Archaeology

Nick Suarez

Nick’s research interests are the structures of pre-modern economies and how they relate to the emergence and persistence of material and political inequalities in human societies. He studies stone tools from Preclassic and Classic period Ancient Maya sites in Western Belize using formal lithic analysis, geochemistry, and computational methods from network science. When not doing research, he can be found hiking, rock climbing, and dabbling in various artisan crafts.

Dela Kuma

Dela Kuma is an anthropological archaeologist who specializes in the archaeology of global encounters in Atlantic-era West Africa. Her current research, the archaeology of ‘legitimate’ trade, examines broad transformations in local taste practices and everyday life during the 19th-century Afro-European trade in the hinterlands of southeastern Ghana. She specializes in the use of archaeometry and archaeobotanical tools to answer archaeological questions concerning foodways, trade, and global entanglements. Dela has also worked on archaeological projects in Nigeria, Portugal, Italy, Israel, and Russia.

Region of Study

West Africa, Ghana

Topics

Archaeology, daily life, foodways, global encounters, local taste

Degrees and Education

PhD, Northwestern University

Research Description

I am broadly interested in questions about how local communities negotiate broader-scale developments at the intimate levels of the household and communities. I am specifically interested in how local people leverage sociocultural practices such as local conceptualization of taste to navigate through global entanglements and make consumption choices, and how these decisions manifest materially in the archaeological records.

In the short term, I am analyzing archaeobotanical remains recovered from Amedeka to understand changes in the practices of food preparations and consumption at the turn of the 19th century when Amedeka became entangled in the ‘legitimate’ trade. Preliminary analyses show well-preserved macrobotanical remains that suggest increased processing of palm oil which could be connected to changes in ceramic forms and shapes.

Daily Life and Domestic Economies in Hinterland Regions of Ghana

This long-term community-based collaborative archaeological research examines how domestic economies of hinterland regions in Ghana responded to the commercial developments in the Atlantic world from the 16th to 20th centuries, a period that encompasses the socioeconomic integration of African economies into the Atlantic trade through to the transitions into the so-called legitimate economies and into formal colonial regimes. I will start this work by expanding excavations at Amedeka and including archaeological data from a broad regional catchment area in the southern region of Ghana. Methodologically, this work will expand the Neutron Activation Analysis database that we have of the southern region combined with other interdisciplinary approaches, to understand how local people negotiated changes in the production, consumption, and exchange patterns at the microlevel of households and community levels.

Olivia Paige Ellis

Olivia’s research explores inequality, identity, and the role of foodways in social and political dynamics in Classic Maya society. Her dissertation focuses on the site of Baking Pot in the Belize River Valley, looking at social inequality and differences in food practices across the site. In addition to her work in Belize, Olivia has participated on projects in Mexico and Sicily, and worked in cultural resource management in the Pacific Northwest.

 

Degrees and Education

B.A. in Anthropology from University of Arizona, 2019

 

Awards and Fellowships

2024-2025 Andrew W. Mellon Predoctoral Fellowship

2024 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Honorable Mention

2024 Heinz Endowment Fellowship

2022-2023 Alfredo D. and Luz Maria P. Gutierrez Fellowship

 

Publications

Ellis, Olivia P., Claire E. Ebert, Kirsten Green-Mink, Casandra Paiz, Nicholas B. Suarez, Bella Benge, Hannah Stewart, and Ronald Gibbons. 2025. A Report of the 2024 Excavations at the Orchard Group Settlement. In The Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance Project: A Report of the 2024 Field Season, edited by C. E. Ebert, J. P. Walden, T. B. Watkins, J. B. Davis, J. A. Hoggarth, and J. J. Awe. Vol. 28. Department of Anthropology, Northern Arizona University; Institute of Archaeology, Baylor University.

Walden, John P., Claire E. Ebert, Scott L. Fedick, Jaime J. Awe, Brett Meyer, Leszek Pawlowicz, Tia B. Watkins, Samuel C. M. Hemsley, Olivia P. Ellis, et al. 2025. Classic Maya Landscape Adaptation, Agricultural Productivity, and Political Dynamics in the Upper Belize River Valley. Quaternary Science Advances 20: 100295

Walden, John P., Michael Biggie, Kyle Shaw-Müller, Yijia Qiu, Olivia P. Ellis, Julie A. Hoggarth, Rafael A. Guerra, Claire E. Ebert, and Jaime J. Awe. 2024. Intermediate Elites and the Shift from Communities to Districts in the Formation of a Late Classic Maya Polity. In The Socio-Political Integration of Ancient Neighborhoods and Districts: Perspectives from the Andes and Mesoamerica, edited by Gabriela Cervantes Quequezana and John P. Walden, pp. 65-102. University of Pittsburgh Center for Comparative Archaeology, Pittsburgh.

Ebert, Claire E. Ebert, Horace Smith, Casandra Paiz, Nicholas B. Suarez, Olivia P. Ellis, John Waight, John P. Walden and Jaime J. Awe. 2025. Lidar-Assisted Survey and Settlement Pattern Analysis at Yaxox, Belize: Results of the Inaugural Field Season of the Yaxox Archaeology and Conservation Project. In The Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance Project: A Report of the 2024 Field Season, edited by Claire E. Ebert, John P. Walden, Tia B. Watkins, J. Britt Davis, Julie A. Hoggarth, and Jaime J. Awe. Vol. 28. Department of Anthropology, Northern Arizona University; Institute of Archaeology, Baylor University.

Ellis, Olivia P., Alexandra Alcala, Brandon Torres. 2024. A Report of the 2023 Excavations at the Orchard Group Settlement. In The Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance Project: A Report of the 2023 Field Season, eds. J. Britt Davis, John P. Walden, Claire E. Ebert, Julie A. Hoggarth, and Jaime J. Awe. Vol. 27. Department of Anthropology, Northern Arizona University; Institute of Archaeology, Baylor University.

Walden, John P., Julie A. Hoggarth, Claire E. Ebert, Kyle Shaw-Müller, Ran Weiyu, Yijia Qiu, Olivia P. Ellis, Brett Meyer, Michael Biggie, Tia B. Watkins, Rafael A. Guerra, and Jaime J. Awe. 2023. Patterns of Residential Differentiation and Labor Control at Baking Pot and Lower Dover in the Belize River Valley. Ancient Mesoamerica 34(9):1-9.

Ellis, Olivia P., John P. Walden, Megan Michel, Julie A. Hoggarth. 2023. Report on the 2022 Excavations at the Ek Tzul Ballcourt. In The Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance Project: A Report of the 2022 Field Season, Vol. 26, edited by John P. Walden, Claire E. Ebert, Julie A. Hoggarth, and Jaime J. Awe. Department of Anthropology, Northern Arizona University Flagstaff, Arizona; Institute of Archaeology, Baylor University, Waco, Texas.

Biggie, Michael, John P. Walden, Kyle Shaw-Müller, Michael L. Petrozza, Olivia P. Ellis, Ian N. Roa, Norbert Stanchly, Rafael A. Guerra, Claire E. Ebert, Julie A. Hoggarth and Jaime J. Awe. 2023. Shell Games: A Middle Preclassic Shell Deposit at the Minor Center of Tutu Uitz Na in the Upper Belize River Valley. Latin American Antiquity 1–8.

Walden, John P., Julie A. Hoggarth, Claire E. Ebert, Scott L. Fedick, Michael Biggie, Brett Meyer, Kyle Shaw-Müller, Yijia Qiu, Weiyu Ran, Olivia P. Ellis, Tia B. Watkins, J. Britt Davis, Rafael A. Guerra, Christophe Helmke, and Jaime J. Awe. 2023. Classic Maya Settlement Systems Reveal Differential Land Use Patterns in the Upper Belize River Valley. Land 12(2): 483.

Ellis, Olivia P., John P. Walden and Victoria Rick. 2020. The 2019 Excavations at Settlement Group 129, at Floral Park. In The Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance Project: A Report of the 2019 Field Season, Vol. 25, edited by Claire E. Ebert, John P. Walden, Julie A. Hoggarth, and Jaime J. Awe, pp. 207- 217. Department of Anthropology, Northern Arizona University Flagstaff, Arizona; Institute of Archaeology, Baylor University, Waco, Texas.

Degrees and Education

B.A. in Anthropology from University of Arizona, 2019

Awards

2022-2023 Alfredo D. and Luz Maria P. Gutierrez Fellowship