Environmental Archaeology

Müge Ergun (2018-2020 ANAMED Environmental Archaeology Fellow)

Müge Ergun is an archaeologist and archaeobotanist who holds a Ph.D. from Istanbul University’s Department of Prehistory and Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University Doctoral School of Archaeology (co-tutelle, 2016), and an M.A. from Istanbul University’s Department of Prehistory (2009). Her research focuses on people-plant interactions, plant-based activities in daily and seasonal routines, and their effects on the economic and socio-cultural lives of communities, with a special interest in the beginnings of agriculture and the domestication process in Southwest Asia. She has recently been working on projects focusing on early Neolithic communities from Central Anatolia (Aşıklı Höyük and Balıklı) and North Cyprus (Tatlısu- Çiftlikdüzü (Akanthou-Arkosykos)).

Hannah Lau (2018-2020 ANAMED Environmental Archaeology Fellow)

Hannah Lau is an anthropological archaeologist whose research uses zooarchaeological data to examine the relationship between ancient peoples’ animal management practices, the environment, and sociopolitical complexity. She received her Ph.D. in Archaeology from the University of California, Los Angeles (2016) where her work documented social and economic cooperation and coordination in agropastoral production among inhabitants at the Halaf period site of Domuztepe (ca. 6000–5450 BCE) in southeastern Türkiye. Dr. Lau has fieldwork experience at a number of sites in the Near East and South Caucasus. In addition to her work in Türkiye, she has worked in Azerbaijan since 2009 in the southeastern province of Lerik and in the Autonomous Republic of Naxçıvan.

Benjamin Irvine (2020-2022 DAI-ANAMED Environmental Archaeology Project Fellow)

Benjamin Irvine is a bioarchaeologist who specialises in utilising osteological, archaeological, and stable isotope analyses to examine human-environment interactions, dietary habits, subsistence practices, agricultural strategies, and mobility patterns of populations in ancient Anatolia and neighbouring regions. He is currently a Post-Doctoral Fellow on the DAI-ANAMED joint research project “Humidity & Society: 8,500 Years of Climate History in Western Anatolia”, as well as an Honorary Research Fellow of the BIAA.

Ceren Çilingir  (2020-2023 DAI-ANAMED Environmental Archaeology Project Fellow)

Ceren Çilingir is an archaeobotanist and a PhD student in the Prehistory Department at Istanbul University. She holds a MSc degree from Middle East Technical University, Settlement Archaeology Program and an undergraduate degree from Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts, Archaeology department. In her dissertation, she aims to understand the food economy through agricultural technologies, traditional farming methods, and the use of plants that are cultivated from Tepecik-Çiftlik (6300–7000 BC). In this direction, she has been conducting ethnoarchaeological field studies since 2010, where she documents the traditional crop processing methods still used in the district of Niğde-Çiftlik and its surrounding villages. Her research interests include ethnoarchaeological interpretations of cultivation and food preparation, plant-based subsistence strategies and human-plant interactions in the prehistoric communities of Near East.