Dr Shyama Vermeersch BIOShyama is a research and teaching assistant in zooarchaeology at the University of Groningen (the Netherlands). Her research interests include reconstructing past farming and provisioning systems in south-western Asia, by integrating both faunal and botanical lines of evidence. Besides science, she enjoys playing Dungeons and Dragons, going on walks, and petting cats.EXPERIENCEShyama obtained her M.A. in Egyptology from the University of Leuven (Belgium) in 2014. Then, she decided to switch hieroglyphs for animals and got her M.Sc. in zooarchaeology at the University of Tübingen in 2017. This was followed by getting a PhD in zooarchaeology at the same university in 2021, focussing on reconstructing developments in subsistence practices from the Early Bronze Age through the Iron Age in the southern Levant. Shyama is also engaged in promoting gender equity, women in science, and presenting our archaeological results to the broader public. You can follow her work on Researchgate and Twitter.