The NWO VIDI grant is targeted at researchers who have completed their doctorates and already spent some years conducting post-doctoral research, thereby demonstrating the ability to generate new ideas and bring them independently to fruition. They will be given the opportunity to develop their own innovative lines of research and themselves to appoint one or more researchers to assist them in the task.

The Netherlands Organisation of Scientic Research (NWO) has granted the VIDI application of Dr. Miguel John Versluys for the research

Where Greek influences on Roman cultural innovation have always been dominant and well studied, the picture is not balanced and complete without an integrated understanding of the second important influence by Egypt. An integrated synthesis based on analyses of different forms of appropriation of Egypt in different contexts and in different sources will deepen our knowledge on the Roman motives for the selection and use of ‘foreign’ elements.  

The challenge is to provide the next step in the understanding of Egypt in the Roman world by means of an integrated synthesis. The research will use a multi-disciplinary research strategy that puts the process of Roman cultural innovation central. For the first time in this field, archaeological, archaeometric, historical and written sources, methods and analyses will be combined. The project will focus on the relation between archaeological data and literary-historical sources and will investigate why and how Egyptian elements were selected and used, and how they functioned in the Roman system of cultural innovation.

The study of the processes at work in the globalising Roman Mediterranean is highly relevant to our own society: in fact, we are still very much part of developments that began in the ancient world. The outcome of globalisation may be something new: the process itself can be readily compared to what happened in the Roman world. Understanding how Roman society used its cultural plurality can thus very well play a role in important current discussions on the functioning of ‘empires’, the ‘identity’ of present-day societies and of the cultural dimensions of innovation and globalisation.  

Especially relevant is the ‘material culture perspective’ to the debate on cultural innovation this research will be able to provide. Material culture sources often provide a rather different perspective than other sources do. If we want to study cultural innovation as a process we are in need of critical analyses of several types of source material and that is exactly what this research will provide.  

Moreover, placing an emphasis on the foreign influences that ‘were’ Rome, will make us think critically about our perception of what is often still called ‘classical’ Antiquity. The term ‘classical’ indicates the strong positive value judgement of Greece and Rome as unique and superior in their time and (therefore) our cultural and moral predecessors. The last decades have seen important debate on this matter. The central question therein could be formulated as “how classical actually is Classical Antiquity?” An exhibition on this question in Germany in 2002 (Die Griechische Klassik. Idee oder Wirklichkeit) has led to a lot of public amazement and discussion. In the Netherlands such broader discussions have been limited. The research will add to this important intellectual discussion.