UMass Boston

Mesoamerican Archaeology; Maya lowlands; development of complex society; ceramic analysis

PhD University of Texas at Austin

Lauren A. Sullivan has a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Texas at Austin.  She has been involved in field research in the Maya lowlands since 1987.  Her early interests included the development of complex society in northern Belize with a focus on Preclassic architecture and ceramics.  She also worked on a number of prehistoric sites in Texas.  More recently, Lauren has focused on the analysis of ceramics recovered from a number of sites in northwestern Belize (small and large) in order to develop a regional chronology and to examine patterns of trade, exchange, and social organization.  In addition, she is working on Cunil pottery from the site of Cahal Pech in the Belize River Valley and is the Associate Project Director of the St. George’s Caye Archaeological Project.

She is directs a University of Massachusetts Boston field school in northwestern Belize each summer (https://www.umb.edu/academics/caps/international/belize). Courses she teaches include two General Education Seminars: Food and Society and The Rise and Fall of the Maya. Some of her publications include "Evidence for Changing Dynamics in the Regional Integration of Northwestern Belize" in Ancient Maya Political Economies (edited by Marilyn A. Masson and David Freidel), "Changing Political Alliances in the Three Rivers Region" (co-authored with Kerry Sagebiel) in Heterarchy, Political Economy, and the Ancient Maya (edited by Vernon L. Scarborough, Fred Valdez, Jr. and Nicholas P. Dunning), “Structure Abandonment and Landscape Transformation: Examples from the Three Rivers Region” in The Use and Perception of Abandoned Structures in the Maya Lowlands, edited by Travis W. Stanton and Aline Magnoni, and “Establishing the Cunil Ceramic Complex at Cahal Pech, Belize” (co-authored with Jaime J. Awe) in Ancient Maya Pottery (edited by Jim Aimers).  Lauren is also the faculty sponsor for the Beta of Massachusetts Lambda Alpha Chapter (the National Collegiate Honor Society for Anthropology.)