Talk is not in Tuckers Maltings, but 2 doors down. All drinks are £1. Tickets can be Paid for on the door.

Botanical Archaeologies.

Dr Harper Dine is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Archaeology and History at the University of Exeter, where her work involves the analysis of botanical residues (in particular, phytoliths) to understand emplaced human-plant relationships over the long-term in Mesoamerica. She completed her PhD at Brown University in 2025, where she received research support from the National Science Foundation, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, and Fulbright. She also holds an MA in anthropology from Brown University and a BA in anthropology and Spanish from the University of Miami and has published work in the journals Ancient Mesoamerica and Estudios de Cultura Nahuatl.

Plants have always played important roles in human lifeways—as food, fuel, building materials, tools, ornamentals, and clothing. They also feature centrally in many local cosmologies and religious practices, sometimes as animate participants. As living and dynamic beings rooted in the ground, plants provide a unique contribution to senses of place and the co-creation of broader landscapes. This talk will provide an overview of archaeobotany—the study of people-plant relationships in the past—and demonstrate how this botanical dimension of archaeological materiality makes visible important facets of ancient human-environmental practices, with increasing resolution via the application of new techniques. Ancestral Maya people in Mesoamerica used nuanced plant management strategies to navigate the environmental affordances of a diverse landscape. From everyday meals to understandings of human origins, local practices integrated botanical life at mundane, cosmic, and generational scales. Data on agriculture and foodways from recent research in central Yucatán provides a chance to demonstrate the utility of archaeobotanical techniques as applied in cultural context.

Description supplied by the event organiser.