Lecture by Erica Rowan: "Peaches, Plums, and People: Late Antique Diet in Western Anatolia"

Boğaziçi University Byzantine Studies Research Center cordially invites you to a lecture by Erica Rowan: "Peaches, Plums, and People: Late Antique Diet in Western Anatolia" as part of the lecture series "Foodways in the Mediterranean".

The lecture will be held at Boğaziçi University, South Campus, Anderson Hall (Temel Bilimler Binası), Room 310 on March 26, 2026 at 5:00 pm.

To register, if you are not affiliated with Boğaziçi University, please contact byzantinestudies@bogazici.edu.tr

Abstract

The late antique period in Western Anatolia was one of great change. Earthquakes, plagues, invasion, climate change and economic instability forced people to alter and adapt their lifestyles. In light of such disruption, many scholars have questions to what extent diet changed or remained the same from the Roman period. Archaeobotany, the study of ancient plant remains, can provide crucial information about food production and consumption. This paper will focus on the archaeobotanical evidence for diet in Western Anatolia, focusing in particular on the site of Aphrodisias. It will look at the way people adapted to new ways of living, and made use of the resources at hand.

Bio
Erica Rowan is an Associate Professor of Classical Archaeology in the Department of Classics at Royal Holloway, University of London. She is currently in Istanbul on an ANAMED senior research fellowship. Her research focuses on ancient consumption practices, the evolution of food identities and cultures, and alternative fuel sources, particularly in the Roman period. She has written extensively on non-elite diet and on the use of olive oil pressing waste as an important fuel source in the ancient Mediterranean. Erica was the co-director of the recently completed SOFRA project that looked at ancient and traditional foodways in Manisa province and she is currently co-director of the British Council funded project Sustainable Ethical Cattle from Antiquity to the Anthropocene. She is the archaeobotanical specialist on the Aphrodisias, Sardis (Turkey), Villa of Titus, and Falerii Novi (Italy) excavations.