Today we have the opportunity to know better the recently appointed curator of the Ancient Near Eastern collections at the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities (Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, RMO). David Kertai, who has taken his position in Leiden in 2020, has kindly accepted to answer our questions about himself, RMO’s past activities and future prospects, as well as plans and hopes for future activities to carry out during his curatorship. Enjoy the reading!

Please, tell us something about yourself!

I am the new curator of the Ancient Near Eastern collections at the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden (i.e., the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities). I actually started my academic career in the Netherlands by training as an architect before I turned to ancient history and archaeology, ultimately completing my doctorate in Near Eastern archaeology at Heidelberg University. Since then, I’ve taught and conducted research at institutions including University College London, New York University, and the Freie Universität Berlin, while also excavating at sites in Iraq, Syria, and Turkey.

You have been appointed as the new curator of the ancient Near Eastern collections at the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden at a difficult time, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. How has this affected your first months in Leiden, and how has the Museum reacted to the critical circumstances?

When the pandemic first hit, I was a research fellow in the DFG research group “Rethinking Governance in the Ancient Near East” at the Freie Universität in Berlin. The group was very supportive and Berlin was not a bad place to weather the early parts of the pandemic. I moved to the Netherlands and took up my curatorial position in September, when the pandemic was well underway, and the museum has either been closed to the public or opened with a limited capacity since this time. I’ve been lucky as my colleagues have been wonderful in helping me settle in, despite the difficult circumstances. In terms of how the museum has been responding to the pandemic, we’ve been taking the time to develop and rethink the digital presence of the museum, particularly with online exhibitions and talks, and of course we’re continuing to develop in-person exhibitions, some of which are currently open and accessible to the public.

The Dutch National Museum of Antiquities is an interdisciplinary research environment: staff members and scholars connected to it carry out research and projects in the archaeology, history, languages and cultures of Egypt, Classical Antiquity, the Ancient Near East, and the Netherlands. How do you envisage your contribution to these various academic fields in the coming years?

Antiquities museums are inherently multidisciplinary: the stories we tell about the past (our histories) are based on many different types of evidence that have been recovered by archaeologists, philologists, art historians, and other scholars. One of my roles as a curator is to draw on all the diverse types of information we’ve gathered and to make this accessible to a broader audience. The museum’s forthcoming exhibition (2022) on the Lebanese city of Byblos, a project on which I’m currently working, is a great example of this. The city’s rich history can only be told by drawing on evidence from the full range of different sources that are available to us: written, visual, and material / archaeological. And, of course, Byblos itself was a meeting place for many different civilizations over its long history.

What do you see as the main challenges and opportunities ahead for the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities?

The museum aims to be a prominent place for people to encounter, experience, and learn about the past. One of the major opportunities on the horizon, I think, is to showcase the museum’s Near Eastern collections. The museum is the custodian of some very unique archaeological collections from excavations carried out by Dutch scholars at sites like Jebel Aruda, Tell Sabi Abyad, and Tell Bouqras in Syria, Deir al-Alla in Jordan, and Tell Balata in Palestine. I hope we can facilitate both more public and more scholarly access to these collections in the coming years.

Which facilities and opportunities does the Museum offer to students, scholars, and researchers? Do you plan any change and improvements in the future?

The museum is always keen to find ways to integrate our collections into research projects. A lot of work has already been done on gathering and making accessible the original excavation documentation related to the museum’s collections. On this point, I’m especially excited that the final publication of Jebel Aruda has recently been submitted to Sidestone Press, thanks to the extraordinary efforts of Carol van Driel and the late Olivier Nieuwenhuyse. We hope that this publication will be in print soon, and in the meanwhile, these collections are accessible through our online catalogue.

How will your personal research interests in Near Eastern visual and material culture and in the archaeological rediscovery of Iraq and Syria be reflected in your activities as curator of the Ancient Near Eastern collections of the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities?

The history of Near Eastern archaeology, which is a focus of the museum’s current permanent exhibition on the Near East, has been a longstanding scholarly interest of mine. I’m looking forward to continuing the exploration of the history of the museum collections and finding new ways to cooperate with partners in the region and around the world. I’m especially delighted to have the chance to strengthen the museum’s ties with other Near Eastern scholars working or researching in the Netherlands, for instance, as part of the Organising Committee of the upcoming 2023 Leiden Rencontre.

Which exhibition would you organize, if you had all the time and funding you might ever ask for? Do you have in mind any major event that we should all look forward to? How can researchers, scholars, students, and amateurs be informed about your future initiatives?

The first major exhibition I’ve been working on for the museum focuses on the Lebanese city of Byblos and is scheduled for the winter of 2022/2023. This is proving an extraordinary experience: Byblos was pivotal in shaping the history of the Mediterranean, and this will be the biggest special exhibition on the site to date. An incredible number of objects are being loaned by Lebanon for this purpose, and our colleagues at the Directorate General of Antiquities in Lebanon have been absolutely wonderful to work with. Information on the upcoming exhibition, as well as on the museum’s forthcoming Near Eastern publications, public talks, and other events, can be accessed through the museum’s website or people can follow us at @RM_Oudheden.

Categories: Mar Shiprim