Dr. Sasja van der Vaart-Verschoof
Sasja van der Vaart-Verschoof is a freelance consultant, researcher and editor known as the Overdressed Archeologist & Editor. In addition to publishing half a dozen books with us, she frequently collaborates with Sidestone Press doing both copy editing, book design and our social media marketing.
Sasja obtained her Research Master cum laude in 2012, and her RMA-thesis was nominated both for the W.A. van Es Prize for Dutch Archaeology (2012) and the Leiden University Thesis Prize (2012). As a student, and later as a research assistant she was involved in the Ancestral Mounds project of David Fontijn. She also worked on the design and construction of the exhibition “Archaeology of the Netherlands” during a yearlong internship at the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities.
From 2012 to 2017 she was a PhD researcher at the Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University (the Netherlands). She was awarded an NWO research grant for her PhD project entitled Constructing powerful identities. The conception and meaning of ‘rich’ Hallstatt burials in the Low Countries (800-500 BC).
She completed her PhD in December 2017, and in June 2018 she was awarded the Joseph Déchelette European Archaeology Prize for her two-volume dissertation Fragmenting the Chieftain published in the Museum of Antiquities’ PALMA series. The same publication would later place second for the W.A. van Es Prize for Dutch Archaeology (2018).
Books by Sasja van der Vaart-Verschoof
Doggerland. Lost World under the North Sea
Edited by Luc Amkreutz & Sasja van der Vaart-Verschoof | 2022
This popular-science book tells the story of one of the most important, but least known major archaeological sites in Europe: Doggerland. Few people know that the beaches along the North Sea lie on the edge…
Heuvels op de Heide
Bronstijd grafheuvels, een ijzertijd urnenveld met elite inhumatiegraf en graven uit de Romeinse tijd op de Slabroekse Heide bij Uden
Edited by Richard Jansen & Sasja van der Vaart-Verschoof | 2021
Zo’n 3000 tot 3500 jaar geleden richten, in een gebied dat we nu kennen als de Slabroekse Heide (Uden, N.-Br.), de toenmalige bewoners een aantal grafheuvels op. Gedurende de daaropvolgende eeuwen werden hier regelmatig mensen…
Doggerland. Verdwenen wereld in de Noordzee
Redactie: Luc Amkreutz and Sasja van der Vaart-Verschoof | 2021
Dit publieksboek vertelt het verhaal van één van de belangrijkste, maar minst bekende archeologische vindplaatsen van Europa: Doggerland. Slechts weinigen weten dat onze stranden aan de rand liggen van een enorm verdwenen landschap. Een prehistorische…
Fragmenting the Chieftain
A practice-based study of Early Iron Age Hallstatt C elite burials in the Low Countries
Sasja van der Vaart-Verschoof | 2017
There is a cluster of Early Iron Age (800–500 BC) elite burials in the Low Countries in which bronze vessels, weaponry, horse-gear and wagons were interred as grave goods. Mostly imports from Central Europe, these…
Fragmenting the Chieftain – Catalogue
Late Bronze and Early Iron Age elite burials in the Low Countries
Sasja van der Vaart-Verschoof | 2017
There is a cluster of Early Iron Age (800–500 BC) elite burials in the Low Countries in which bronze vessels, weaponry, horse-gear and wagons were interred as grave goods. Mostly imports from Central Europe, these…
Connecting Elites and Regions
Perspectives on contacts, relations and differentiation during the Early Iron Age Hallstatt C period in Northwest and Central Europe
Edited by Robert Schumann and Sasja van der Vaart-Verschoof | 2017
The Early Iron Age Hallstatt C period in Northwest and Central Europe is marked by the emergence of monumental tumuli with lavish burials, some of which are known as chieftain’s or princely graves. This new…
Transformation through Destruction
A monumental and extraordinary Early Iron Age Hallstatt C barrow from the ritual landscape of Oss-Zevenbergen
edited by David Fontijn, Sasja van der Vaart-Verschoof & Richard Jansen | 2013
Some 2800 years ago, a man died in what is now the municipality of Oss, the Netherlands. His death must have been a significant event in the life of local communities, for he received an…
Beyond Barrows
Current research on the structuration and perception of the Prehistoric Landscape through Monuments
edited by David Fontijn, Arjan Louwen, Sasja van der Vaart-Verschoof & Karsten Wentink | 2013
Europe is dotted with tens of thousands of prehistoric barrows. In spite of their ubiquity, little is known on the role they had in pre- and protohistoric landscapes. In 2010, an international group of archaeologists…
