archaeology; emergence of social stratification and states; settlement archaeology, household archaeology; identity; history and archaeology; writing, iconography; Mesoamerica, Olmec, Maya

My research interests center on early complex societies and how archaeology can explore the processes through which they develop. How do distinctions in status, wealth, and authority emerge within and between communities? Under what circumstances do these distinctions intensify into stratification? How does stratification relate to the centralization of political power, to the emergence of kings and states?

Another set of interests revolves around notions of identity. How are the groups with which people associate themselves, the categories to which they see themselves as belonging, reflected in material remains? How do these categories relate to the analytical categories archaeologists use?

I explore these issues in Mesoamerica, especially in the Maya world. A long-term commitment to survey and excavation in the lower Ulúa valley in Honduras has produced a rich data set from a region in which the cultural affiliations of the ancient population and the emergence of social stratification are salient issues. Recreating the Past http://fitdev.cit.cornell.edu/archaeology presents some of the results of the Ulúa valley work in schematic form.