![BOSTAN TREE logo [all white].png](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/22594c_ef349d8657ab4cd192d4728d0a0c511d~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_222,h_219,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/BOSTAN%20TREE%20logo%20%5Ball%20white%5D.png)
ABOUT
INTERDISCIPLINARY TEAM OF RESEARCHERS
We are an interdisciplinary team of researchers from the University of Haifa, Israel with partnerships across Israel and beyond who are undertaking a groundbreaking study aimed at devising a methodology for revitalizing ancient heritage tree cultivars within a current-day context. Initiated in 2024 and funded by the European Research Council (ERC), our ERC ADVANCED GRANT project is entitled "BOSTAN-TREE”, an acronym that stands for ‘Bioarchaeology of Orchards and Sustainable Terroir in the Arid Near East: Trends in Ecology and Evolution’. Our objective is to help improve food security that is under the incessant threat of global warming by devising the technology and methods needed for retrieving ancient DNA from heritage cultivars and reintroducing the hardy, arid resistant traits possessed in archaic trees into the agricultural industry.
These components are being applied in the restoration of local plant (tree and grape) varieties that were once the hallmark of ancient agricultural-based economies. Our focus is on the historical presence in the Negev desert in the 3rd-8th centuries CE as well as the continuation of this activity throughout the Middle Ages, the Ottoman Empire (1517-1917 CE) and British Mandate (1918-1948) periods. While conducting fieldwork among the ruins of historical agriculture sites, we found feral cultivars -- wild ancient fruit tree varieties. Working together with local and national government authorities and other related NGO's and research affiliates, we are uncovering the genetic past of these legacy cultivars and applying our understandings to isolate their unique facets and restore them to the market under current climate conditions.
PROF. GUY BAR-OZ
Is a professor of archaeology at the University of Haifa. His research concentrates on the cultural and biological heritage of populations in marginal environments in the ancient Levant and is enabled by applying novel multidisciplinary methods for reconstructing in high resolution the culture and environmental landscape of past societies.
DR. JOSHUA SCHMIDT
Is a culture anthropologist with an expertise in peripheral communities, heritage tourism and the geographies of Negev viticulture. A research affiliate in the Zinman Institute of Archaeology at the University of Haifa, Israel, Schmidt is currently compiling an ampelography of native grapes from the Holy Land.
DR. MEIRAV MEIRI
Meirav Meiri is an ancient DNA specialist at the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History at Tel Aviv University. She completed her PhD from Royal Holloway, University of London, UK, where she focused on phylogeographic inference using modern and ancient DNA of Holarctic red deer and moose. Her research interests encompass utilizing ancient DNA analysis to explore evolutionary relationships of species, population movements, and the impact of environmental changes and human interference on the fauna and flora in the southern Levant over time. Within the context of the BOSTAN TREE project Meirav is conducting paleogenetic analysis of biological materials recovered from relic tree cultivars located in the field.
GIDEON AVNI
Gideon Avni is the Chief Archaeologist for the Israel Antiquities Authority and Professor of Archaeology at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. His academic interests focus on various aspects of Classical, Late Antique, and Islamic archaeology, the archaeology of Jerusalem and its hinterlands, nomads and sedentary societies in the desert areas of the Near East, Mediterranean connectivity in Late Antiquity and Early Islamic times, the diffusion and movement of technologies, plant species, and people across Eurasia, and environmental archaeology.
DR. MARITINA STAVRAKAKI
​Maritina Stavrakaki is an Assistant Professor of Viticulture at the Agriculture University of Athens. Her research includes the identification and discernment of grapevine cultivars and rootstocks with the use of the ampelographic description and molecular methods, the morphology, physiology and eco-physiology of the vine, the evaluation of the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the grapes etc. She has participated in national and international research programs and has presented her research at international conferences, while publishing widely on this topic in leading scientific journals.
Gil Gambash is a professor of late antique history and archaeology. Emerging from political themes, he currently studies environmental and economic topics in the history of the Mediterranean. He is the former chair of the Department of Maritime Civilizations and former director of the Recanati Institute for Maritime Studies at the University of Haifa. He is the co-founder and former director of the Haifa Center for Mediterranean History.
DR. ROI PORAT
Roi Porat holds a PHD in Archaeology from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem that pertains to cultivar diversity in the classical periods. His research focuses on the Herodian Era and the period of Jewish revolt against the Romans in Judea (1-2 CE) that occurred in various locations of the Judean Desert. With in the context of the BOSTAN TREE project, Porat is currently pursuing a Post-doc at the University of Haifa. A specialist in field surveys and interdisciplinary spatial studies, Porat is conducting surveys and in-field documentation in areas where ancient agricultural systems once flourished throughout Israel.
ROY GALILI
Roy Galili is a farmer from Moshav Idan in the Arava desert and holds a PhD in Archaeology from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Galili’s main fields of research center on the relationship between desert borne cultures and those from fertile areas, with a particular focus on desert based agricultural traditions and proto-globalization process. Within the context of the BOSTAN TREE project, Galili is studying date trees as living archaeological artifacts and the interrelationships between date trees and humans in the deserts of the southern Levant.
DR. ELIEZER BAUMGARTEN
Eliezer Baumgarten is the manager of the 'eLijah-Lab' for Digital Humanities at the University of Haifa, that focuses on quantitative aspects of knowledge in the humanities and social sciences. In the context of the BOSTAN-TREE project, he assists in the digital aspects of data collection modeling, and in later stages, will apply his expertise to its analysis and presentation.
DR. ERNESTO TESTÉ
Ernesto Testé is a postdoc student at Haifa University and the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (France). His research focuses on unraveling the enigma of date palm cultivation in the Negev desert based on a combination of morphological and genomic tools.
DR. INNA KIZHNER
Inna Kizhner is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Haifa. She studies past societies, looking at the interaction of data coming from archaeological reports and museum databases. Her research focuses on how data and the contexts of their production influence our perception of cultural heritage and cultural landscapes. Her research for the BOSTAN-TREE project frames the project within her research on dryland regions in the first millennium CE. The objective of this research is to compare long-term successes in managing agriculture in dryland areas in several countries. Inna’s study focuses on the application of interdisciplinary approaches to understanding the structure, variability and circumstances shaping cultural landscapes and farming practices in dryland areas, with her specific case study being vineyards in Central Asia.
ASSAF BASHAN
Assaf Bashan is an agronomist at the "Shalaf Agricultural Laboratory, where in 2012 he established the "Heritage Tree Project” to preserve local fruit tree varieties. Bashan collects feral cultivar tree varieties that he propagates through cuttings and grafts and grows them at his nursery-cum-laboratory. The trees are "open species" and thus available for sale to the public, with some tens of thousands already integrated into public and private landscaping and agri-orchard contexts across Israel. In 2020, Bashan extended the project by establishing a 15 dunam orchard dedicated to preserving heritage tree varieties found in Israel and the greater Mediterranean Basin. The orchard serves as a platform for studying these varieties and the fruits that they bear, including some 200 varieties of figs, 60 varieties of grapes, 30 varieties of pomegranates, 30 varieties of olives, 10 types of mulberries, 30 varieties of prickly pear and more.
ADAM S. MONTEFIORE
Adam Montefiore is a wine trade veteran and winery insider, turned wine writer and author. Known as the 'English voice of Israeli wine', he is a passionate advocate of discovering and recording Israel's wine and grape heritage and history. Currently, he is writing a book about the Wine of Israel, in the context of the wine region of the Levant. Montefiore serves as a consultant for the Negen Wine Revival project. www.adammontefiore.com
COMING SOON
Coming Soon
COMING SOON
Coming Soon
COMING SOON
Coming Soon
COMING SOON
Coming Soon
COMING SOON
Coming Soon
Our ERC ADVANCED GRANT project is entitled "BOSTAN TREE: Bioarchaeology of Orchards and Sustainable Terroir in the Arid Near East: Trends in Ecology and Evolution” and is generously supported by the European Research Council (ERC).
For further information, please contact us
