Research
My archaeological fieldwork takes place on the north coast of Peru, and uses cuisine and daily domestic practice as a window onto larger scale dynamics such as conquest, colonization, and collapse. My research engages Centre students and has been supported by the Curtiss T. and Mary G. Brennan Foundation, the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, and Mellon, Metzger, and Arthur Vining Davis grants to Centre College. Some results of my research can be found on Academia.edu, here. Please read about my past, current, and future research projects below.
Ventanillas: a coastal center in the middle Jequetepeque Valley
My current research at the site of Ventanillas deals with rural household life in the multiethnic borderlands of the middle Jequetepeque Valley, at the edges of the coastal Lambayeque and Chimu states. Ventanillas was occupied between about A.D. 1000-1400. It was a highly visible coastal monumental center in the ethnically and culturally heterogeneous middle valley. I am interested in how rural communities affiliated themselves with coastal polities during the LIP, and in documenting ethnic and economic differences in foodways in middle valley communities. I am also interested in the political and economic strategies of coastal states in administering the middle valley. This work was conducted in collaboration with Dr. Gabriela Cervantes Quequezana, Lic. Carlos Osores Mendives, the Bazan family, and several groups of Centre College students. It was supported by grants from the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the Brennan Foundation, and Centre College (the Metzger Fund).
Pedregal: a lower Jequetepeque farming village under Chimu control
My dissertation research built on several seasons of participation in Dr. Carol Mackey's project at the Chimu provincial administrative center of Farfan, in the Jequetepeque Valley. I became interested in the impact of Chimu conquest on the rural population, and in 2006 excavated in several households at the rural village of Pedregal, on the north edge of the valley only about five kilometers from Farfan. I found that during the Chimu occupation of the valley, farmers at Pedregal emphasized corn and cotton production, and that contributions from foraged plants and animals (specifically fish and shellfish) decreased. However, because the overall scope of daily activities, household ritual practice, culinary preferences, and domestic architecture remained relatively stable, I argued that households were able to buffer Chimu impact on daily domestic practice. This work was conducted in collaboration with Lic. Jorge Terrones, Dr. Gabriela Cervantes Quequezana, and an amazing group of excavators from San Jose de Moro and students from Lawrence University. It was funded by the Fulbright Commission, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, and the Social Science Research Council.
The Chira Valley: the northern frontier of Lambayeque and Chimu rule
I am currently collaborating with Dr. Sarah Taylor (USF) and Dr. Gabriela Cervantes Quequezana (University of Pittsburgh) on a project the Chira Valley in far northern Peru. The Chira Valley was likely the northern frontier of coastal Sican and Chimu states, and an important node in interregional Spondylus trade with Ecuador. Yet little is known about the strategies of coastal states or the impacts of interregional exchange and state control on local Tallan populations in this understudied valley. PIAChira 2023 investigated Late Intermediate Period architecture and domestic areas at Monte Lima, a extensive multicomponent site in the lower Chira.