Category: Mediterranean Archaeology

Exciting Organic Residue Analysis research in progress at València la Vella

Dr Theoni Baniou, currently conducting postdoctoral research at the Institut Català d’Arqueologia Clàssica (ICAC-CERCA), has made great advances on the application of Organic Residue Analysis (ORA) to investigate foodways and plant exploitation in the Late Antique site of València la Vella (Riba-roja de Túria). Dr Baniou in collaboration with the archaeologists of the site has…
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Ancient Plants, New Partnerships: Archaeobotanical Research on the island of Lesvos, Greece

Marina Daniel has recently returned from an extended research stay on the island of Lesvos as part of her newly launched doctoral project at ICAC-URV, that started in May under the supervision of Dr Alexandra Livarda and Professor Joaquín Ruiz de Arbulo Bayona. Her PhD investigates the agricultural economies of the prehistoric Aegean through archaeobotanical…
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New archaeozoological collaboration in Italy: the Marzuolo Archaeological Project (southern Tuscany)

From July 3 to 10, Dr. Lídia Colominas was in southern Tuscany (Italy) collaborating on the Marzuolo Archeological Project (MAP). There, Dr. Colominas analysed the faunal remains of Podere Marzuolo site (ca. 2 ha), a rural craft centre that was occupied between the 1st century BC and the 3rd century AD. The project directors, Astrid…
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New archaeobotanical collaboration on the archaeobotany of the Bronze Age town of Akrotiri, Santorini 

This June-July Dr Alexandra Livarda visited the archaeological site of Akrotiri at Santorini, Greece, to start a new research collaboration with Dr Anaya Sarpaki, the head archaeobotanist of this important site. Akrotiri was a Bronze Age town, buried under the ashes of the volcanic eruption that led to the destruction of this busy and prosperous…
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Our Roman archaeobotanists in fieldwork and conferences

Our MSCA post-doctoral fellow, Dr Jessie Feito, went for another year to Pompeii with the Casa della Regina Carolina Excavations (University of Bologna, Cornell University, Harvard University). Jessie does the archaeobotany for the project, using archaeobotanical macroremains (e.g., seeds, fruits) to explore plant use within the house and plant-human interactions in one of the largest…
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Workshops and new archaeobotanical projects in East Mediterranean

Charlotte Diffey, our Beatriu de Pinós fellow and member of ICAC’s archaeobotany team, had a really busy month travelling at the east of the Mediterranean!  Charlotte started with a visit in Istanbul where she co-ran the Environmental Archaeology Workshop at ANAMED on the 16th – 17th of May funded by Koҫ University. Several graduate students from Koҫ…
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NEW PUBLICATION: Roman Livestock Husbandry: The Importance of the Countryside

We are pleased to announce that the book “Roman Rural Archaeology: Society, Economy and Culture” has been published, both the digital and the hardback version (https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/roman-rural-archaeology/46E7F36223477BE6C5611883E35AC40F#fndtn-contents). Dr Lídia Colominas has participated in this collaborative book with the writing of chapter 16 entitled “Roman Livestock Husbandry: The Importance of the Countryside”. This chapter explains the place…
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NEW PUBLICATION! From 3D grain shape to past agriculture: a new generation of morphometric analysis

We have just published a new paper in the Journal of Archaeological Science presenting a high-performance approach to 3D morphometrics through deep learning and tabular foundation models. The study uses barley grains as a demanding case study, but its implications extend well beyond archaeobotany: it shows how the full three-dimensional shape of small archaeological and biological objects…
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New archaeozoological project: PASTORA!

We are pleased to announce that Dr Lídia Colominas has been awarded the grant “Ayudas para Incentivar la Consolidación Investigadora. 2025 (CNS2025-165247)”. With this two-years grant, she will develop the project “PASTORA: Alimentando a los domésticos y a los salvajes: estudio de los sistemas de alimentación de los animales en la Iberia romana a través…
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2nd GIAP Seminar 2025-2026: “Linking environmental archaeology and historical ecology: experiences from the NW Italian mountain”

We are pleased to announce the second presentation in our 2025-2026 seminar series. We are especially delighted to welcome Roberta Cevasco, Associate Professor of Geography at the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo (Bra, Cuneo, Italy). The presentation will take place on Tuesday, May 5, at 12 p.m. (CET) and will be online. Access the…
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