Rubina Raja has been awarded the prize for her extensive archaeological studies spanning from urban communities and networks in the ancient world to iconography in the oasis city of Palmyra. Her research has not only led to new insights into key events in world history, but also paved the way for a new high-definition approach to excavations which has taken international archaeology onto important new paths.

The objective of the Carlsberg Foundation Research Prizes is to acknowledge two active researchers in Denmark or abroad who have made crucial contributions to Danish basic research at a high international level. The prizes were presented by Her Majesty The Queen of Denmark and Danish Minister for Education and Research Christina Egelund in a ceremony at the New Carlsberg Glyptotek.

The Prize Committee’s reasoning 
Rubina Raja is an ambitious pioneer with an extensive and widely acclaimed scholarly contribution. She is a professor of classical archaeology at the University of Aarhus and world-renowned for her research into the dynamics of past urban societies. She broadens the traditional focus of classical archaeology by expanding the view from Greece and Rome to a wider geographical and cultural horizon, by moving beyond a focus on materiality to a comprehensive view of human interactions, and by leaving a linear, power-centred approach to urban cultures in favour of a focus on dynamic human networks of commercial, cultural and communicative exchange. Together with colleagues in archaeology, geoscience and physics, she has developed a high-definition approach to archaeological excavations, thus decisively pushing the international archaeological and historical research agenda.

Read the Prize Committee’s full reasoning

Read the profile on Rubina Raja | Winner of the Carlsberg Foundation Research Prize 2024