Biography
Van der Veen studied History and Archaeology at the University of Groningen. During this time she worked together with Jan Lanting on the Bronze Age barrow landscape,and their circular post settings,at the Hooghalen-estate in the Dutch province of Drenthe. At the University of Sheffield,she studied for a MA in Economic Archaeology and a PhD in Archaeobotany. [1] [2] Following her PhD,Van der Veen worked at Durham University as the English Heritage advisor for environmental archaeology in northern England. [1] In 1992 Van der Veen joined the School of Archaeology and Ancient History,University of Leicester and was promoted to Professor in 2005. [1]
Her research has focussed on the Iron Age and Roman periods in Britain,and Roman and Islamic periods in Egypt. [3] Early work established statistical methodologies for archaeobotanical analysis, [4] and pioneered the sampling of archaeological sites in northern Britain. [5] This work demonstrated that Iron Age societies in northern England were undertaking cereal cultivation. More recently,Van der Veen has reconsidered the interpretation of the density of charred crop remains at Iron Age sites, [6] and the comparison of modes of preservation. [7] Van der Veen has studied the food supply to Roman quarry sites Mons Claudianus and Mons Porphyrites in the eastern desert of Egypt,which showed the wide range of foods grown and imported to these remote sites. [8] [9] A major archaeobotanical study of food remains from the port at Quseir al-Qadim,recovered from the 1999-2003 University of Southampton excavations,showed new insights to Roman and Islamic trade. Finds included garlic gloves,citrus rind,banana skins,and black pepper. [10] Her study on Quseir al-Qadim has been described as showing "her ability to recount fascinating botanical investigations of the past in a stimulating and thorough way". [11] Her recent work has focussed on the dispersal of imported plant foods,in Roman Britain, [12] and the Indian Ocean spice trade. [13]
Van der Veen received a Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellowship (2008-2011),and a Research Fellowship at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies (2011–12) for the project Seeds of Change. [3]
Van der Veen has worked to advance archaeobotanical work in Africa,and has edited a proceedings of the International Workshop on African Archaeobotany [14] and several issues of the journal World Archaeology. [15] [16] In 2002 Van der Veen was elected as a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. [17]
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