Projects
Oral Care in the Maya World
Like many archaeological projects, my dissertation project began with a serendipitous fieldwork story.
Project ATE: The Ancient Toothpastes Experiment
Project ATE, like most science projects, began with an observation, which led to a hypothesis, and ultimately to a creative experimental methodology to test said hypothesis. My research involves looking at thousands of teeth close-up under a microscope and early on, I began to notice that many teeth, especially those which are most visible in the mouth (the anterior teeth - incisors and canines) were covered in abrasions. These were not the chaotic, varied micro-striations that result from eating or chewing but long, unidirectional, almost uniform abrasions that covered the entire surface of the tooth. I decided to investigate whether these could be due polishing, or cleaning, the teeth, something I collectively refer to as “dental scrubbing” and devised an experiment to test that hypothesis. Project ATE is that experiment.
Proyecto Arqueológico Busilha-Chocolja
Co-directed by Andrew Scherer and Charles Golden, the Proyecto Arqueológico Budsilha-Chocolja is an international archaeological research project operating in Chiapas, Mexico. It explores the ancient cultural and natural landscapes of the of the Classic Maya kingdoms of Piedras Negras, Yaxchilan, and Sak Tz'i' (250-900 CE). Current foci of the project include warfare, agriculture, economy, and socio-environmental history, through which the PABC explores the dynamics of competing polities in the Western Maya Lowlands. I currently participate on the project as a field director and a project bioarchaeologist.
