Dimitri Van Limbergen
@divali.bsky.social
I am a classical archaeologist and historian specialized in the study of ancient agriculture, food production and economy, with a particular focus on all things related to wine and olive oil. My research has an outspoken holistic and transdisciplinary character, merging archaeology and history with earth and environmental sciences, and applying creative comparative perspectives across a range of disciplines and periods. I mostly work on Roman Italy and the Western Mediterranean, but I often expand my attention geographically and chronologically. On the one hand, I am interested in how human-environmental interactions in the past shaped agrarian and productive landscapes, and how these dynamics impacted wider economic and socio-political systems. For wine in particular, I have ideated and developed the approach of paleo-terroir, which deals with the close relationship between landscape, climate and man in vine cultivation strategies and wine production infrastructure. On the other hand, I also explore the fascinating link between ancient and pre-industrial crop cultivation and food production practices, and disentangle how modern ideas and perceptions have often led to erroneous interpretations of the past. As such, I have revolutionized our knowledge of Roman vineyard layout and most recently the vinification process and sensory profiles of Roman wines.
I hold a double PhD in Archaeology from the universities of Pisa and Ghent (2015), and I was a postdoctoral researcher at the latter institute from 2015 until 2023. I was a Fellow of the Academia Belgica and the Belgian Historical Institute in Rome, the Collegio dei Fiamminghi in Bologna, and the DAI in Berlin, and a Visiting Scholar at Columbia University in the City of New York (BAEF) and Padova University. I am currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Verona under the auspices of the ArchaeoAdWine project, and a member of FOST - Interdisciplinary Historical Food Studies at the Free University of Brussels. I am an editorial board member of BABesch and the Revue Belge de Philologie et d'Histoire, and a core member of the AWOP (Ancient Wine and Oil Presses) network, with partners in Bologna, London and Warsaw.
My latest work on Roman winemaking in earthenware vessels was published in Antiquity (2024). Recent publications include the edited books Reframing the Roman Economy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022), Methods in Ancient Wine Archaeology (Bloomsbury, 2024, second edition in 2025), and Vine-growing and Winemaking in the Roman World (Peeters, 2025). I am currently under contract at Routlegde to write a new introduction to the archaeology of ancient wine and olive oil. I am also a contributor to the upcoming A Cultural History of Wine in Antiquity (Bloomsbury 2024) and The Handbook of Roman Rural Archaeology (Cambridge 2025).
Phone: +32486902746
Address: Università degli Studi di Verona
Dipartimento di Culture e Civiltà
Viale dell'Università 4
37129 Verona
I am a classical archaeologist and historian specialized in the study of ancient agriculture, food production and economy, with a particular focus on all things related to wine and olive oil. My research has an outspoken holistic and transdisciplinary character, merging archaeology and history with earth and environmental sciences, and applying creative comparative perspectives across a range of disciplines and periods. I mostly work on Roman Italy and the Western Mediterranean, but I often expand my attention geographically and chronologically. On the one hand, I am interested in how human-environmental interactions in the past shaped agrarian and productive landscapes, and how these dynamics impacted wider economic and socio-political systems. For wine in particular, I have ideated and developed the approach of paleo-terroir, which deals with the close relationship between landscape, climate and man in vine cultivation strategies and wine production infrastructure. On the other hand, I also explore the fascinating link between ancient and pre-industrial crop cultivation and food production practices, and disentangle how modern ideas and perceptions have often led to erroneous interpretations of the past. As such, I have revolutionized our knowledge of Roman vineyard layout and most recently the vinification process and sensory profiles of Roman wines.
I hold a double PhD in Archaeology from the universities of Pisa and Ghent (2015), and I was a postdoctoral researcher at the latter institute from 2015 until 2023. I was a Fellow of the Academia Belgica and the Belgian Historical Institute in Rome, the Collegio dei Fiamminghi in Bologna, and the DAI in Berlin, and a Visiting Scholar at Columbia University in the City of New York (BAEF) and Padova University. I am currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Verona under the auspices of the ArchaeoAdWine project, and a member of FOST - Interdisciplinary Historical Food Studies at the Free University of Brussels. I am an editorial board member of BABesch and the Revue Belge de Philologie et d'Histoire, and a core member of the AWOP (Ancient Wine and Oil Presses) network, with partners in Bologna, London and Warsaw.
My latest work on Roman winemaking in earthenware vessels was published in Antiquity (2024). Recent publications include the edited books Reframing the Roman Economy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022), Methods in Ancient Wine Archaeology (Bloomsbury, 2024, second edition in 2025), and Vine-growing and Winemaking in the Roman World (Peeters, 2025). I am currently under contract at Routlegde to write a new introduction to the archaeology of ancient wine and olive oil. I am also a contributor to the upcoming A Cultural History of Wine in Antiquity (Bloomsbury 2024) and The Handbook of Roman Rural Archaeology (Cambridge 2025).
Phone: +32486902746
Address: Università degli Studi di Verona
Dipartimento di Culture e Civiltà
Viale dell'Università 4
37129 Verona
less
InterestsView All (40)
Uploads
Conference programs by Dimitri Van Limbergen
While the conference is in the first place a physical gathering, some of the talks are virtual and the event can also be followed online via Teams. Those interested in online attendance can register on the dedicated Eventbrite page: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/wine-and-institutions-in-the-ancient-world-tickets-759557515977 Registered participants will receive the team links for both days on December 6.
Conference theme
Wine was deeply embedded in ancient Mediterranean societies at all levels, especially in the Greco-Roman world. It was the beverage of choice for the wealthy and the poor, the most important intoxicant in the ancient world and a major source of calories in the daily diet. Wine was universally used in ceremony and medicine, and its drinking equivalent to civilized socio-cultural behavior. This put wine on the tables of all classes and kinds of people, from the common man to the emperor, from slaves to citizens, from military men to civilians, and from pagan to believer.
This widespread and profound importance of wine in ancient societies and economies made it the object of recurrent and widespread exploitation and control by various institutions, including first the ruling elites, states and legal bodies - e.g., in trade and provisioning by statal supply mechanisms (cf. the Roman annona or the Greek polis), in agriculture through the presence of rural government-owned estates, and in legislation by giving privileges or tax reliefs to producers and traders - but also religious organizations (e.g., productions connected to temples, churches, monasteries, etc.) and both civilian and military associations in town and country.
This conference explores how wine was produced, traded, and consumed within these kinds of institutional frameworks in the ancient Mediterranean, in East and West, and from Classical to Late Antiquity.
The conference also hosts a keynote lecture by Jon Seligman on The wine presses and kilns of Yavne – technology, quantification and the terroir of Gaza and Ashqelon. Jon was originally planning to give his lecture in Ghent, but due to the terrible turn of events, he will be joining us online to discuss his important and fascinating work.