Gerdes, Rebecca: Travel Grant - 2017-2018

This summer (2017) I propose to participate in the Kalavasos and Maroni Built Environments (KAMBE) Project, which studies the urban transformation of two Late Bronze Age sites in south-central Cyprus. As a Ph.D. student in Classical Archaeology, I am interested in using traces of food and other natural products preserved in pottery and plaster floors to study the role of natural resources in the daily life of ancient Cypriots, and throughout the ancient Mediterranean. The upcoming excavation season of the KAMBE Project would provide the opportunity to design and begin a pilot project using chemical analysis of organic residues that would shape a trajectory for my dissertation, as well as offer necessary excavation experience.