About this project
Capturing Grain Geometry is developing an automated digital workflow for tracing the outlines of archaeological cereal remains – essentially, to derive numerical coordinates from photographs of charred grains. Patterns in the geometry of these grains can serve as a proxy for differentiating genotypes in past crop husbandry regimes, and so shed light on the role of biodiversity in agricultural history. At a time when food security is threatened by the diminishing gene pool of modern crops, there is much we can learn from the genetic adaptability and sustainability of historic cereals. Capturing Grain Geometry will lay the groundwork for collaborations on this front across the archaeobotanical community.
The project is led by Dr Mark McKerracher from the Bodleian Libraries' Sustainable Digital Scholarship (SDS) service, and draws upon the unique FeedSax collection of 6,000 grain images produced at the School of Archaeology and hosted on the SDS platform.
Project team
Start Date: May 2026
End Date: April 2027
Funder: RICHeS programme (AHRC)
Project Lead: Mark McKerracher
Collaborators: STFC Hartree
Further information
For further information about the project, please contact: mark.mckerracher@bodleian.ox.ac.uk
