I am an archaeobotanical scientist with broad interests in Quaternary palaeoecology, and plant food and wood fuel use by hunter-gatherers and the earliest farmers in Southwest Asia and Europe. I specialize in the analysis of carbonized plant macro-remains (wood charcoal, seeds, tubers, etc.) and have published on a variety of topics including the establishment of anthropogenic, managed woodlands in Neolithic Anatolia, the changing nature of pre-agricultural plant food and woodland exploitation by late Pleistocene and early Holocene hunter-gatherers, as well as on quantitative methods in archaeobotany and wood charcoal analysis, with a focus on palaeoecological applications.
Through the study of archaeological plant remains, I investigate how prehistoric hunter-gatherers made decisions, choosing what to eat, how to cook, and how they have impacted and shaped plant resources in their environments.
