Anne Johnakin

Areas of Interest

Archaeobotany; Bioarchaeology; Organic Residue Analysis; Stable Isotope Analysis; Foodways and Cuisine; Mediterranean and Near Eastern Archaeology; Prehistoric Archaeology

Research Interests & Fieldwork

I am interested in studying cuisine and its material culture in the prehistoric Mediterranean and Near East using techniques such as stable isotope analysis, starch and phytolith residue analysis, and archaeobotany. For my undergraduate thesis, I used microbotanical analysis to study evidence of brewing and baking at the EBA Syrian site Tell Qarqur. My master’s thesis uses carbon and nitrogen stable isotope and radiocarbon dating on crops from Ezero, an EBA site in Bulgaria, to investigate the spread of agriculture to Southeastern Europe. For my doctoral research, I am interested in using microbotanical techniques to investigate prehistoric textile processing and the use of textiles in cooking. Outside of the lab, in 2022 I attended a bioarcheology and paleopathology field school in Limassol Cyprus and, in 2024, I worked on the Korça Neolithic Project in Albania as an archaeobotany specialist.

Papers Presented

Johnakin, Anne. 2024. What’s In a Recipe?: Applying Lessons From Historical Archaeology to the Study of Prehistoric Cuisines. Paper presented at the 2024 Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists, Rome, Italy.