Archaeological Science and the Ancient Environment: Birney Lab
Funded by the National Science Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Birney Lab carries out research on a range of projects at the intersection of archaeology, environmental science, archaeological chemistry, and ancient texts:
Ancient Environment Initiative
OpenARCHEM Archaeometric Database
Archaeological Projects
Tel Shimron, Israel (Head of Persian and Hellenistic Research)
Kastrouli-Desfina Archaeological Project (Co-PI)
Ashkelon, Israel (Assistant Director, 2017)
Works in Progress
- From Ashkelon to Ascalon: Archaeological History of the Hellenistic Period. Final Reports of the Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon, Volume 9, to be published through Eisenbrauns. In press.
Recent Work
- Hellenistic Agricultural economies at Ashkelon, Southern Levant (with J.M. Marston) Vegetation History and Archaeobotany (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-021-00850-1
- The Mycenaean Citadel and Environs of Desfina-Kastrouli: A Transdisciplinary Approach to Southern Phokis (with A.Koh, I. Roy, I. Liritzis). Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry 20.3:47–73 (2020):47–73.
- Ancient Organic Residues as Cultural and Environmental Proxies: The Value of Legacy Artifacts. (with A. Koh.) Sustainability 11.3: 656 (2019)
- An Astynomos at Ascalon. Eretz Israel 33 (Lawrence E. Stager Volume) (2018):25-32
- Phoenician Bathing in the Hellenistic East: Ashkelon and Beyond”. BASOR 378 (2017): 203-22. pdf
- (with A. Koh) Organic Compounds and Cultural Continuity: The Penn Museum Late Minoan IIIC Stirrup Jar from Tourloti. Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry 17.2 (2017): 19-33. pdf
- To the Dregs: Drawing Meaning from the Rhodian Handles of Hellenistic Ashkelon. CHS Research Bulletin 3.2 (2015) pdf
- (with B. Doak). Funerary Iconography on an Inscribed Infant Burial Jar from Ashkelon. Israel Exploration Journal 61/1 (2011): 32-53 pdf
- (with E. Levine). Scale Weights, in D. Stager, D. Master and D. Schloen (eds.) Ashkelon vol. III: The Seventh Century B.C. (Eisenbrauns 2011), 473-92. pdf
- Tracking the Cooking pot à la stéatite: Signs of Cyprus in Iron Age Syria. American Journal of Archaeology 112/4 (2008): 565-580. pdf
Preliminary Excavation Reports, by Season
Tel Shimron, Israel
Grid 94 Season Report 2017
Kastrouli, Greece
South Terrace Preliminary Report 2018
Ashkelon, Israel
Grid 51 Season Report 2014
Grid 51 Season Report 2013 Part I
Grid 51 Season Report 2013 Part II
Grid 51 Season Report 2012
Grid 51 Season Report 2011
Grid 51 Season Report 2010 Part I
Grid 51 Season Report 2010 Part II