PhD at the University of Warwick
Nathalia B. Kristensen has been awarded a full PhD scholarship from October 2020.
Nathalia B. Kristensen has been offered and has accepted a PhD position in Classics and Ancient History at the University of Warwick with Professor Kevin Butcher as her supervisor. The project will use the coinage of Palmyra as an investigative tool, enabling us to understand the monetisation processes and economic patterns of Roman Syria. In addition to the numismatic material, Palmyra provides a wealth of evidence that includes trade and tax inscriptions, informing us of monetary use and economic patterns in the city. This project will thus cast light on the Palmyrene coins and give new knowledge to the complexities of ancient economies and societies. Nathalia Kristensen will start her PhD in on the 5th of October 2020.
Nathalia Kristensen has worked on the Palmyra Portrait Project, funded by the Carlsberg Foundation and directed by Professor Rubina Raja, since 2016; first as a student assistant and after submitting her MA thesis in 2018 as a research assistant. She is currently a research assistant on both the Palmyra Portrait Project as well as the new project Circular Economy and Urban Sustainability in Antiquity, directed by Professor Rubina and funded by the Carlsberg Foundation and the Augustinus Foundation.
Her MA thesis Coinage and Identity: An Iconographic Study of the Coinage of Palmyra from 312 BCE – 272/273 CE was supervised by Professor Rubina Raja, and examined the reflection of a civic identity in Palmyra in its local coinage. The PhD project very much builds on her previous work on the Palmyrene coins from her MA thesis. It further developed because of the strong research environment she has been part of at the Palmyra Portrait Project and the new Circular Economy and Urban Sustainability in Antiquity project, which aims to provide new perspectives on the ancient economy of Palmyra.
Nathalia Kristensen will continue to be part of the Circular Economy and Urban Sustainability in Antiquity project as an external collaborator after starting the PhD. Professor Kevin Butcher and Professor Rubina Raja furthermore plan joint collaborations on the economy of Roman Syria and Palmyra and Nathalia Kristensen will function as a go between.