During this time she worked together with Jan Lanting on the Bronze Age barrow landscape, and their circular post settings, at the Hooghalen-estate in the Dutch province of Drenthe.

[1][2] Following her PhD, Van der Veen worked at Durham University as the English Heritage advisor for environmental archaeology in northern England.

[3] Early work established statistical methodologies for archaeobotanical analysis,[4] and pioneered the sampling of archaeological sites in northern Britain.

More recently, Van der Veen has reconsidered the interpretation of the density of charred crop remains at Iron Age sites,[6] and the comparison of modes of preservation.

[8][9] A major archaeobotanical study of food remains from the port at Quseir al-Qadim, recovered from the 1999-2003 University of Southampton excavations, showed new insights to Roman and Islamic trade.