Dr. Philip Bes

Philip Bes is a ceramic specialist who studied Classical Archaeology at Leiden University (1998-2003), followed by doctoral research (2004-2007) at the University of Leuven (Belgium), where he researched the distribution of terra sigillata and red slip ware in the Roman Eastern Mediterranean. Two years of postdoctoral research (2008-2009) also in Leuven were dedicated to ceramic studies within the Sagalassos Project. From January 2010 until November 2021 he worked on an independent (freelance) basis, and while continuing his long-term involvement with the Boeotia Survey (Greece) and the Sagalassos Project (Turkey), this also allowed him to become involved as either consultant or staff member in a number of smaller and larger survey and excavation projects in Greece (e.g. Megara, Skyros, Kenchreai), Turkey (e.g. Ephesos, Limyra, Patara, Pergamon), Israel (Caesarea Maritima, Horvat Kur) and Cyprus (Hala Sultan Tekke). From December 2021 until November 2023 he held a two-year Lise Meitner postdoctoral scholarship at the Austrian Archaeological Institute in Vienna, in order to study and publish the Roman to Early Byzantine pottery from the recent excavations in Limyra.

He regularly publishes and presents scientific results concerning his research interests, which include the regional and supraregional manufacture, circulation and consumption of Late Hellenistic to Early Byzantine pottery, in particular tablewares, amphorae and cooking wares. He is a member of the Rei Cretariæ Romanæ Fautores (RCRF), the International Association for Research on Pottery of the Hellenistic Period (IARPotHP) and the Société Française d’Étude de la Céramique Antique en Gaule (SFECAG). Peer-review activities include the Actae of the Rei Cretariæ Romanæ Fautores and various Turkish and international journals.

Key Publications:

• Bes, P.M. 2015a. Once upon a Time in the East. The Chronological and Geographical Distribution of Terra Sigillata and Red Slip Ware in the Roman East. Roman and Late Antique Mediterranean Pottery 6. Oxford: Archaeopress.

• Bes, P.M. 2015b. The Cide-Şenpazar Region in the Roman Period, in: B.S. Düring and C. Glatz (eds), Kinetic Landscapes. The Cide Archaeological Project: surveying the Turkish Western Black Sea Region, 263-296. Warsaw: De Gruyter.

• Bes, P.M. 2017. Bearing the Stamp of Change: Epigraphic Stamps on Eastern Sigillata A and B, in: M. Flecker (ed.), Neue Bilderwelten. Zu Ikonographie und Hermeneutik Italischer Sigillata. Kolloquium vom 16.-18. April 2015 in Tübingen. Tübinger Archäologische Forschungen 23, 241-270. Rahden: Verlag Marie Leidorf.

• Bes, P.M. 2021. Late Roman Pontic Amphorae found in Limyra (Turkey) and Horvat Kur (Israel): Typology, Provenance, Context, in: E. Sökmen and A. Schachner (eds), Understanding Transformation: Exploring the Black Sea Region and Northern Central Anatolia in Antiquity. BYZAS 26, 495-535. Istanbul: Ege Yayınları.

• Bes, P.M. 2022. Kind of Magic. An Unusual Impression on an Early Byzantine Ampulla (Late Roman Unguentarium) from Limyra. Jahreshefte des Österreichischen Archäologischen Institutes in Wien 91, 65-88.

• Bes, P.M. and J. Poblome 2009. African Red Slip Ware on the Move: the Effects of Bonifay’s Etudes for the Roman East, in: J.H. Humphrey (ed.), Studies on Roman Pottery of the Provinces of Africa Proconsularis and Byzacena (Tunisia). Hommage à Michel Bonifay. Journal of Roman Archaeology Supplementary Volume 76, 73-91. Portsmouth: Journal of Roman Archaeology

• Bes, P.M. and J. Poblome 2017. Urban Thespiai: the Late Hellenistic to Late Roman Pottery, in: J.L. Bintliff, E. Farinetti, B. Slapšak and A.M. Snodgrass (eds), Boeotia Project, Volume II: the City of Thespiai: Survey at a Complex Urban Site, 317-349. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.

• Bes, P.M. and L. Vanhecke 2015. Turning over a New Leaf. Leaf Impressions of Styrax officinalis L. and Vitis vinifera L. on Late Roman Sagalassos Amphorae. HEROM 4.1, 107-166.

• Bes, P.M., T. Brughmans, A. Lichtenberger, R. Raja and I. Romanowska 2020. Ceramics in Cities in Context. An Overview of Published Roman Imperial to Umayyad Pottery in the southern Levant, in: A. Lichtenberger and R. Raja (eds), Hellenistic and Roman Gerasa. The Archaeology and History of a Decapolis City. Jerash Papers 5, 55-118. Turnhout: Brepols.

External link: Philip Bes's Academia.edu profile