May-Sarah Zeßin

May-Sarah Zeßin is a dedicated and passionate archaeologist. She holds a B.A. in Cultural Studies from the Europa-Universität Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder) and an M.A. in History and Cultures of the Ancient Near East from Freie Universität Berlin. She completed her doctoral dissertation at Goethe University Frankfurt in April 2025. Her PhD thesis (translated title: Technological Aspects of Glazed Architectural Elements in the Ancient Near East: A Diachronic Study of Marks on Glazed Bricks from the First Millennium BCE), explores the material and technological dimensions of ancient architectural elements, with a particular focus on production and craftsmen’s marks on glazed bricks in the first millennium BCE in Mesopotamia and today’s western Iran.

From 2017 to 2022, May-Sarah Zeßin was a research associate at the Vorderasiatisches Museum Berlin (VAM), coordinating the GlAssur project funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and primarily responsible for the scientific documentation and analysis of over 3,000 glazed brick fragments from Ashur (northern Iraq). She also contributed to the Babylon project at the VAM through epistemological studies of various artifact groups and archival materials from Babylon (southern Iraq). Previously, she worked at the German Archaeological Institute (DAI, Eurasia Department), where she led archival digitization and was responsible for the planning and execution of excavations in northern Iran (Tappeh Rivi, North Khorasan Province).

Her research approach is characterized by a strong commitment to interdisciplinary methodologies, bridging archaeological science, philology, and museum studies. May-Sarah Zeßin actively engages in international collaboration, having conducted field and archival research in France, Italy, the United States, Northern Sudan, Iran, and Israel. She considers transnational scholarly exchange essential for addressing complex research questions in ancient material culture. Her primary research interests center on craftsmanship and cultural exchange in the Ancient Near East during the first millennium BCE.

Her work has been supported by international fellowships, including a 2021 research grant from the Humans Against Poor Scholarship Foundation (H.A.P.S.). In the same year, she received the Ancient Tiles Prize for her presentation on marks on Neo-Assyrian glazed bricks from Ashur at the ICAANE conference in Bologna.

May-Sarah Zeßin has presented her research in a various academic and public formats, including at the State University of New York and through the 'Digital Hammurapi‘ online initiative and YouTube channel. 

As a Research Scholar at ISAW, May-Sarah Zeßin continues to explore the intersection of archaeological practice, craftsmanship, and material culture in the ancient Near East, with a particular focus on the interpretation of production and craftsmen’s marks on ivories, stone objects, and glazed bricks from the first millennium BCE.