The past is a puzzle we can only begin to reveal.
RESEARCH IN MESOAMERICA
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HIDDEN LANDSCAPES OF THE EARLY MAYA
Maya Landscapes Project, 2020 - Present
The Maya Hidden Landscapes Project aims to augment LiDar with ground-penetrating radar (GPR) to model subsurface anthropomorphic landscapes – while providing a fuller toolkit for non-invasive investigation. Although LiDar has granted Mesoamerican researchers new insights into ancient urbanism over the past decade, this technology has limitations because it provides only a ground surface template that needs to be further checked and tested. Expanding upon remote sensing data will enable us to better understand how early Maya cities developed, how they impacted their local environments and the ways in which inequality became entrenched in these transformations. Currently operating under in collaboration with the Maya Landscapes Project, directed by Charles Golden of Brandeis University and Timothy Murtha of the University of Florida, we will begin the remote truthing of targeted features detected by private and public LiDar survey and the NASA G-LiHT program.
EARLY URBAN DEVELOPMENT OF THE MAYA NORTH
Proyecto de Interacción Política del Centro de Yucatán (PIPCY), 2011 - 2018
Directed by Travis Stanton (2007 – present), Scott Hutson (2007), Aline Magnoni (2007 – 2015) and Traci Ardren (2015 – present), PIPCY formally began in 2007. The purpose of this project, like those before it, was intended to explore the political relationships between Chichén-Itza and Yaxuná through direct investigation (at Yaxuná) and through regional investigations of subsidiary and hinterland centers. Unlike the previous investigations, those by PIPCY made a concerted effort to also focus on the Middle and Late Formative Periods (c. 900 BCE through 200 CE).
Our investigations of Yaxuná’s E-group plaza were opened with the goals of understanding the site’s origins and the development of sedentary life in the Maya north. Comparatively, we wanted to determine to what extent ancient religion, tradition, and political systems at Yaxuná overlapped with their southern neighbors and what implications such connections suggest about the development of complex society.
EARLY RITUAL IN THE MAYA UNDERWORLD
Central Yucatan Archaeological Cave Project (CYAC), 2011 - 2013; 2017
Founded in 2009 under the auspices of the Proyecto de Interacción Política del Centro de Yucatán, known as PIPCY, the Central Yucatan Archaeological Cave Project (or CYAC) has investigated roughly 100 caves in the region surrounding the ancient sites of Yaxuná and Ikil. The goals of these investigations were to understand the power dynamics between caves as religious centers and political authorities while also contextualizing the role of ritual in ancient Maya life. From our findings, we argue that the material used in the production of ritual offerings, as well as their positioning within the cave, situates the deposit within wider cultural contexts in Central Yucatan and more broadly across Mesoamerica.
EVERYDAY LIFE IN CLASSIC MAYA NEIGHBORHOODS
Caracol Archaeological Project, 2008
Description coming soon!
RESEARCH IN THE HISTORICAL US
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SAMUEL PHILLIPS ‘MANSION HOUSE’ FIELD SCHOOL
Phillips Academy Andover, Summer Session, 2018 – Present
Co-Primary Investigator of historical “Mansion House,” the residence of the academy’s founder Judge Samuel Phillips, on Phillips Academy Andover’s campus.
Director of field school excavations carried out with Dig This! Archaeology of Phillips Academy Andover’s Lower School Institute Summer Session.
Investigations focus on data collection and analysis of materials from the 17th to 20th centuries.
HARRINGTON HOUSE COLONIAL INN FIELD SCHOOL
Brandeis University, 2012, 2017 - 2018
Primary Investigator of the historical “Harrington House,” an early 18th-century residence and inn.
Field School investigations carried out with students of ANTH 60a, Archaeological Methods, to explore history, culture, and daily life in 18th, 19th, and 20th century Waltham.
TALLMAN SITE RESTORATION PROJECT
Mandarin Cemetery, Florida, 2004
Developed, organized, and implemented this 19th century Civil War-era cemetery restoration in part to fulfill the requirements for the rank of Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America.
Acquired family and community permissions, traced descendants through 300 years of census documentation, received donations of Civil War-era construction materials, and fully sponsored by donations from the local community.
200+ personal hours of community service.
