Maayan Cohen earned her MA (cum laude) and PhD from the Department of Maritime Civilizations at the University of Haifa. Her MA research was an archaeometallurgical study of the metal finds and concretions from the early nineteenth-century Akko Tower Wreck. The results assisted with identifying the objects and their manufacturing processes and suggested a dating of the ship. She received the Graduate Studies Dean's Award for an outstanding MA thesis.

Maayan continued her studies with the support of a Natan Rotenstreich scholarship for high-achieving PhD students, gaining her doctorate in ancient ship research and seamanship in antiquity. During her research, she directed six underwater excavation seasons on the eighth-century CE Maʻagan Mikhael B shipwreck. The study of its remains and contents provided information on the first millennium transition in ship construction and on seamanship and sailing routes during late antiquity.

 

Maayan recently finished the year-long Mimshak competitive science and policy fellowship program. Her service in the public sector, in government administration, advanced her skills in effective information communication, negotiation and debating, and writing policy papers.

 

Maayan was offered two postdoctorate opportunities abroad, but, unable to travel this year, she will continue her scientific development by working with Professor Oren Tal of the Department of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University on Persian-period Palestinian coins. The composition of early Palestinian silver coinage is of interest to numismatists, archaeologists and economic historians, as analyses can help identify mints, the relationships between different coinages, source materials, changes in refining technology, and the precise manufacturing processes of different mints.