Lessons from history on sustainability, collapse and resilience are theultimate goal of the Byzantine Bio-Archaeology Research Program of the Negev(BYBAN) (Tepper et al. 2015). Addressing the unprecedentedflourishing and collapse of the Byzantine Negev agricultural settlements(fourth–seventh centuries AD), the BYBAN project offers a unique andoriginal approach. It focuses on ancient middens and domestic contexts,which provide an exceptional focus on the materiality of daily life.Archaeobotanical research is central to this project because the copiousplant remains retrieved are a reflection of the region's agriculturaleconomy and its environmental sustainability. This approach will enable usto answer important research questions about the Byzantine–Islamictransition in the Negev: what were the major cash and subsistence crops?Which were grown locally, and which, if any, were imported? How, if at all,did the agricultural economy change during the Byzantine–Islamic transition?Were there any major changes in climatic conditions, and, if so, can they beimplicated as a cause for agricultural collapse?