ANU archaeobotanist Dr Anna Florin wins 2026 Max Crawford Medal

Dr Anna Florin, Lecturer in Archaeological Science at the ANU School of Archaeology and Anthropology, has received Australia’s most prestigious award for achievement and promise in the humanities. 

This article was originally published by the Australian Academy of the Humanities and is republished with permission. 

Archaeobotanist Dr Anna Florin is the recipient of the 2026 Max Crawford Medal for her groundbreaking scholarship of ancient foodways. 

Imagine you’re sitting around a fire 10,000 years ago.

You’re preparing a meal with your family. You might be peeling a yam that has just finished cooking. Some of the peeled skin falls in. Your sister might have just spat the pip from a fruit she was eating into the fire.

Those scraps are consumed by the fire, and under the right conditions, are carbonised, preserving as pieces of charcoal.

Although transformed, their anatomical structure remains intact, and thousands of years later, those scraps can be analysed to understand the kind of food you ate, and the life you lived.

“Food can tell us so much about ourselves. Preparing and sharing a meal is both a biological necessity, and a very social act, embedded in our cultural identity and relationships,” says Dr Anna Florin, an archaeobotanist and lecturer at the Australian National University.

“I study tiny food scraps from ancient fireplaces to gain an insight into past lives. What plant foods did people eat? How were these plants managed, harvested, processed and cooked? What can this tell us about how communities in the past interacted with each other, and with the environment they lived in and shaped.”

What is an archaeobotanist?

Archaeobotany, sometimes called palaeoethnobotany, a word derived from the Greek, meaning ancient-people-plants, is the study of plant remains from archaeological sites to understand past human-plant interactions, as part of past food systems, environmental change and management, trade and cultural exchange, and religious and cultural practices.

“I think when most people think of an archaeologist, they think of Egypt and the pyramids,” Dr Florin laughs. “And I remember sitting in an Intro to Archaeology course, and just realising how exciting and rich the archaeology of our region is.”

“I did ;a Bachelor of Arts with ancient and modern history as my majors, and then I tried out pretty much everything else. I think that’s the beauty of a Bachelor of Arts degree; you can explore your interests and what excites you.”

Anna was awarded her PhD in archaeology from the University of Queensland in 2021, and was a Research Fellow at St John’s College, Cambridge and the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, the University of Cambridge. She returned to Australia in mid-2023 to join the School of Archaeology and Anthropology at the Australian National University.

Recognised with the 2026 Max Crawford Medal, Dr Florin’s research seeks to understand the nature and development of past foodways and landscape management over millennia in Australia and the Asia-Pacific.

What can food tell us about the past?

Working in partnership with the Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation and Mirarr Traditional Owners, Anna’s research at Madjedbebe, an archaeological site in the Kakadu region (NT), intertwined archaeological science with Mirarr cultural and ecological knowledge to investigate change and continuity in plant food and landscape use and management practices.

“That people visited and lived in Madjedbebe, from early peopling of this continent, 65,000 years ago, to the present provides an incredible archive. We were able to look at the earliest plant use and landscape management practices, and also at how this food system continued despite major changes in climate, sea levels and vegetation.”

The research, published in The Conversation, Nature Communications, Nature Ecology and Evolution,and Quaternary Science Reviews, showed people gathered and ate a broad range of plant foods at Madjedbebe as far back as 65,000 years ago. Food included yams and other tubers, fruits, nuts and palm hearts, some of which required specific tools, such as axes and grinding stones, as well as labour and knowledge to collect and make edible.

Through analysing the plant macrofossils left behind, Dr Florin’s research shows labour-intensive plant foods were often used more during drier glacial periods when resources were more limited, indicating adaptability and resilience to changing climates. Key to this resilience was the continued practice and intergenerational transfer of this knowledge over millennia, including in more favourable environmental conditions.

Madjedbebe continues to be a significant place to Mirarr, and knowledge of local plant foods is passed down to new generations, who continue to shape this incredible cultural legacy.

Dr Florin’s research also challenges the trope of the “Palaeolithic meat-eater,” by demonstrating that early humans used and processed a wide range of plant foods, a capability that enabled the expansion of humans and our closest hominin cousins into a range of environments globally.

And what about the future?

Dr Florin’s current Australian Research Council (ARC) funded research has a forward, as well as a past, focus. Working with Indigenous partner communities in Australia and New Guinea, Anna is engaged in research that looks to support the continued and evolving use of this heritage.

“A big part of my work is conducting ethnobotanical research in partnership with communities. I learn from Elders, and so do other community members, and together we embed this cultural and ecological knowledge into the archaeological story we tell. In turn, communities are discussing aspirations for the future, whether that’s things like revitalising local food economies, Indigenous-led cultural tourism or agri-business, and I think it’s important that the networks and research infrastructure is there to support this.”

Building research

For Dr Florin, community is at the heart of her research.

“Archaeology is a team endeavour, and I’m lucky enough to work with an incredible network of researchers and Indigenous community research partners across Australia, the Pacific and into Southeast Asia,” she says.

“As a lecturer now at ANU, I collaborate with colleagues working across the Asia-Pacific, and I have the opportunity to support students to do archaeobotany in a whole range of amazing places. That is really special.”

At ANU, Dr Florin fosters a rich research community. She convenes the Centre for Archaeological Research (CAR) seminar series—free events to promote current archaeological research to peers, and the wider public.

“In July, as part of the ANU Evolution of Cultural Diversity Initiative, I helped convene a conference that examined climate change responses across the deep time and into the future. It brought in experts from Australia and the Pacific to talk across archaeology, genetics, anthropology, linguistics and public policy. We were interested in how living heritage and strategies to deal with changing climates that have been developed over millennia can be learnt from and better enabled in a modern world where nation states and bureaucracies fundamentally change the practicalities of mobility and long-distance social networks. It’s invigorating to see how my work can cross disciplines and contribute to holistic responses to some of our biggest problems.”

Anna described receiving the Max Crawford Medal as “a significant honour”.

“As an early carer researcher, you work really hard, and at times in a little bit of a bubble, so to receive an award like the Max Crawford, which has been awarded to so many incredible researchers before me, is such a lovely and validating experience. Awards like the Max Crawford open doors, and I’m really thankful to the Academy.”

About Anna

Dr Anna Florin is an archaeobotanist, and a Lecturer in Archaeological Science in the School of Archaeology and Anthropology at the Australian National University. She works in partnership with Australian First Nations and other Indigenous and local communities across the Asia-Pacific, interweaving Indigenous cultural and ecological knowledges with archaeological science to investigate the dynamics of past food systems and landscape management practices over tens of millennia.

Anna’s research with Mirarr Traditional Owners at Madjedbebe (Kakadu region, NT) produced some of the earliest direct evidence globally for the use and complex processing of plant foods, as well as for long-term cultural continuity and resilience in the face of changing climate, sea levels, and vegetation across 65,000 years. Through her research, Anna has advanced the methods required to study past food systems in Australia and the Asia-Pacific, including anatomical identification and isotope methods; and challenged earlier Eurocentric models of human cultural evolution. Anna has recently been awarded an Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) Fellowship, to work with Indigenous community partners to investigate the breadth of past plant use across Sahul (the Pleistocene continent of Australia and New Guinea), and to support the continued and evolving use of this biocultural heritage for sustainable food futures.