Jorrit Kelder (Hoorn, 1980), is a Dutch archaeologist and ancient historian. He is known especially for his work on Mycenaean political structures, and in particular his argument (first proposed in 2005 and elaborated on in a 2010 monograph) that the Mycenaean world was a single, unified state (rather than a patchwork of culturally similar, yet politically independent palace states, as had hitherto been proposed).^[1]

Kelder’s professional career is in academic policy and administration, and he worked as a policy officer or adviser for various academic institutions, including the Netherlands Organisation to Scientific Research, the university of Amsterdam, and the university of Oxford. For nearly 9 years, he worked as a Senior Grant Adviser for Leiden University, leaving his post in late 2023 to devote himself to research.^[2] He has held, and continues to hold, various (honorary) affiliated positions.^[3] He was a visiting professor in Greek Archaeology at Ghent University in the 2019-2020 academic year,^[4] a guest researcher at Leiden University,^[5] and an associate member of the sub-faculty of Near and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Oxford and a member of the common room of Wolfson College, Oxford.^[6]

Kelder is a member of the Board of Luwian Studies,^[7] a member of the supervisory board of the Teylers Museum^[8] and serves as a member of the advisory committee of the Dutch Art and Heritage council, the Mondriaan Fonds.^[9] He has been the recipient of various prestigious fellowships, including a fellowship from the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation and a Guest Scholarship at the J. Paul Getty Museum.^[10]

Apart from his work on Mycenaean political structures, Kelder has published extensively on the Mycenaean world and its connections to contemporary civilisations, including Egypt and the Hittite Empire.^[11][12]