Her research interests are agricultural economies, archaeobotany, crop selection, ethnographic studies of traditional food practices, and food security in both the past and the present. Her main regional focus is the Levant and North Africa, with particular attention to Jordan, Israel, Egypt, and Sudan. She is the senior archaeobotanist on the Tall Hisban, Bayda, Shuqayra al-Gharbiyya, and Ghor as-Safi complex (Khirbet as-Sheikh Isa, Tawahin as-Sukkar, Umm Tawabin), Khirbet Safra, and al-Jumaiyil excavations in Jordan, and on the Khirbet Beit Mazmil excavations in Israel. She also works as an archaeobotanist on the EoS-funded AGROS project.
Research summary
Her dissertation project aims to reconstruct the development of the agricultural economy in Islamic Jordan between the 6th and early 17th centuries, focusing on how choices of technologies, crops, and other innovations were shaped by political, cultural, and demographic developments. Six archaeological case studies from southern Bilad as-Sham are evaluated: Tall Hisban, Baydha, Ghor as-Safi (Umm Tawabin, Khirbet as-Sheikh Isa, Tawahin as-Sukkar), Shuqayra al-Gharbiyya, and Khirbet Beit Mazmil.
A model is developed to explore the factors influencing crop and practice choices, integrating data on local climate, geography, crop requirements, and performance, together with ancient and medieval farming practices and technologies. This model is tested using Arabic textual sources, such as farming manuals and administrative documents—some translated by the candidate for the first time—and archaeobotanical data from archaeological sites in Jordan. The archaeobotanical analysis focuses on macro-plant remains (including seeds, fruits, rhizomes, wood, rachis, chaff, and leaves) as well as secondary products such as plant impressions.
The interdisciplinary combination of textual and archaeobotanical evidence makes this research the first genuinely interdisciplinary study of Jordanian Islamic agriculture. It provides new insights into the nature of economic development in the Islamic Empires, contributes to understanding the agricultural aspects of the Roman-Byzantine/Islamic transition, and enables cross-period comparisons through a large, homogenous, and well-documented case study spanning more than a thousand years.