A guiding force in archaeology
Wishing farewell to our friend, Dr. Richard Cooke
November 30, 2023
He would have turned 77 this past October. We deeply miss his endless enthusiasm for learning and his passion for teaching others.
He would have turned 77 this past October. We deeply miss his endless enthusiasm for learning and his passion for teaching others.
Our lab supports research into the lived experience of ancient Isthmian cultures and human groups of the American Tropics more broadly. We explore a wide variety of research questions using multiple, often interdisciplinary approaches that include the study of diverse archaeological material...
Through advanced isotopic analyses, Rodnyel Arosemena seeks to understand how fish in the Caribbean and the Pacific that had a common ancestor take advantage of the resources of their different environments today.
For six days, archeology technician Aureliano Valencia led a workshop on how to reconstruct pre-Columbian ceramics.
This research expands knowledge about the archaeological ceramics of the Gran Cocle culture at the Cerro Juan Diaz Archaeological Site, which spans a period of occupation from 200 BC to 1550 AD and is one of the largest pre-Hispanic communities in central Panama.
Individuals recovered at the archaeological site of Cerro Juan Díaz shed more light on how the local communities buried and honored their dead.
A groundbreaking study of 7000-year-old exposed coral reef fossils reveals how human fishing has transformed Caribbean reef food webs: as sharks declined by 75% and fish preferred by humans became smaller, prey fish species flourished —doubling in numbers and growing larger. This unprecedented look into prehistoric reef communities shows how the loss of top predators cascaded through the entire food web, shifting the balance amongst coral reefs.
A cutting-edge molecular lab
and launching point to the
Eastern Tropical Pacific
Research in my lab examines the long and complex history of peoples and cultures in the Americas, and how these ancient societies developed both by changing, and being transformed by, their surrounding environment. My lab uses zooarchaeology, or the identification of animal bones, shells, and...