Jennifer Ramsay

Background

About Jennifer Ramsay

Areas of SpecializationArchaeobotany, subsistence reconstruction, trade patterns, environmental change and land-use patterns.Current Research ProjectsI have worked on several multi-disciplinary projects, for example in Israel I worked with the Combined Caesarea Expeditions, the Excavations at Khirbet Qana and the site of Shivta; in Italy I have worked on material from the excavations at Horace’s Villa, the Kaucana project and the Nordic Excavations at Nemi, Julius Caesar’s Villa.I am currently applying a center/periphery theoretical model to the analysis of botanical remains analyzed from several sites in Jordan such as Petra, Humeima, Bir Madhkur, Ayn Gharandal and Roman Aqaba. Specifically I am interested in questions related to agricultural land-use practices in arid environments. This research will also provide information on ancient water conservation in a desert environment that could then be shared with current governmental agencies in the hopes of once again making sustainable agricultural possible in the region.For the last six summers (2008-2013) I have been working with students as the archaeological fieldschool director or assistant site director on sites in Jordan, such as Petra, Bir Madhkur and 'Ayn Gharandal. In the summer of 2008 I was the assistant director and field school director for the Bir Madhkur Excavation and Survey project in Jordan sponsored by George Washington University. In 2009,2011 & 2013 I was the fieldschool director for the Petra Garden and Pool Complex in association with the Behrend College, Penn State Erie, in 2010 I was the fieldschool director for an ethnographic and archaeological fieldschool at several sites in Jordan and excavations at ‘Ayn Gharandal and in 2012 I was the assistant director of the Petra North Ridge Project.