Imagine this- you’re a botanist working at a major research university when one day you get a call from the archeology department. “Hi, we’ve found what we’re pretty certain was a garden over 2,500 years ago. Do you think you could tell us what kind of plants lived her?”

I think that call has to come first, because how are archeologists going to recognize that there’s pollen captured in plaster? As a pollen expert, how often do you get a chance to work on a project like this?

Do we need a new field of study for botany- archeological botany?