My research examines the ability of humans to expand their cultural and physical horizons by exploring the origin, elaboration, and impact of technology on society by studying the remains of wooden boats and ships. By circumstance, opportunity and design, much of my research targets some of the world’s oldest existing ships and boats, those buried in the deserts of Egypt between 5,000 and 2,500 years ago. The first pictures of sails in the entire world come from ancient Egypt, and the innovative process may be examined directly through the remains of complex technological artifacts that span 3000 years. One of my most recent projects was to design and build a reconstruction an ancient Egyptian ship sailed on the Red Sea in December 2008.

I also study plant remains, predominantly from shipwreck sites, as a means to learn more about ancient and historic seafaring, exchange, and society. Rather than simply producing reports with species lists, I am interested in discovering the cultural and ecological significance of different plants and plant products used and transported by sea.

Graduate student research under my guidance has included archaeobotanical studies of an early 19th-century fort in Georgia and a Copper Age site in Hungary, theoretical approaches to the establishment of maritime archaeological preserves, evaluation of a World War II shipwreck site, and reports on different assemblages from the c. 1765 CE Sadana Island Shipwreck in Egypt.