Heritage Science Theme: member of WG 2–Conservation, LINXS Fellow

Clarissa Cagnato, Postdoctoral researcher, Archéologie des Amériques, Paris, France

Clarissa Cagnato is an archaeobotanist who specializes in analyzing macrobotanical remains and starch grains. Having received her PhD from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, she primarily works on reconstructing the cuisines and ritual uses of plants by ancient Mesoamerican cultures, such as the Maya and the Teotihuacans. She has collaborated on various projects, ranging from determining the diets of Paleolithic and Early Neolithic populations living in Eurasia, to documenting Iron Age food practices in western Central Africa. As a former Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoctoral fellow at Ca' Foscari University of Venice, she developed COMAL, a project studying ancient Maya cuisine using molecular and imaging approaches.