Dr. Wilma Wetterstrom grew up in Michigan and currently resides in Boston. She received BA, MA, and PhD degrees in anthropology from the University of Michigan. For her PhD research, in the early 1970s Wetterstrom conducted fieldwork at Arroyo Hondo Pueblo and completed her dissertation, “The Effects of Nutrition on Population Size at Arroyo Hondo Pueblo, New Mexico,” in 1976. From 1976 to 1983 she taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the Anthropology/Archeology Program. From 1983 to the present she has been an Associate at the Harvard University Herbaria and Botanical Museum.
Since 1988, Dr. Wetterstrom has also worked with Ancient Egypt Research Associates as an archaeobotanist in the field and in the publications department. In addition, she is currently preparing a final report on the plant remains from Kom el-Hisn, an Old Kingdom site in Egypt’s Delta and has resumed work on material from Tell Leilan, a site in Syria where she spent three seasons in the field. In November 2013 her study of plant remains from a site in Jordan was published, J. McKenzie, J. Greene, A.T. Reyes, C. Alexander, D. Barrett, B. Gilmour, M. O’Hea, S. Schmid, W. Wetterstrom, S. Whitcher Kansa, The Nabataean Temple at Khirbet et-Tannur, Jordan, Volume 2. Cultic Offerings, Vessels, and Other Specialist Reports, American School of Oriental Research, Boston.
Summary of Archeological Field Work
1978-1995 Egypt
Archaeobotanist for projects in the Fayum (Epipaleolithic), at Nagada (Predynastic), Nag Hamadi (Predynastic), Kom el-Hisn (Old Kingdom), Giza (Old Kingdom), Coptos (Greek and Roman), and Quseir al-Qadim (Roman and Mamluk).
1987-1991 Syria
Archaeobotanist for excavations at Tell Leilan, a Northern Mesopotamian capital.
1984-1985 Spain
Archaeobotanist for excavations at Mocin, a Bronze Age community.
1983 Madagascar
Archaeobotanist with a project examining the development of state society in the central highlands.
1968-1986 U.S.A.
Excavator at a Mississippian period village in Missouri. Archaeobotanist for excavations at a shell mound site in Louisiana. Dissertation field research at Arroyo Hondo Pueblo, in New Mexico.
Selected Publications
Wetterstrom, Wilma
1986 Food, Diet, and Population at Prehistoric Arroyo Hondo Pueblo, New Mexico. School of American Research Press, Santa Fe.
Moens, Marie-Francine and Wilma Wetterstrom
1988 The Agricultural Economy of an Old Kingdom Town in Egypt’s West Delta: Insights from the Plant Remains. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 47(3): 159-173.
Wetterstrom, Wilma
1991 Fleshing Out Early Agriculture with Ancient Seeds. In Origin and Development of Agriculture in East Africa: The Ethnosystems Approach to the Study of Early Food Production in Kenya, edited by Richard E. Leaky and L. Jan Slikkerveer. Studies in Technology and Social Change, No, 19, Technology and Social Change Program, Iowa State University, and the Leiden Ethnosystems and Development Programme, Institute of Cultural and Social Studies, Leiden University, pp. 219-233.
Wetterstrom, Wilma and H.T. Wright
1992 Une Contribution a la Paleoethnobotanique du Plateau central de Madagascar. Taloha 11:147-66. Programme Tri-Institutionnel, Musee d’art et d’archeologie (Antananarivo), SAREC (Uppsala) INALCO (Paris).
Wetterstrom, Wilma
1993 Foraging and Farming in Egypt: The Transition from Hunting and Gathering to Horticulture in the Nile Valley. In The Archeology of Africa: Food, Metals, and Towns, edited by T. Shaw, P. Sinclair, B. Andah, and A. Okpoko, pp. 165-226. Unwin Hyman, London.
Weiss, H., M.A. Courty, W. Wetterstrom, F. Guichard, L. Senior, R. Meadow, and A. Curnow
1993 The Genesis and Collapse of Third Millennium North Mesopotamian Civilization. Science 261:995-1004.
Wetterstrom, Wilma
1994 Plantas Carbonizadas: Carbonized Plant Remains. In Moncin: Un Poblado de la Edad del Bronce (Borja, Zaragoza), by Richard Harrison, Gloria Moreno Lopez and A. J. Legg. Departmento de Education y Cultura, D. L. Gobierno de Arago. Coleccion Arqueologia 16.
1998 The Origins of Agriculture in Africa: With Particular Reference to Sorghum and Pearl Millet. The Review of Archeology. Special Issue: The Transition to Agriculture in the Old World, ed. by Ofer Bar-Yosef, 19 (2): 30-46.