From 2018-2022 I was a member of the multi-year Chawin Punta and Condorai Project (Pasco Province, Highland Central Peru) directed by Nicholas E. Brown (Yale University). As the consulting project archaeobotanist for the duration of excavation activity, I designed and conducted an integrative and comprehensive paleoethnobotanical and paleoenvironmental sampling regimen for the site. I also constructed flotation equipment and implemented best practice sample collection and storage protocols in anticipation of planned future analyses. My research design, which integrated both zooarchaeological and archaeobotanical data collection at multiple scales, was based on questions concerning the relationships between emergent social complexity, agropastoral practice, paleoecology, and the spread of domesticates from the Late Initial Period through the Chavin Horizon.

This multi-method regimen was designed to provide representative samples for traditional analysis of macrobotanical and microbotanical remains derived from from soil and artifacts. It was also designed to also include sampling of human and faunal skeletal remains. Laboratory methods accounted for in the sampling regimen included isotopic analysis, dental calculus analysis, and residue analyses of a range of artifacts.