Shiyanthi Thavapalan

In Dutch

Shiyanthi Thavapalan studies what the history of craftsmanship and technology can tell us about ancient Mesopotamian concepts of nature and knowledge. She combines linguistic, historical and material-cultural analysis to investigate how Mesopotamians conceptualised and categorised natural substances such as minerals and plants, and what role technologies, tools and theoretical models played in their attempts to understand and explain their material world. Her work demonstrates how closely craftsmanship, technology, knowledge and scholarship were intertwined in ancient times.