I had the pleasure of interviewing Professor Andrew Scherer, an anthropological archaeologist and biological anthropologist. He is the Director of the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World. I met with him on Thursday afternoon, August 8, 2024. When I walked into his office, I thought that the interview was going to be easy; boy was I wrong. With every question asked, I was met with a detailed and precise answer. I could barely write because of how interesting everything was. I felt like I just graduated college when we finished. It was an amazing experience!
Andrew Scherer, June 5, 2023
Q – What would you say is your favorite archaeological find? What did you learn from it? If you learned something from it, did it have any connections with other artifacts or sites?
A – Professor Scherer said that in terms of fieldwork, he’d have to say his favorite was in 2003 when he and a team of archaeologists were the first to visit a site called Tecolote in Guatemala. Local people had been there previously, but the site had never been documented by researchers. It still had its main building standing, even with its roof intact. It was practically perfectly preserved. Professor Scherer said, “And finding a site, a new site, with standing architecture, is extremely rare these days in archaeology.”
He shared that the most amazing part of the experience was the early phases of research, particularly looking at the types of borders between two Maya kingdoms, Piedras Negras and Yaxchilan. In looking closely, he found it interesting to see how the architectural style of Tecolote mirrored Yaxchilan. It has been theorized that the same architects and artisans made it from the polity capital.
The building itself has preserved unfinished murals. These indicate that the building was unfinished at the time it was abandoned, which dates back to around the time of the Maya political collapse.
Q – What current global and cultural trends do you think are influencing archaeological research and interpretation (particularly in Mesoamerican studies)?
A -The two things impacting research the most are very different. Technology, particularly LIDAR survey, has revolutionized the ability to do that sort of survey, especially in the Maya area. In the eastern part of Mesoamerica, where he works, it revolutionized the ability to see everything from settlement patterns to fortifications and defenses to agricultural technologies.
The second is that there’s a kind of growing call for increased collaboration with local communities and the planning and execution of archaeological research. In the Maya area, the work has a greater focus on community collaboration. Learning about current culture helps determine the culture and religious practices of the ancient Maya.
Q – How has your work in bioarcheology contributed to the understanding of Maya societies?
A – Professor Scherer has expanded his areas of study of Maya bioarcheology since he started his career. Early in his dissertation research, he was studying dental morphometrics, looking at the size and shapes of teeth as a proxy for underlying population genetics.
One of the things that emerged from his research was the idea that ancient Maya communities were not particularly different from one another. There’s evidence of gene flow, and that connects with understandings about migration and mobility that have come out of isotopic research, and this is being confirmed with recent DNA research.
Another is his ongoing work on dietary stable isotope analysis from human skeletons in the western Maya area. In that area of work, it’s seen as a consumption signature of maize. The exciting part is how much it correlates to the amount of water and rain around that region.
More recently, his research has been looking at evidence of violence — especially ritual violence — and looking at practices related to the sacrifice of humans. What Professor Scherer says is noticeably interesting is that “it’s not so much what’s coming out of just bioarcheology itself, but then coupling that with other lines of evidence to sort of put it in a contextual framework for understanding the underlying motivations behind these practices.” It involves linking bioarcheology with evidence from imagery, epigraphy, ethnohistory, and ethnography, to build a more robust understanding of ancient Maya religious practices overall.
Q – What advice would you give new graduate students or early-career archaeologists interested in specializing in Mesoamerican archaeology, and what skills or knowledge do you believe are essential for success in this field?
A – Spend time in Latin America and learn Spanish. It’s important to be able to talk to locals and communicate with colleagues. This will open up doors for collaborations between communities and archaeologists, especially when traveling and having to communicate with locals and colleagues while working on a site.
Q – What are the biggest challenges you face in studying the ancient Maya, and how do you address these challenges in your research and fieldwork?
A – A big challenge is the protection of archaeological sites themselves. Populations in areas of Maya lowlands are increasing. So more land has to be used, and some land practices can be destructive to archaeological sites. In addition, the danger of looting and curious people poking around in agriculture has increased. The site where Professor Scherer works is located on a cattle ranch. This use required the forest to be cleared, exposing much of the archaeological site to the environment and reducing the amount of shade, making the field conditions more intense. There is also the problem of having the cattle tromp over the archaeological sites, which is destructive. All they can do is find ways to share the land.
Q – In your studies of Maya mortuary practices and ritual practices, what have you discovered about the social and political structures of Classic Maya polities?
A – What’s interesting are the different kingdoms’ mortuary practices. In the kingdom of Yaxchilan, people have similarities in terms of the orientation of the body, how the body is placed into the ground, and the kind of burial facility or chamber that they’re put into. Some of it cross-cuts social strata, commoners and royal burials might have similarities in their practices. What that shows is certain types of ritual practices helped unite the kingdoms but also set them apart from others. So the practices discovered in the kingdom of Yahushua are very different from what was seen associated with its nearby, competing kingdom of Piedras Nigras.
Q – What future research directions or questions do you find most compelling in the study of Classic Maya polities and their surrounding landscapes?
A – Something Professor Scherer’s current project is interested in is exploring the connection between markets and marketplaces and Maya kingdoms.
For a long time, it’s been just a question of whether the markets even existed or not. Professor Scherer believes that there’s a growing consensus that the Maya did indeed have marketplaces. But the real question is: who oversaw or controlled those markets? Where were they located?
One model would have them as closely tied to the royal courts, in which case you would expect them to be predominantly located at the polity centers, where the royal courts were located. But the research coming out of their lidar studies has him, and other archaeologists, believing they might have identified additional markets located away from the royal courts. So their questions are: Are those really marketplaces? Could they have been controlled by the royal courts, at these other places, or is this a case where other Maya, perhaps other nobility, were also maintaining their own marketplaces?
This is important because it relates more broadly to the Maya economy and the political economy in general, how Maya society was organized, and how goods were produced, exchanged, and traded. He is now pursuing those questions in his research.
Q – Do you have any advice for aspiring archaeologists? How they can find their paths? How did you find yours?
A – If you’re interested in archaeology, try to get a field experience as soon as possible. That’s the kind of thing that really solidifies your decision. Some people love being in the field. Others go to the field and realize that they dislike sitting and digging all day, whereas others find it exciting.
Another thing Professor Scherer suggests is that you learn more about current archaeological research questions, particularly those related to a corner of the world that you might be interested in. Archaeologists don’t just dig for the sake of digging; they excavate sites with a goal and research questions in mind. Considering what is unknown about the past and what you might like to know more about, as well as figuring out whether you like the lifestyle that goes along with archaeology, is crucial for deciding whether archaeology is something you should be doing with your life.
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-ˋˏ ༻Haylee Guellar, Joukowsky Institute PrepareRI Intern, Summer 2024༺ ˎˊ-