Creekside Archaeobotany

 â–ˆ Lisa Gray MSc MA ACIfA

 â–ˆ Archaeobotanist

 â–ˆ Your Specialist - from site to publication

Services Offered

Hello and welcome to my website. In 2023 l decide to call my business 'Creekside Archaeobotany' to honour the landscape l've lived and worked in for years. I live in a Cinque Port market town in Kent with a creek flowing into it that has lots of history and wonderful wildlife. I have been working as an archaeobotanist for over twenty years, working on projects from England, Wales, Ireland and France.

Services I offer:
- Archaeobotanical assessment
- Archaeobotanical analysis
- Charcoal and Waterlogged wood identification
- Preparation of charred plant remains for radiocarbon dating
- Site visits, sampling and processing advice and support
- full C.V. and publication record are available on request

Archaeobotanical Introduction

Archaeobotany is the study of plant macro-remains from archaeological sites. These macro-remains are items we see with the naked eye and under low-powered microscopy, such as seeds, grains, fragments of cereal chaff and fragments of charcoal and waterlogged wood. They help us learn about diet, medicine, craft, trade and can help to reconstruct the local environment, see how that environment has changed over time and how people adapted to those changes.

On Site Archaeobotanist

I have experience as a processor and digger. These experiences have helped me become a better archaeobotanist. I know how it feels to take and record a bulk soil sample while hot, cold, tired and muddy, often following my own sampling strategy. I also know how it feels to lift buckets of soil into a flotation tank all day and try to coax flot out of a range of soil types. I appreciate the work that goes into writing up sample sheets and producing the little bags of clean flot I get sent to assess and analyse. I’ve had the pleasure of being part of a site team, glad to give toolbox talks to support sampling during excavation and train up diggers to multi-skill as processors.

I am keen to support archaeological units set up processing systems at their HQ or on site. I can assist and supervise as members of your team carry out this important part of your archaeological projects. I have experience of running a Siraf type recycling flotation system and carrying out bucket flotation on site.

Research Interests

  

I am interested in the intertidal and underwater aspects of archaeobotany and in 2007 I got an English Heritage Scholarship to enrol in an MA in Maritime Archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London and graduated in 2009 with a Distinction. This mid-career course enabled me to lift my head from the microscope and study an area of archaeology that I rarely encounter in my professional life. My dissertation was about intertidal archaeobotany with a case study of a site on the river Thames foreshore. As a BSAC Sports Diver I've had training in intertidal and underwater archaeology with the Nautical Archaeology Society (N.A.S.) and hope to find a project on which I can use these skills so I can combine my archaeobotanical skills with my diving hobby. I have recently helped CITiZAN take samples of wood for identification from fish traps ( 'hang nets') in Sandwich Bay and hope to be invited to take part in more projects like this. I'm particularly interested in submerged cultural landscapes and am following the development of the archaeology of climate change and hope to find a way to contribute to this important work on dealing with Climate Change. I have also had the opportunity to examine plant macro-remains from two shipwrecks (the VOC Esmeralda and the Sadana Island Shipwreck).

Contact Me

You are welcome to contact me but DON'T use this form. It's never worked. Please call me directly on 07749 002 686 and l'll give you my email address.

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