VOPA Publications

For field reports, see History of VOPA tab

Books

Lucero, Lisa
2006 Water and Ritual: The Rise and Fall of Classic Maya Rulers. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Book Chapters

Isendahl, Christian, Vernon L. Scarborough, Joel D. Gunn, Nicholas P. Dunning, Scott L. Fedick, Gyles Iannone, and Lisa J. Lucero.
2019  Applied Perspectives on Precolumbian Maya Water Management Systems: What are the Insights for Water Security? In The Oxford Handbook of Historical Ecology and Applied Archaeology, edited by C. Isendahl and D. Stump, pp. 506-523. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Isendahl, Christian, Lisa J. Lucero, and Scott Heckbert
2018  Sustaining Freshwater Security and Community Wealth: Diversity and Change in the Pre-Columbian Maya Lowlands. In Water and Society: Resilience, Decline, and Revival from Ancient Times to the Present, edited by Federica Sulas and Innocent Pikiray, pp. 17-39. Routledge, London.

Lucero, Lisa J.
2018  Climate Change and Water Management in Tropical Societies: The Classic Maya. In Exploring Frameworks for Tropical Forest Conservation: Integrating Natural and Cultural Diversity for Sustainability, A Global Perspective, pp. 204-213. UNESCO Mexico, Mexico City. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0026/002656/265651m.pdf

Kinkella, Andrew, and Lisa J. Lucero
2017 ktun Ek Nen: Reflections on the Black Mirror Cave at the Cara Blanca Pools, Belize. In The Archaeology of Underwater Caves, edited by Peter Campbell, pp.182-197. Highfield Press, Southhampton.

Lucero, Lisa J.
2017  Ancient Maya Water Management, Droughts, and Urban Diaspora: Implications for the Present. In Tropical Forest Conservation: Long-Term Processes of Human Evolution, Cultural Adaptations and Consumption Patterns, pp. 162-188. UNESCO Mexico. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0025/002595/259594m.pdf

Lucero, Lisa J., and Andrew Kinkella
2014 Place for Pilgrimage: The Ancient Maya Sacred Landscape of Cara Blanca, Belize. In Of Rocks and Water: Towards an Archaeology of Place, edited by Omür Harmanşah. Joukowsky Institute Publication 5, pp. 13-39. Oxbow Books, Oxford.

Lucero, Lisa J.
2008 “Memorializing Place among Classic Maya Commoners.” Memory Work: Archaeologies of Material Practices. Ed. B.J. Mills and W.H. Walker. Santa Fe: School for Advanced Research Press, pp. 187-205.

Lucero, Lisa J.
2006 “Agricultural Intensification, Water, and Political Power in the Southern Maya Lowlands.” Agricultural Strategies. Edited by C. Stanish and J. Marcus. Los Angeles: The Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, UCLA, pp. 281-305.

Lucero, Lisa J.
2006 “The Political and Sacred Power of Water in Ancient Maya Society.” Precolumbian Water Management: Ideology, Ritual, and Politics. Ed. L. J. Lucero and B. Fash. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, pp. 116-128.

Lucero, Lisa J., Scott L. Fedick, Andrew Kinkella, and Sean M. Graebner.
2004 “Ancient Maya Settlement in the Valley of Peace Area, Belize.” Archaeology of the Upper Belize River Valley: Half a Century of Maya Research. Ed. J.F. Garber. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, pp. 86-102.

Walker, William H., and Lisa J. Lucero.
2000 “The Depositional History of Ritual and Power.” Agency in Archaeology. Ed. M. Dobres and J. Robb. London: Routledge Press, pp. 130-147.

Lucero, Lisa J.
1999 “Water Control and Maya Politics in the Southern Maya Lowlands.” Complex Polities in the Ancient Tropical World. Comp. L.J. Lucero. Ed. E.A. Bacus. Archeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association 9, pp. 34-49.

Journal Articles

Lucero, Lisa J.2023  Ancient Maya Reservoirs, Constructed Wetlands, and Future Water Needs. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 120 (42) e2306870120. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2306870120.

Wilcox, Taylor M., Anthony Caragiulo, Joseph C. Dysthe, Thomas W. Franklin,
Daniel H. Mason, Kevin S. McKelvey, Katherine E. Zarn, and Michael K. Schwartz
2021  Detection of Jaguar (Panthera onca) From Genetic Material in Drinking Water. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 9:613200. doi: 10.3389/fevo.2021.613200

Larmon, Jean T.
2020  Watery Relations and Creations: Ancient Maya Engagement with the Cara Blanca Pools. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 1-18. doi:10.1017/S095977432000027X

Larmon, Jean T., H. Gregory McDonald, Stanley Ambrose, Larisa R. G. DeSantis, and Lisa J. Lucero
2019 A Year in the Life of a Giant Ground Sloth During the Last Glacial Maximum in Belize. Science Advances 5:eaau1200.

Lucero, Lisa J.
2018 A Cosmology of Conservation in the Ancient Maya World. Journal of Anthropological Research 74(3):327-359.

Lucero, Lisa J., Jessica Harrison, Jean Larmon, Zachary Nissen, and Erin Benson
2016 Prolonged Droughts, Short-Term Responses and Diaspora: The Power of Water and Pilgrimage at the Sacred Cenotes of Cara Blanca, Belize. WIREs Water. doi: 10.1002/wat2.1148

Lucero, Lisa J., and Andrew Kinkella
2015 Pilgrimage to the Edge of the Watery Underworld:  An Ancient Maya Water Temple at Cara Blanca, Belize. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 25(1):163-185.

Lucero, Lisa J.
2010 “Materialized Cosmology among Ancient Maya Commoners.” Journal of Social Archaeology 10.1: 138-167.

Lucero, Lisa J.
2007 “Classic Maya Temples, Politics, and the Voice of the People.” Latin American Antiquity 18.4: 407-427.

Lucero, Lisa J.
2003 “The Politics of Ritual: The Emergence of Classic Maya Rulers.” Current Anthropology 44.4: 523-558.

Lucero, Lisa J.
2002 “The Collapse of the Classic Maya: A Case for the Role of Water Control.” American Anthropologist 104.3: 814-826.

VOPA Theses and Dissertations

Arie, Jane C.
2001 Sun Kings and Hierophants: Geocosmic Orientation and the Classic Maya. M.A. Thesis. New Mexico State University, Las Cruces.

Baron, Joanne
2006 SPORT, COMMUNITY, AND THE BALLGAME AT YALBAC, BELIZE. Undergraduate Thesis. University of Pennsylvania.

Bhattacharya, Tiyas
2017 Dietary Analysis of Classic Maya from Central Belize. Senior Honor’s Thesis, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Copper, Amy
2019 Ancestral Animacies: Terminal Classic Maya Pilgrimages to Cara Blanca, Belize and the Greater Theoretical Implications of the Ceremonial Caches they Interred. Senior Honor’s Thesis, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Fuhrmann, Holly
2007 POWERFUL BIRTH: THE GLOBALIZATION OF CHILDBIRTH IN THE VALLEY OF PEACE, BELIZE. Master’s Report. New Mexico State University, Las Cruces.

Gonzalez Cruz, Jesann M.
2019 Towards a Post-Colonial Conservation Practice: An Examination of Slow Violence on Maya Cultural Heritage in Central Belize. MA thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Graebner, Sean M.
2002 Monumental Architecture and the Ancient Maya: The Royal Acropolis at Yalbac, Central Belize. Unpublished Master’s thesis, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces.

Harrison, Jessica
2015 Ritual Intensification and Regional Interaction in Terminal Classic Belize: A Comparative Analysis of the Ceramics of Cara Blanca and Saturday Creek. MA thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Hooper, John M. D.
2004 Energetic Investment in the Acropolis at Yalbac, Belize: A Comparative Approach. Unpublished Master’s Thesis, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces.

Jack, Sarah M. P.
2005 The Application of Microtephrochronology to Archaeology: A Critical Assessment with Reference to Maya Archaeology. M. Sc. Thesis, Oxford University.

Jeakle, Julie E.
2002 Social Integration and the Maya: The Multifunctionality of Mesoamerican Ball Courts. M.A. Thesis. New Mexico State University, Las Cruces.

Kinkella, Andrew
2000 Settlement at the Sacred Pools: Preliminary Archaeological Investigations at the Late Classic Maya Site of Cara Blanca, Belize. M.A. Thesis, California State University, Northridge.

2009 Draw of the Sacred Water: An Archaeological Survey of the Ancient Maya Settlement at the Cara Blanca Pools, Belize. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. University of California, Riverside.

Larmon, Jean T.  2019  The Past as a Constituent of the Present: Social Waters and Posthumanism at Cara Blanca, Belize.  PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Lindsay, Colleen
2011 Culturally Modified Landscapes from Past to Present: Yalbac, Belize. M.A. Paper. University of Illinois, Urbana.

Osterholtz, Anna
1999 Underwater Archaeology of the Maya Area: A History and Study of the Methodological Approaches for the Recovery and Treatment of Cultural Materials Recovered from a Freshwater Environment. Honors Thesis. New Mexico State University, Las Cruces.

Nissen, Zachary A.  2015 Queer Experiences of Sacred Space: Ancient Maya Cosmovision and Geomantic Disorientation. Unpublished B.A. Honors Thesis. Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign.

Piehl, Jennifer
2005 PERFORMING IDENTITY IN AN ANCIENT MAYA CITY: THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF HOUSES, HEALTH AND SOCIAL DIFFERENTIATION AT THE SITE OF BAKING POT, BELIZE. Dissertation. Tulane University.

Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology–will be updated soon; download volumes: RRBA

Lucero, Lisa J., Rachel Taylor, Yifan Wang, and Laura Kosakowsky

2023  Lucero, Taylor, Wang, and Kosakowsky 2023, Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology 18:289-299.

Larmon, Jean T., Jesann Gonzalez Cruz, and Amy Copper
2019  Integrating the “Built” and “Unbuilt” Spaces of Cara Blanca. Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology 16:179-190.

Lucero, Lisa J., Jean T. Larmon, and Thomas W. Franklin
2019  Exploring the Ancient Maya Landscape at Cara Blanca and Beyond. Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology 16:191-200.

Larmon, Jean T. and Aimée E. Carbaugh
2018  Ceremonial Circuit(s) at Cara Blanca, Belize. Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology 15:231-240.

Lucero, Lisa J., Jean T. Larmon, and Aimée E. Carbaugh
2018  Setting the Stage in Central Belize: 30,000 Years of Tropical Climate, Landscape Transformation, and Human Interaction. Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology 15:219-230.

Benson, Erin M.
2017  In the Shadow of Yalbac: Hinterland Settlement between Yalbac and the Cara Blanca Pools. Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology 14:97-109.

Lucero, Lisa J., Jean T. Larmon, and Aimée E. Carbaugh
2017  The Ancient Maya Ceremonial Circuit of Cara Blanca, Belize. Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology 14:249-259.

Harrison, Jessica
2015  Cara Blanca: The Ceramics of Terminal Classic Pilgrimage and Ritual. The History of Cara Blanca, Pool 6: Logging at the Mystic Pool. Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology 12:305-314.

Larmon, Jean, and Lisa J. Lucero
2015  The History of Cara Blanca, Pool 6: Logging at the Mystic Pool. Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology 12:315-322.

Lucero, Lisa J., Jessica Harrison, and Colleen Lindsay
2014  The Sacred Cenote and the Water Temple: Pool 1, Cara Blanca, Belize. Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology 11:233-243.

Lucero, Lisa J., and Colleen Lindsay
2013  Into the Depths of Cara Blanca: Exploring the Maya Underworld. Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology 10:165-175.

Lucero, Lisa J., Patricia Beddows, and Andrew Kinkella
2011  Diving the Sacred Pools of Cara Blanca, Belize. Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology 8:233-240.

Lucero, Lisa J., Patricia A. Beddows, and Andrew Kinkella
2011  Diving the Sacred Pools of Cara Blanca, Belize. Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology 8:233-240.

Baltus, Melissa R. and Sarah E. Otten
2009 Non Temple – Summit Rituals at Yalbac. Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology 6:217-225

Lucero, Lisa J.
2008  Plaza 1: Royal Rituals of Yalbac. Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology 5:219-226.

Baron, Joanne P.
2006 The Origins and Placement of the Ballcourt at Yalbac. Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology 3:231-240.

Kinkella, Andrew
2005  Bottles, Buttons, and the BEC: The Historical Record at Yalbac. Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology 2:269-276.

Lucero, Lisa J.
2005 Exploring the Roles of Temples at Yalbac. Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology 2:349-356.

Kinkella, Andrew
2004  The Pools at Cara Blanca: Archaeology in the Valley of Peace Above and Below the Water. Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology 1:93-102.

Lucero, Lisa J.
2004 Exploring Classic Maya Politics: Yalbac, Central Belize. Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology 1:83-91.