuses on sensory dimensions of archaeological sites, artifacts, and landscapes, aiming to reconstruct and interpret past human experiences. The workshop ‘Multisensory Approaches to Egyptian, Near Eastern and Aegean Bronze and Iron Age Palaces’, which took place at the College for Social Sciences and Humanities on 2nd and 3rd June 2025, explored the potential of applying a multisensory framework in the archaeological study of Egyptian, Near Eastern, and Aegean palaces from the Bronze and Iron Age. This post features video recordings of the presentations given at the workshop.
The workshop was co-organised by Uroš Matić and Constance von Rüden who collaborated in a tandem project as part of the College's Senior Fellowship Programme. Uroš Matić is an archaeologist and Egyptologist based at the University of Graz (Austria) and was a Senior Fellow at the College from March to August 2025. Constance von Rüden is Professor at the Institute for Archaeological Studies of Ruhr University Bochum.
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Dr Uroš Matić
University of Graz (Austria) | Egyptology, Archaeology
E-mail: uros.matic@college-uaruhr.de
Uroš Matić is an archaeologist and Egyptologist based as a senior lecturer at the Institute for Ancient History and the Ancient Near Eastern Studies at the University of Innsbruck, and the Institute for Classics at the University of Graz, Austria. His main expertise is in war and violence in ancient Egypt, ancient Egyptian interrelations, settlement archaeology, and gender studies in archaeology.
Matić obtained his PhD from the University of Münster in 2017 and received two prizes for this work (Philippika prize of Harrassowitz in 2018 and Best Publication Award of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in 2020). He held a PRIME fellowship of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) from 2018 to 2019 and received grants from the Foundation for Postgraduates of Egyptology in Vienna in 2016 and 2022. He was co-chair of the Archaeology and Gender in Europe (AGE) community of the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA) from 2016 to 2019.
Uroš Matić taught at the University of Münster (Germany), University of Vienna (Austria), University of Graz (Austria), and University of Innsbruck (Austria). He has more than 100 publications, the most recent being the monograph Violence and Gender in Ancient Egypt (Routledge, 2021) and the edited volumes Gender Trouble and Current Archaeological Debates (Springer, 2024 with Bisserka Gaydarska, Laura Coltofean and Marta Diaz-Guardamino) and Bodies that Mattered. Ancient Egyptian Corporealities (Sidestone Press, 2025, with Dina Serova).
Website
https://www.uibk.ac.at/alte-geschichte-orient/institut/team/dr.-uros-matic-ba-ma.html
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Constance von Rüden is a professor of archaeology at Ruhr University Bochum, specialising in Bronze Age wall paintings in the Eastern Mediterranean and Egypt. With a PhD from the University of Heidelberg, her dissertation Die Wandmalereien von Tall Mishrife/Qatna im Kontext einer ägäisch-syrischen Kommunikation (2007, published in 2011) explored the interplay of art, cultural exchange, and material production in the Late Bronze Age. Since 2010, she has directed the field project ‘The Wall Paintings of Avaris, Tell el-Dabca, Egypt’, which investigates the unique artistic techniques and iconography of this crucial cultural hub. Her work, such as the book Tracing Technoscapes: The Production of Bronze Age Wall Paintings in the Eastern Mediterranean (2018), highlights the complex networks of cultural interaction and materiality that defined this period. She collaborates extensively in interdisciplinary projects, integrating archaeological theory with material studies, particularly through New Materialist perspectives.
Website
https://www.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/archaelogie/institut/personal/vonRueden.html.en
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