Theoni Baniou, GIAP-ICAC PhD candidate, has started on the 1st of September a two-month research stay in Montpellier (France) where she is working with Dr Laurent Bouby, group member of the Dynamics of biodiversity, anthropoecology Research Group at the Institute of Evolutionary Science of Montpellier (ISEM), University of Montpellier. Dr Bouby and the ISEM team are generously sharing their knowledge with Theoni, who is beingtrained on Geometric Modern Morphometrics (GMM) and is applying this training on grape pip samples from the Roman site of Guissona (Catalonia, Spain). The training includes all steps of the processing, from the photograph of the pips and the analysis of the photos to the basic statistical procedures in order to compare the archaeological grape samples with each other and with modern reference samples of domesticated and wild grapevines, using the extensive database of the host centre. The collaboration is very fruitful, and our results seem to be very promising! Watch out this space, our new insights into Roman viticulture are coming soon!
Theoni Baniou is a PhD Candidate, project ‘Exploring Roman tastes: an interdisciplinary approach, using archaeobotany, organic residue analysis and GMM to reconstruct dietary habits in the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula’ and is supervised by Drs Alexandra Livarda & Núria Romaní, with a grant by the Catalan Institute of Classical Archaeology, ICAC-CERCA (CIN21 26.59).
