Prof. dr. Leonard V. Rutgers (Ph.D. Duke University 1993) is an archaeologist and historian of religion specializing in the history of the Mediterranean and Europe in Late Antiquity. He is widely known for an interdisciplinary research strategy that integrates archaeology, historical and epigraphic analysis, the natural sciences, and digital methods to investigate the long-term development of religious communities in the ancient world. His research focuses on themes such as migration, diaspora, cultural interaction, and the position of religious minorities. In addition, he develops innovative digital platforms, including a geo-spatial model for Jewish migration developed in collaboration with the Digital Humanities Lab at Utrecht University.

He currently leads the international Genetic Legacies project, an interdisciplinary collaboration with geneticist David Reich (Harvard University) and archaeologists and heritage professionals across Europe. The project combines archaeology, history, and ancient DNA to investigate the long-term history of Jewish communities in Europe between 0 and 1500 CE. By analyzing genome-wide data from ancient and medieval Jewish burial sites—including the 14th-century cemetery of Erfurt—the team offers a rare window onto the early demographic history of Europe’s most significant minority community. Further publications from the project are currently in preparation, including a major monograph with Cambridge University Press.

Rutgers has directed several major international research initiatives. These include the Jewish Villa Torlonia Project, the Jewish Funerary Inscriptions 3D Imaging Project, the Rise of Christianity Project and the Reconfiguring Diaspora Project, whose results attracted worldwide attention, including coverage in Nature and the Journal of Archaeological Science as well as books including Making Myths and Letters in the Dust. These and other projects have been supported by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, the Rothschild Foundation Hanadiv Europe, and several private funders. More recently, Rutgers directed the research theme group Diaspora, Migration, and the Sciences: A New Integrated Approach at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study.

Public Humanities

Rutgers attaches great importance to communicating research to a wider audience. From 2015 to 2018 he wrote a weekly column on archaeology and ancient history for the Dutch financial newspaper Het Financieele Dagblad. He is also the author of several widely read popular-science books on archaeology, including Underground Rome (2000), The Classical World in 52 Discoveries (2018), and Israel on the Tiber (2023). The Classical World in 52 Discoveries became a bestseller and was awarded the Homerus Prize, while Israel on the Tiber received the award for the best book on the art and archaeology of Italy published between 2021 and 2023 (English and Italian translations 2026). Rutgers is currently working on a fourth popular-science book that introduces the rapidly developing fields of ancient DNA research and population genetics to a broader audience.

He is a member of the Pontificia Accademia Romana di Archeologia and the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities, and he edited The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Late Antique Art and Archaeology (2025).

Publications

• Israel aan de Tiber. Joods leven in het oude Rome (2022) (translations into English and Italian in preparation)
• De klassieke wereld in 52 ontdekkingen (2018)
• Making Myths. Jews in Early Christian Identity Formation (2009)
• Subterranean Rome: In Search of the Roots of Christianity in the Catacombs of the Eternal City (2000)
• The Hidden Heritage of Diaspora Judaism (1998)
• The Jews in Late Ancient Rome. Evidence of Cultural Interaction in the Roman Diaspora (1995/2000) 
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Edited Volumes

• Languages of the Jews ( in press)
• Ancient and Medieval Religious Homelands: Essays on Space, Place, and Religion (in preparation).
• The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Late Antique Art and Archaeology  (2 vols., 2025)
• Frontiers. The Transformation and Christianization of the Roman Empire between Center and Periphery. Proceedings of the 17th International Congress of Christian Archaeology (4 vols. 2025)
• Letters in the Dust. The Epigraphy and Archaeology of Medieval Jewish Cemeteries (2023)
• What Athens Has to Do with Jerusalem. Essays on Classical, Jewish, and Early Christian Art and Archaeology in Honor of Gideon Foerster (2002)
• The Use of Sacred Books in the Ancient World (1998)