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Christopher Pool

Education:
Ph.D., Tulane, 1990
Biography:

 

Archaeology, evolution of complex societies, colonialism, political economy, historical ecology, landscape and memory, ceramic analysis, technological choice; Mesoamerica.

 

Research Interests:
Evolution of complex societies
political and economic archaeology
archaeometry
geoarchaeology
mesoamerica
landscape and memory
Research

My archaeological research focuses primarily on the evolution of complex societies in the tropical lowlands of southern Veracruz, Mexico, including the Olmecs and their Epi-Olmec and Classic-period successors. Specifically, I study the interactions among environment, economy, ideology, and political practice at scales ranging from the individual household to supraregional political economies. In pursuing my research I draw on my interdisciplinary training in anthropology, geology, and geochemical characterization to understand patterns of resource exploitation and exchange within their social and cultural context. My research also attempts to move the archaeological investigation of culture change toward approaches that address variability within and between ancient cultures and away from typological approaches that obscure variability within cultural types and present culture change as a sequence of steady states. The analysis of variability provides a more accurate characterization of cultural systems and allows more sophisticated analysis of dynamic change. The University of Kentucky has recognized the significance of this work by conferring its highest research honor, the title of University Research Professor.

Recently I began a new NSF-supported research program with Dr. Marcie Venter (Murray State University) centered on the long-term effects of the colonial introduction of sugar cane to southern Veracruz by Hernán Cortés in the early 16th century.  The project focuses on changes in the environment, labor recruitment and the livelihoods of indigenous, enslaved African and descendant populations in the lowlands of the Papaloapan river basin from the Aztec-dominated Late Postclassic period through the 19th century.

I have worked in this area since 1983, first investigating ceramic production and exchange at the Classic period site of Matacapan, and household organization at the Late and Terminal Formative site of Bezuapan. Since 1995 I have directed survey and excavations at the Olmec and Epi-Olmec site of Tres Zapotes and its environs with principal financial support from the National Science Foundation and institutional support from the University of Kentucky and Ithaca College, collaborating with colleagues from the Universidad Veracruzana, the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and the Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia. Covering a span of 2,000 years, Tres Zapotes contains the longest continuous record of occupation for a major center in the southern Gulf lowlands, encompassing the Olmec, Epi-Olmec and Classic periods. This time span saw the emergence of the political institution of kingship, as well as the development of one of the earliest and most sophisticated writing systems in the New World. The main objective of my work at Tres Zapotes is to understand changes in political-economic power strategies in the transition from Olmec to Epi-Olmec times and beyond, including an apparent shift toward a more collective form of government around 400 B.C. To test this model, I conducted research on two related and critical aspects of Formative period political economy at Tres Zapotes: (1) the temporal and organizational relationships among formal civic-ceremonial architectural complexes and (2) differentiation in craft production at independent and elite-associated (or "attached") production loci. Subsequent to this research Dr. Michael Loughlin and I directed an archaeological survey pioneering the archaeological application of lidar (aerial laser mapping) in southern Veracruz.

Evolution of complex societies, political and economic archaeology, colonialism, historical ecology, landscape and memory, ceramic analysis, archaeometry, geoarchaeology; Mesoamerica.

 

Service

My service is motivated by a conviction that we should all use our knowledge, experience, positions, and privilege to help others succeed. In the three decades since I was first appointed to a continuing academic position, I have held upwards of 100 service appointments to positions and committees for professional organizations, institutions, and my department, not including administrative appointments as Department Chair (2007-11), Interim Department Chair (2015-16), and Director (2000-2002) and Co-Director (2010-11) of the Latin American Studies Program (now Latin America, Caribbean and Latino Studies). At UK my service beyond my Department has included serving as Senator and chairing the University Senate Academic Facilities Committee (2017-2020), then serving on the Facilities Workstream for the COVID-19 response (20120-21), serving on the University Press of Kentucky Editorial Board (2015-present), the Provost’s Area Committee for Social Sciences (alternate, 2020-pesent), the University Research Professorships Review Committee (2014, 2015) the A&S Dean’s Search Committee (2020-2022), and, since 2021, the Arts and Sciences Executive Committee (Chair fall 2022).  My professional service has included editing Latin American Antiquity (2007-2011) and serving as Publications Director of the Archaeology Division of the American Anthropological Association and series editor of its publication, the Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association (2016-2019, 2020-2023). My service has been recognized with the Society for American Archaeology's Presidential Recognition Award (2014 and 2023) and the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences Award for Distinguished Service or Engagement (2023).

Selected Publications:
  • 2023    An Olmequista’s Thoughts on Chavín. Chapter 14 in Reconsidering the Chavín Phenomenon in the 21st Century, edited by Jason Nesbitt and Richard Berger pp. 393-400. Harvard University, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collections, Washington D.C. 
  • 2023. Mesoamerican urbanism revisited: Environmental change, adaptation, resilience, persistence, and collapse." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 120 (31): e2211558120. https://doi.org/doi:10.1073/pnas.2211558120. https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.2211558120. (with Diane Z. Chase, José Lobo, Gary M. Feinman, David M. Carballo, Arlen F. Chase, Adrian S. Z. Chase, Scott R. Hutson, Alanna Ossa, Marcello Canuto, Travis W. Stanton, L.J. Gorenflo, Barbara Arroyo, Rodrigo Liendo Stuardo, and Deborah L. Nichols.)
  • 2023 Settlement and the Exploitation of Aquatic Resources in the Eastern Lower Papaloapan Basin. Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology. Published online: https://doi.org/10.1080/15564894.2022.2162635. (with Michael L. Loughlin).
  • 2022 The New Adventures of Old Ceramic Figurines from Tres Zapotes, Mexico. In Contextualizing Museum Collections at the Smithsonian Institution: The Relevance of Collections-Based Research in the 21st Century, edited by Maria A. Martinez, Erin L. Sears, ad Lauren Seig, pp. 179-196. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. (with Erin L. Sears and Ronald L. Bishop),
  • 2022 Early Urbanization in the Formative Gulf Lowlands, Mexico. In Early Mesoamerican Cities: Urbanism and Urbanization in Formative Period Mesoamerica, edited by Michael Love, pp. 50-72. Cambridge University Press. (with Michael L. Loughlin).
  • 2021 Polity and Power in the Olmec Landscape. In Mesoamerican Archaeology: Theory and Practive, 2nd edition. Edited by Julia A. Hendon, Lisa Overholtzer, and Rosemary Joyce, pp. 22-70. Wiley Blackwell, Oxford.
  • 2020 The Environs of Tres Zapotes as the Find-Spot of the Tuxtla Statuette. Latin American Antiquity 34(4):747-764. (with John Justeson, Ponciano Ortiz Ceballos, María del Carmen Rodríguez, and Jane Walsh).
  • 2018 Transisthmian Ties: Epi-Olmec and Izapan Interaction. Ancient Mesoamerica 29(2):413-437 (with Michael L. Loughlin and Ponciano Ortiz Ceballos (https://doi.org/10.1017/S0956536118000123
  • 2018 Communities of Practice and Ceramic Production at Matacapan, Veracruz, Mexico. In City, Craft, and Residence in Mesoamerica: Research Papers in Honor of Dan M. Healan, edited by Ronald K. Faulseit, Nezahualcoyotl Xiutecutli, and Haley Holt-Mehta, pp. 61-74. Middle American Research Institute Publication 72. Tulane University, New Orleans.
  • 2017 Creating Memory and Negotiating Power in the Olmec Heartland. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 24(1):229-260. (with Michael Loughlin and Ponciano Ortiz Ceballos) DOI 10.1007/s10816-017-9319-1.
  • 2017  Early Olmec Manifestations in Western Olman: The Arroyo Phase at Tres Zapotes. In The Early Olmec and Mesoamerica: The Material Record, edited by Jeffrey Blomster and David Cheetham, pp. 89-118. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (with Ponciano Ortiz, Maria del Carmen Rodriguez, Erin L. Sears, and M. James Blackman).
  • 2016 Mapping the Tres Zapotes Polity: The Effectiveness of Lidar in Tropical Alluvial Settings. Advances in Archaeological Practice 4(3):301-313 (co-author with Michael L. Loughlin, Juan C. Fernández-Díaz, and Ramesh L. Shrestha. DOI: 10.7183/2326-3768.4.3.301
  • 2016 Tres Zapotes: The Evolution of a Resilient Polity in the Olmec Heartland of Mexico. In Beyond Collapse: Archaeological Perspectives on Resilience, Revitalization, and Transformation in Complex Societies, edited by Ronald K. Faulseit, pp. 287-312. Southern Illinois University Press. (with Michael L. Loughlin).
  • 2015 Toward an Archaeology of Disjuncture: Scale and Variability in Long-Distance Interaction Networks. Current Anthropology 56:385-420 (co-author with Wesley D. Stoner).
  • 2014  Formative Obsidian Procurement at Tres Zapotes, Veracruz, Mexico: Implications for Olmec and Epi-Olmec Political Economy. Ancient Mesoamerica.25:271-293 (with Charles L. F. Knight and Michael Glascock). https://goo.gl/9w1RrJ 
  • 2012 The Oxford Handbook of Mesoamerican Archaeology. Oxford University Press, Oxford. (co-editor wth Deborah Nichols)
  • 2008   Classic Period Cultural Currents in Southern and Central Veracruz. Dumbarton Oaks and Harvard University Press (co-editor with Philip J. Arnold, III).
  • 2008  Debating with Robert: Papers on Mesoamerican Archaeology in Memory of Robert S. Santley. Journal of Anthropological Research 64(3). (editor with Patricia McAnany).
  • 2008  But Robert, Where Did the Pots Go? Debating the Economy of Ancient Matacapan. Journal of Anthropological Research 64(3): 411-424 (with Wesley D. Stoner).
  • 2007  Olmec Archaeology and Early Mesoamerica. Cambridge University Press.
  • 2007  Pottery Economics in Mesoamerica. University of Arizona Press, Tucson (editor with George J. Bey, III.)
  • 2007  Economy and the Transformation of Landscapes. Society for Economic Anthropology Monograph No. 25. AltaMira Press, New York (co-editor with Lisa Cliggett).
  • 2006  Current Research on the Gulf Coast of Mexico. Journal of Archaeological Research 14:189-241.
  • 2005  Contemplating variation in Olmec Settlement and Polity Using Mississippian Models. In Gulf Coast Archaeology: Southeastern U. S. and Mexico, ed. by Nancy White, pp. 223-245. University of Florida Press.
  • 2003  Settlement Archaeology and Political Economy at Tres Zapotes, Veracruz, Mexico. Monograph 50, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles.
  • 2000  Why a Kiln? Firing Technology in the Sierra de los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, Mexico. Archaeometry 42:62-76.
  • 2000  From Olmec to Epi-Olmec at Tres Zapotes. In Olmec Art and Archaeology in Mesoamerica, ed. by John Clark and Mary Pye, pp. 137-153. Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
  • 2000  A Ceramic Perspective on the Formative to Classic Transition in Southern Veracruz, Mexico. Latin American Antiquity 10(2):139-161 (with Georgia Mudd Britt