Dr. Dal Martello is a research affiliate with the FEDD project. She analyses ancient plant remains to reconstruct past subsistence practices. Her work aims to increase the understanding of complex societies along early contact and trade routes across China and Central Asia during late prehistoric and early historic periods.

Broadly, Dr. Dal Martello also investigates agricultural and culinary traditions along ecological frontier zones. She is especially interested in how the movement of plants and people across these frontiers impacted changes in agricultural societies through time and space, with attention to the production and consumption of local minor crops.

Dr. Dal Martello received her PhD in archaeology from University College London. Her doctoral research investigated the timing and development of agricultural systems in the frontier region of Yunnan in southwest China. She also holds an MA degree in Neolithic archaeology from the School of Archaeology and Museology at Peking University, where she focused on the early contacts between the Chinese Central Plains and the Steppes during Neolithic times.