Robert Parthesius is director of CIE and appointed as Associate Professor in the Historical-Archaeology of the European Expansion at the University of Leiden. He is a maritime historian and archaeologist.
Robert Parthesius works since the 1980’s on the interface between history and archaeology of the maritime history and European expansion. He holds a doctorate of the history of the European expansion from the University of Amsterdam.
Till 1995 he was coordinating the research for the reconstruction project on the VOC-ship Batavia in Lelystad. This work was the basis for a fruitful cooperation with the Western Australian Maritime Museum. In 1997 he organized the exhibition: ‘From Hartog to the Vlamingh’ covering the Dutch explorations of Australia. He was involved in various maritime archaeological projects. Most important was the Galle Harbour Project in Sri Lanka 1992-1999.
Since 1999 he has coordinated the cooperation between The Netherlands and Sri Lanka in the field of Mutual Heritage. This cooperation resulted in the establishment of a Mutual Heritage Centre in Sri Lanka 2000. From this centre various Sri Lankan-Dutch projects cultural heritage projects have been carried out.
From 1998 till 2005 he was appointed as curator of the Amsterdam Historical Museum. Convinced of the importance of Public Awareness for historical-archaeological research he organized international exhibitions on the European-Asian cultural relations in the 17th and 18th centuries, and published various books and articles on various aspects of the Dutch maritime history.
His ambition to establish infrastructure for maritime archaeology in Asia, as part of a culture and development programme, was materialized in the Avondster-project in the Bay of Galle through which a Maritime Archaeological Unit has been trained and established in Sri Lanka since 2001.
In 2005 he took the initiative to establish the Netherlands Centre for International Heritage Activities
Robert Parthesius lectures Historical-Archaeology of the European expansion at the University of Leiden and is currently involved in Maritime Archaeological Programmes in Tanzania and South Africa.
Contact: + 31 (0)71 5168890 - info@heritage-activities.nl
Find Robert at Cultural Heritage Connections: expert page
