PI: Kathleen Forste

The overarching goal of this comparative project is to study how agricultural choices were driven by political, social and environmental conditions in Palestine during the Early Islamic period (c. 636–1099 CE) through the analysis of charred archaeological plant remains (seeds, plant parts, wood charcoal) and relevant documentary and literary sources.

Towards this goal, multiple lines of archaeological evidence are combined to investigate:

  • How does agricultural production vary between urban and rural settlements?
  • How was the agricultural landscape developed and managed during this period? How did people maintain, or enhance, the productivity of their land?
  • What is the spatial organization of plant use (storage, processing, cooking, discard) within individual settlements?
  • How does the agricultural economy of a settlement intersect with other economic sectors (labor, craft, merchant, timber, etc)?

Currently, work is being undertaken to expand this dataset to include more sites (both urban and rural) across the southern Levant, to investigate the spatial organization of cereal processing, to investigate the intersection of agricultural and craft economies, and to build its reference collection.

This research is conducted with Tel Shimron Excavations, the Caesarea Coastal Archaeological Project, TERRSOC/Khirbet Beit Loya, and the Expedition to Ashkelon, and in collaboration with the IAA.

Recent findings: