Carol Palmer

Carol Palmer is a British anthropologist, environmental archaeologist and ethnobotanist whose research focuses on rural societies, food production, landscape use and ethnobotany in the Middle East. She was Director of the Council for British Research in the Levant from 2020 to 2024 and is an Honorary Research Fellow at the UCL Institute of Archaeology. She is the editor of Peasant Agriculture in the Jerusalem Hills, scheduled for publication by Routledge in 2026.

Education

Palmer completed her PhD at the University of Sheffield in 1994. Her thesis was entitled Reconstructing and interpreting ancient crop management practices: ethnobotanical investigations into traditional dryland farming in northern Jordan. She subsequently undertook postdoctoral research supported by the Council for British Research in the Levant at the University of Leicester and was a research associate at the University of Sheffield.

Career and research

Palmer's research combines anthropology, ethnography, environmental archaeology and ethnobotany, with particular attention to rural livelihoods, foodways and landscape change in the Middle East. Her work has included research on traditional farming practices in northern Jordan, food identity among Fallāhīn and Bedouin communities, and the interpretation of archaeological evidence for crop management and activity areas.

She has contributed to archaeological and landscape survey projects in Europe and the Middle East, including the Antikythera Survey Project, the Wadi Faynan Landscape Survey, and the INEA project at Bournemouth University, where she was listed as a project partner. From 2020 to 2024, she served as Director of the Council for British Research in the Levant.

Selected publications

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Carol Palmer". University College London. Retrieved 10 June 2026.
  2. 1 2 3 "Peasant Agriculture in the Jerusalem Hills". Routledge. Retrieved 10 June 2026.
  3. 1 2 "Dr Carol Palmer". King's College London. Retrieved 10 June 2026.
  4. 1 2 Palmer, Carol (1994). Reconstructing and interpreting ancient crop management practices: ethnobotanical investigations into traditional dryland farming in northern Jordan. White Rose eTheses Online (PhD thesis). University of Sheffield. Retrieved 10 June 2026.
  5. 1 2 Evans, Thomas L.; Daly, Patrick T., eds. (2006). Digital archaeology: bridging method and theory. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0203005262. OCLC 63041383.
  6. ↑ Palmer, C. (2002). "Milk and cereals: identifying food and food identity among Fallāhīn and Bedouin in Jordan". Levant. 34 (1): 173–195. doi:10.1179/lev.2002.34.1.173.
  7. ↑ Palmer, C. (1998). "'Following the plough': the agricultural environment of northern Jordan". Levant. 30 (1): 129–165. doi:10.1179/lev.1998.30.1.129.
  8. ↑ "Antikythera Survey Project". Portal to the Past. Canadian Institute in Greece. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
  9. ↑ "Identifying activity areas in Neolithic sites through ethnographic analysis of phytoliths and geochemical residues (INEA)". Bournemouth University. Retrieved 10 June 2026.