Dries Tys graduated in 2003 with a Ph-D dissertation on the medieval landscape of coastal Flanders (as Ph-d fellow of the Research Foundation Flanders - FWO). In 2005 I became Lecturer in Medieval Archaeology at the VUB and since 2019 I am Professor (Hoogleraar).
I teach courses in the general field of Medieval Archaeology, Landscape Archaeology and Archaeological Methods and Theory as well as the General Introduction to Archaeology for the first year students.
My research focuses on the development of medieval landscapes and settlements in relation to social formations and strategies of social reproduction. I direct several projects on landscape history and archaeology in the medieval period, a.o. on coastal identity in the early medieval period, on the start of the urban phenomenon between the 8th and 12th centuries, on trade and communications in the medieval North Sea World and on the understanding of rural villages and rural living conditions.
Today, the research develops around 1) Landscapes & Governance (between the Frankish period and the Feudal period) with attention for the landscape of social equality and inequality, 2) The archaeology of religion and burial communities, as expressed for instance in cremation graves (Belspo Excellence of Science project Crumbel: Cremations, Urns and Mobility - Ancient Population Dynamics in Belgium) and in late medieval urban cemeteries, 3) urban origins: the development of what it means to be urban (infrastructure, people, health, environment), 4) Public Archaeology, 4) methods & theory (geoarchaeology, bioarchaeology, landscape archaeology, urban archaeology)
Since 2012 I became a member of the Committee of the Medieval Europe Research Community (MERC) and since 2015 I am the Chair of this international group that wants to develop connections between the medieval and other archaeologists in Europe and elsewhere. MERC is today an important Community associated to the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA). I am also Vice President of the Society for Medieval Archaeology.

Tags: Medieval Archaeology, Burial Archaeology, Geoarchaeology, Bioarchaeology, Urban Archaeology, Public Archaeology

Current Projects:

EOS (Excellence of Science): CRUMBEL: Cremations, Urns and Mobility - Ancient Population Dynamics in Belgium

PI's Dries Tys & Christophe Snoeck for VUB: in close collaboration with Dr. Barbara Veselka, Dr. Ioannis Kontopoulos, Rica Annaert, Elli Stamataki & Marta Hlad

This project is an interdisciplinary collaboration between natural scientists of VUB, ULB, UGent, and KIK/IRPA, where cremation burials from between the Neolithic and the Early Middle Ages will be studied from a mutual bioarchaeological (isotope studies and osteoarchaeology) perspective and a cultural perspective (burial rites). This is a collaboration between Dr. Christophe Snoeck (VUB), Prof. Martine Vercauteren (ULB), Prof. Guy De Mulder (UGent) & Dr. Mathieu Boudin (KIK/IRPA).

https://www.crumbel.org/
01/01/2018 - 30/09/2022

SRP64: SRP-Groeifinanciering: The Archaeology of Coastal Communities: social resilience, innovation and adaptation in landscape, settlement and material culture driven by migration and globalization, climate and environment,

Karin Nys & Dries Tys, in collaboration with Barbora Wouters, Yannick Devos, Luc Vrydaghs & Ralf Vandam. phd students: Rosalie Hermans & Sarah Lo Russo
1/03/19 → 29/02/24

IRP18: Interdisciplinary research programme: The Make-Up of the City: A Transdisciplinary Study of Urban Society in the Pre-Modern Low Countries

Bart Lambert, Dries Tys, Philippe Claeys, Steven Provyn, Christophe Snoeck & Thyl Snoeck
1/11/19 → 31/10/24

FWOTM967: The people behind the ashes. Interaction between bioarchaeological and geochemical research for the analysis of burned human remains from forensic and archaeological contexts.

Aspirant-FWO fellowship for Marta Hlad,

supervisors: Dries Tys & Christophe Snoeck
FWO Aspirant; 1/11/19 → 31/10/23

FWOTM846: FWO Outgoing [PEGASUS]² Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellowship partner agreement Soetkin Vervust 'Assessing the historic character of cultural landscapes: an integrative approach using remote sensing, scientific dating and digital data analysis'

Dr. Soetkin Vervust, in collaboration with Dries Tys (VUB) & Sam Turner (Newcastle University)
01/06/2017 - 30/09/2020

FWOTM923: New insights into the early medieval society in Northern-Francia from the beginning of the 5th to the end of the 7th century, based on the research results of the Merovingian cemetery at Broechem (B, province of Antwerp).

Phd Rica Annaert, supervisor Dries Tys
FWO, bijzondere doctoraatsbeurs
1/09/18 → 31/08/19

FWOTM679: Rurale en kleine stedelijke populaties in de Lage Landen en Noordwest- Europa (AD 1100-1800) - het profiel van de plattelandsbewoners en stedelingen uit de lagere klasse doorgelicht adhv bestaande en nieuwe osteologische analyses.

PhD Marit van Cant, supervisor Dries Tys

zie ook: OZR2702: Bilaterale samenwerking in het kader van gezamenlijke doctoraatsprojecten_Bench fee i.h.k. van Joint PhD VUB-University of Sheffield UK, Marit Van Cant, supervisors Dries Tys (VUB) & Dawn Hadley (Sheffield); 01/10/2013-01/10/2018

UNESCO CHAIR on Critical Heritage Studies and Safeguarding the Intangible Cultural Heritage; Marc Jacobs & Dries Tys

OZR3148 & FWOSAB3: Coastal Societies and Cultural transformations: the impact of state formation and the shift in social, political and economical attitudes and worldviews along the North Sea Littoral of Flanders in context, 8th-11th century, Sabbatical Dries Tys
1/10/17 → 30/09/18

HERC46: FWO Hercules MZW: A walk on the wild side of stable isotope biogeochemistry

Claeys, P., Elskens, M., Olde Venterink, H., Nys, K., Tys, D., Kervyn De Meerendre, M., Huybrechts, P., Van Griensven, A., Huysmans, M., Thiery, W. & Snoeck, C.
FWO & HERCULES financieringen
1/05/18 → 30/04/22

PhD students

• Rosalie Hermans: in co-supervision with Karin Nys: The Archaeology of Coastal Communities: A Micromorphological Perspective of Space and Landscape of Coastal Landing Places

• Elisabeth Stamataki: in co-supervision with Martine Vercauteren, ULB, CRUMBEL project: Changes in cremation practices in Belgium from the Neolithic to the Carolingian period.
• Marta Hlad: in co-supervision with Christophe Snoeck, FWO & CRUMBEL project: The people behind the ashes. Interaction between bioarchaeological and geochemical research for the analysis of burned human remains from forensic and archaeological contexts.
• Dirk Callebaut: the early urban development of the Schelde portus of Ename around the year 1000
• Lotte Govaerts: in co-supervision with J. Daniel Rogers, Smithsonian USA, City formation and urbanization at the Frontier of Eastern USA, late 19th c
• Danielle Caluwé: drinking vessels and culture from urban sites in 15th to 16th century towns in the duchy of Brabant
• Rica Annaert: New insights into the early medieval society in Northern-Francia from the beginning of the 5th to the end of the 7th century, based on the research results of the Merovingian cemetery at Broechem (B, province of Antwerp
• Marit Van Cant: in co-supervision with Katie Hemer (joint phd with Sheffield university): osteological analyses of the health of late medieval urban populations in Flanders
• Jordi Bruggeman: Porcelain in the southern Low Countries (working title)

• Bas Aerts: Motte-burchten in Brabant. Rol en betekenis in opkomst en groei van het hertogdom (1000-1250)

• Marijke Mortier: Tempeliers en Hospitaalridders in het Graafschap Vlaanderen. Formatie, inplanting en de impact van het patrimonium in het landschap, geplaatst in een ruimere geografische context.
• Jan Moens co-supevised by Prof. Dr. Wim Declercq, University of Ghent (joint phd with Ghent University): shoe production and repair in the late medieval urban centres in the southern Low Countries
• Sarah Dalle: CRUMBEL project, co-supervisor in addition to Prof. Guy De Mulder of Ghent University: Migration and travel in Belgium from the final Neolithic until early historic times
• Inez Leroy, co-supervisor in addition to Prof. Laurent Verslype, of University of Louvain la Neuve): the early to late medieval landscape setting of the Carolingian port of trade of Quentovic in the Canche Valley, France

Research Groups:

MARI (Maritime Cultures Research Institute), BREL (Brussels Heritage Lab),
associated with: HOST (Urban History), FOST (Food Studies)