Elisa Roßberger

Elisa Roßberger is an Assistant Professor with tenure track for Explorative Visual Archaeology of the Ancient Near East at the Free University of Berlin since October 2022. Previously, she held a similar position for Digital Humanities for Near Eastern Archaeology and Assyriology at Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (2021-2022). Her academic journey includes post-doctoral positions at LMU München's Graduate School Distant Worlds and Centre for Advanced Studies.

Dr. Roßberger's educational background includes:

• PhD in Near Eastern Archaeology from Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen (2010, summa cum laude), published as "Schmuck für Lebende und Tote" (2015)
• Graduate studies as a scholarship recipient of the DFG Graduate College "Forms of Prestige in Ancient Cultures" at LMU München (2006-2009)
• Studies in Near Eastern Archaeology, Political Science (International Relations), and Assyriology in Munich, Beirut, and Tübingen (2000-2006)

Her research focuses on the archaeology of Iraq, Syria, and the Levant during the 3rd and 2nd millennia BCE, with particular emphasis on visual culture, multimodality, and digital approaches to ancient studies. She has conducted extensive fieldwork since 2000 at archaeological sites including Ba'ja (Jordan), Gerçin Höyük (Turkey), Tell Burak (Lebanon), Emar and Qatna (Syria), Tilla Bulak (Uzbekistan), and Ur (Iraq).

Dr. Roßberger's scholarly output demonstrates consistent engagement with visual representation in ancient societies, particularly examining cylinder seals, terracotta figurines, and Babylonian imagery. Her work bridges traditional archaeological analysis with innovative digital methodologies, creating new approaches to understanding ancient material culture through multimodal analysis.

Her major research projects include:

• Co-leading the interdisciplinary long-term project "KIŠIB. Digital Corpus of Ancient West Asian Seals and Sealings" since 2025
• Leading the BMBF eHeritage project "Annotated Corpus of Ancient West Asian Imagery: Cylinder Seals" (ACAWAI-CS, 2020-2023)
• Leading the BMBF eHeritage project "Concept for Digitization of Ancient Near Eastern Cylinder and Stamp Seals" (DigANES, 2017-2018)

Dr. Roßberger is actively involved in academic communities:

• Member of the DFG Network "Archaeological Image Research: Limitations and Transgressions of Images" since 2025
• Co-Chair of the NFDI4Objects Community Clusters "Objects as Information Carriers" since 2024
• Editorial board member for "Visual Culture of Ancient Western and Central Asia" (Palgrave Macmillan)
• Co-organizer of multiple international conferences on ancient Near Eastern temple inventories and digital perspectives on seals and sealings