THE SOFRA PROJECT TEAM

Erica Rowan is a lecturer in Classical Archaeology at Royal Holloway, University of London. Her research uses ancient plant remains to study past diets and consumption practices. She is particularly interested in the impact of trade and imperial expansion on ancient and contemporary foodways. Since 2017, she has been the lead archaeobotanist at Sardis, working on material ranging from the Bronze Age to Late Antiquity. She has also worked on material from the ancient Turkish site of Aphrodisias.

 

Erica has a MSt in Classical Archaeology and DPhil in Archaeology from the University of Oxford. Her PhD thesis examined the food remains from a Roman sewer in Herculaneum, Italy. Originally from Canada, she has a BA in Classics and a BHSc in Health Sciences from McMaster University. At Royal Holloway she teaches courses on the Food in the Ancient World, Roman Archaeology, Archaeological Methods and Life in the Big City. She is also a co-editor and co-founder of the Archaeology of Food and Foodways journal.