Joshua T. Schnell

  • Assistant Professor

Joshua Schnell is an anthropological bioarchaeologist specializing in the bioarchaeology of Mesoamerica, specifically the Maya region (Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and Honduras). His primary research interests concern health, medicine, body practices, and funerary practices in the archaeological past. His work emphasizes the role of human agency in the anthropological study of health, diet, and disease in the past – with a concern for how people managed, maintained, and altered their bodies. He conducts archaeological fieldwork in Chiapas, Mexico and is Co-Director of the Proyecto Arqueológico Bajo Lacantun (PABL) where he runs a bioarchaeological research program investigating the biosocial lives of the inhabitants of the ancient Lakamtuun kingdom. He also has an ongoing collections-based research program investigating the oral care and dental practices of the precolonial Maya.

Dr. Schnell’s work is fundamentally interdisciplinary and often incorporates ethnohistoric, ethnographic, archaeobotanical, archival, ethnomedicinal, and visual evidence alongside human biology and material culture. Before joining the faculty at Pitt, he was a Pre-Columbian Studies Fellow at Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection in Washington, DC and has additionally held fellowships at the John Carter Brown Library in Providence, RI and the National Science Foundation. At Pitt, he runs a lab specializing in experimental archaeology and microscopy. Dr. Schnell always welcomes undergraduate and graduate student research involvement in his lab and field endeavors. While his current fieldwork is based in Chiapas, Mexico, he has previously conducted field work across the Maya region - in Belize, Guatemala, and Mexico at a variety of Classic and Pre classic sites, including large, dynastic civic-ceremonial urban centers, small frontier and subsidiary sites, and mortuary rock shelters and caves.

Dr. Schnell is currently accepting PhD students in the following areas:

  • Bioarchaeology of the ancient Americas, especially of the precolonial Maya and Mesoamerica more broadly (Note: while Dr. Schnell is not a specialist of the ancient Andes, co-advising with Drs. Arkush or Bermann may be a possibility)
  • Paleopathology and experimental bioarchaeology
  • (Bio)archaeological approaches to the study of medicine, medical knowledge, medical practice, and dentistry in the past
  • Archaeology of the Maya region – especially those who might be interested in participating on PABL

Degrees and Education

PhD,Anthropology, Brown University
MA, Anthropology, Brown University
BS, Anthropology, Michigan State University
BA, Religious Studies, Michigan State University

Research Description

In broadest strokes, I am interested in how the body was understood, maintained, and altered - both during life and after death - in the archaeological past. My interests primarily lie in bioarchaeological approaches to the study of medicine, healing, and the body in the past, including:

(1) the treatment of the dis-eased body via medical and therapeutic practices,
(2) the maintenance of bodily health via diet, hygienic practices, and routine care,
(3) the creation and upkeep of the aesthetic or “crafted” body and its intersection with health, and
(4) the treatment and processing of the postmortem body, or corpse.

Methodologically my work is both bioarchaeological and paleopathological, but I make extensive use of imaging and microscopy as well as interdisciplinary methods such as archival research, iconography and visual culture studies, and ethnobotany and ethnomedicine.

I conduct an ongoing project documenting evidence for oral care, dental hygiene, and aesthetic expression of the mouth in the Maya world. The human dentition provides a unique opportunity to examine both quotidian and self-directed forms of care (such as toothbrushing and other cleansing practices)  and practices reflecting specialized knowledge such as therapeutic and herbal treatments, including oral surgery and tooth extractions. Understanding how people cared for their mouths within their specific cultural context, and how those practices might intersect with broader cultural values such as hygiene, sociality, aesthetics, and even morality can tremendously enhance our study of health and disease in the past. Through this work, I am also working with colleagues in paleoethnobotany, biomolecular anthropology, and dental science to advance a holistic model for the study of the mouth in the archaeological past. My work is fundamentally biocultural and interdisciplinary and I am committed to exploring and developing new, innovative methodologies and approaches for advancing the study of health and disease in the past. I believe this work should always be culturally-grounded, which is why I incorporate iconography, visual culture, ethnohistory, and ethnography in my research.

 

I have additional research interests in archaeological representation in gaming (digital and analog), collecting practices and research in/of collections, and the cultural adornment of the body before, during, and after death.

Courses

  • Introduction to Biological Anthropology
  • Biological Anthropology Graduate Core Course
  • The Archaeology of Medicine 
  • The Decorated Body
  • Bioarchaeology
  • Paleopathology
  • Human Biological Variation

 

Publications

  • Schnell, Joshua T. 2024. “Ancient Maya Oral Care Practices.” General Anthropology, 31(1-2): 9-13. https://doi.org/10.1111/gena.12125 
  • Scherer, Andrew K., Ricardo Rodas, Joshua T. Schnell, Mónica Urquizú, and Omar Alcover Firpi. 2024. “The Man of Macabilero: An Osteobiography of Perseverance.” In Mesoamerican Osteobiographies: Revealing the Lives and Deaths of Ancient Individuals, edited by Gabriel Wrobel and Andrea Cucina. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.
  • Watson, Sarah E., Joshua T. Schnell, Shanti Morell-Hart, Andrew K. Scherer, and Lydie Dussol. 2023. “Healthcare in the Marketplace: Exploring Maya Medicinal Plants and Practices at Piedras Negras, Guatemala.” Ancient Mesoamerica, 34(2), 383-406. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0956536122000037
  • Scherer, Andrew K., and Joshua T. Schnell. 2022. “Maya Bioarchaeology.” In The Routledge Handbook of Mesoamerican Bioarchaeology, edited by Vera Tiesler, pp. 168-180. Routledge, London.
  • Hernandez-Bolio, Gloria I., Patricia Quintana, Marco Ramírez-Salomon, Elma Vega-Lizama, Michele Morgan, Joshua T. Schnell, Andrew Scherer, and Vera Tiesler. 2022. “Organic Compositional Analysis of Ancient Maya Tooth Sealants and Fillings.” Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 43, 103435. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2022.103435
  • Scherer, Andrew K., Charles Golden, Stephen Houston, Mallory Matsumoto, Omar A. Alcover Firpi, Whittaker Schroder, Alejandra Roche Recinos, Socorro Jiménez Álvarez, Mónica Urquizú, Griselda Robles Pérez, Joshua T. Schnell, and Zachary X. Hruby. 2022. “Chronology and the Evidence for War in the Classic Maya Kingdom of Piedras Negras.” Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 66, 101408. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2022.101408
  • Schnell, Joshua T., and Andrew K. Scherer. 2021. “Classic Maya Dental Interventions: Evidence for Tooth Extractions at Piedras Negras, Guatemala.”  Bioarchaeology International, 5, 47-67. https://doi.org/10.5744/bi.2021.1001
  • Golden, Charles, Andrew K. Scherer, Whittaker Schroder, Timothy Murtha, Shanti Morell-Hart, Juan Carlos Fernandez Diaz, Socorro del Pilar Jiménez Álvarez, Omar Alcover Firpi, Mark Agostini, Alexandra Bazarsky, Morgan Clark, George Van Kollias III, Mallory Matsumoto, Alejandra Roche Recinos, Joshua Schnell, and Bethany Whitlock. 2021. “Airborne Lidar Survey, Density-Based Clustering, and Ancient Maya Settlement in the Upper Usumacinta River Region of Mexico and Guatemala.” Remote Sensing, 13, 4019. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13204109