Dr. Arjan Louwen
Arjan Louwen (1986) studied ‘Prehistory of Northwest Europe’ at Leiden University. Already as a student he developed a keen interest in funerary archaeology and took part in several key-excavations of prehistoric barrows and urnfields. After graduation in 2010, Arjan has worked alternatingly in commercial archaeology (Archol bv. Leiden) and for Leiden University as a field archaeologist. Since 2012 he has worked full-time at Leiden University, first as a teacher and field director, later as PhD-student. His PhD-research revolved around the funerary practices associated with the urnfields in the Lower-Rhine-Basin. Arjan is currently still working at Leiden University as a teacher and trains students in their first field skills.
Key publications:
Fontijn, D./ Q. Bourgeois/ A.J. Louwen 2011. Iron Age Echoes. Prehistoric land management and the creation of a funerary landscape – the “twin barrows” at the Echoput in Apeldoorn, Leiden, Sidestone press.
Fontijn, D.R./ A.J. Louwen/ S.A. van der Vaart/ K. Wentink 2013. Beyond Barrows. Current research on the structuration and perception of the prehistoric landscape through monuments. Leiden, Sidestone press.
Louwen, A.J., 2018. -1629 – Een bronstijdbegrafenis volgens Brusselse conventies? In: ’t Hart, M., K. Davids, K. Fatah-Black, L. Heerma van Voss, L. Lucassen and J. Touwen (eds.). Wereldgeschiedenis van Nederland (Huygens instituut voor Nederlandse geschiedenis). Amsterdam: Ambo/Anthos, 33 – 38.
Louwen, A.J./ D.R. Fontijn 2019. Death revisited. The excavation of three Bronze age barrows and surrounding landscape at Apeldoorn-Wieselseweg. Leiden, Sidestone Press.
Books by Arjan Louwen
Breaking and making the ancestors
Piecing together the urnfield mortuary process in the Lower-Rhine-Basin, ca. 1300 - 400 BC
Arjan Louwen | 2021
Towards the capstone of the European Bronze Age, in an area stretching from the Carpathians in the East to the North Sea in the West, vast cremation grave cemeteries occur that are perhaps better known…
Death Revisited
The excavation of three Bronze Age barrows and surrounding landscape at Apeldoorn-Wieselseweg
Arjan Louwen & David Fontijn | 2019
This book presents a group of small and inconspicuous barrows that were recently discovered in the forest of Apeldoorn, the Netherlands. They are part of an extensive barrow landscape of which little was yet known.…
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…
Iron Age Echoes
Prehistoric land management and the creation of a funerary landscape - the “twin barrows” at the Echoput in Apeldoorn
Edited by David Fontijn, Quentin Bourgeois & Arjan Louwen | 2011
Groups of burial mounds may be among the most tangible and visible remains of Europe’s prehistoric past. Yet, not much is known on how “barrow landscapes” came into being . This book deals with that…
