Elizabeth Snodgrass has been a researcher at National Geographic magazine for 12 years. Before coming to National Geographic, she worked for an educational travel company, planning tours and writing and editing tour brochures and bulletins while on staff, and later working as a freelance tour manager on trips worldwide. During her tenure at National Geographic, she has developed a specialty in archaeological topics. For both companies, a background in languages (French, German, Italian, Turkish) and cuisine (she trained as a chef) has come in handy. She is a self-professed grammar nerd, and is extremely nervous that there may be errors in this paragraph.