Speaker:  Amr ShahatPostdoctoral ScholarCotsen Institute of ArchaeologyAbstract: Preservation of organic food remains from Ancient Egypt is an exceptional aspect of the archaeology in this region. The level of preservation of these materials has contributed to the early development of archaeobotany and radiocarbon dating. In this talk I will present unpublished food remains from Nag ed Deir, a necropolis situated on the eastern bank of the Nile, and Deir el Ballas, a royal palace complex in Upper Egypt, research that continues this link between the humanities and life sciences. The materials were excavated in the early 1900s by George A. Reisner and Albert Lythgoe and are currently housed at the Hearst Museum of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. I will discuss the results of interdisciplinary analyses applying archaeobotanical and isotopic methods to plant foods from these two sites to understand the anthropogenic impact of climate changes on the foodways and social structures of predynastic Egypt.A new non-destructive nano-archaeology method was developed to analyze beer mash to reconstruct early beer composition from Nag ed-Deir, revealing a beer recipe specific to the region. I employed a long stable isotope experiment to identify the source region of specific foods to differentiate between local versus imported species, the latter group being represented by the earliest evidence of pomegranate and domesticated watermelon. These interdisciplinary approaches enable us to reconstruct the social history of none-elite Egyptian foodways as related to regional identities and cross-cultural interactions. The methods I will present expand our theoretical perspectives from the humanities side, while serving the field of life sciences through the isotopic data which highlights the anthropogenic impact of climate changes on foodways and social structure.Bio: Amr Khalaf Shahat, is a postdoctoral researcher at the Cotsen Institute. He earned his PhD in Egyptian Archaeology and Paleoethnobotany from the Cotsen, and his masters in Egyptology from the University of Memphis. He is interested in the study of Egyptian foodways from tombs and settlements to answer questions related to cultural identities and cross-cultural interaction.