Linda R. Manzanilla is a professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (Institute for Anthropological Research), member of El Colegio Nacional (Mexico), and author and/or editor of twenty-two books and 189 articles and chapters related to the emergence and change of early urban societies in Mesoamerica, Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Andean Region. One of her interests is the domestic life of the inhabitants of the first urban settlements, such as Teotihuacan, and archaic states, its government at the state and neighborhood level, as well as the detailed analysis of its multiethnic population and the movement of foreign raw materials and goods. She has excavated in Mexico (particularly at Teotihuacan and Cobá), Bolivia (Tiwanaku), Egypt (Máadi), Eastern Anatolia (Arslantepé), and Israel (Migdal). She has been interested in applying an interdisciplinary perspective to her work in the first urban developments, and in studying the multiethnic population of the Teopancazco neighborhood center in Teotihuacan, where traditional osteological analyses (sex, age, paleopathologies, activity markers, cultural modifications) are contrasted with stable and strontium isotopes to detect migrants, stable isotopes and trace elements to determine paleodiet and ancient DNA, as well as facial approximation. For this research she is a recipient of the Shanghai Archaeology Forum Research Award 2015, among other awards. (lmanza2004@yahoo.com.mx)
Mitchell S Rothman is a professor and chair of the Department of Anthropology at Widener University. His primary interest is in cultural and societal evolution. This he has pursued by investigating the origin of states in Mesopotamia and more recently evolutionary trajectories in the contemporaneous highland Kura-Araxes cultural tradition. He has done fieldwork in Iran, and directed or codirected field projects in Turkey and Armenia. His books include Chiefdoms and Early States in the Near East (with Gil Stein, Prehistory Press, 1994), Tepe Gawra: Evolution of a Small Prehistoric Center in Northeastern Iraq (University Museum Press, 2002), Uruk Mesopotamia and Its Neighbors: Cross-Cultural Interaction in the Era of State Formation (SAR Press, 2001), and On the High Road: The History of Godin Tepe (with Hilary Gopnick, Mazda and Royal Ontario Museum Presses, 2011). (msrothman@widener.edu; mitchellrothman@gmail.com)
Claudia I. Alvarado-León received her BA degree in anthropology with a specialization in archaeology from the Universidad de las Américas-Puebla, has obtained an MA in Estudios Mesoamericanos from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), and is currently a graduate student in the same program. She has been a research assistant in the Proyecto Xochicalco since 2003, primarily focusing on the sociopolitical development of this Epiclassic site, as well as its architecture. (cialvarado@yahoo.com)
Eliot Braun is a senior fellow at the William F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research, Jerusalem, Israel, and an associate researcher at the Centre de Recherche Français de Jérusalem. His research has centered on the late prehistory of the southern Levant. His work includes four monographs: En Shadud: Salvage Excavations at a Farming Community in the Jezreel Valley, Israel (British Archaeological Reports International Series 249, 1985), Salvage and Rescue Excavations at the Late Prehistoric Site of Yiftah’el in Lower Galilee, Israel, Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA Reports 2, 1997), Early Beth Shan (Strata XIX–XIII): G. M. FitzGerald’s Deep Cut on the Tell (University of Pennsylvania Museum 121, 2004), and Early Megiddo on the East Slope (The “Megiddo Stages‘): A Report on the Early Occupation of the East Slope of Megiddo—Results of the Oriental Institute’s Excavations, 1925–1933 (Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago Press, 2013). (eliotlaurencebraun@gmail.com)
Gino de las Casas is an architect from the Ricardo Palma University in Lima, Peru, and has studied for a master’s in Andean archeology at the San Marcos University, Lima, Peru. His research focuses on the origin of monumental architecture at the Central Andes, particularly on the Central Coast of Peru. He is currently directing a project of architectural preservation at the Santuario de Pachacamac, a large archaeological site in the Peruvian south coast, in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture of Peru and Plan COPESCO Nacional. (gdlcasas@yahoo.es)
Catherine E. Covey is a PhD candidate in architecture at the University of California, Berkeley. Using Cuzco’s historic urban landscape and Inka past as a lens, her research explores aspects and intersections of Andean and Peruvian identities. Covey’s dissertation focuses on post-earthquake reformulations of the built environment in the 1950s and the rise of Cuzco’s Historic Center through the politics of national patrimony and global heritage in the second half of the twentieth century. (catherine_covey@berkley. edu; catherine_covey@yahoo.com)
R. Alan Covey is an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Texas at Austin. His research focuses on the archaeology and ethnohistory of the Inka Empire, with sustained research projects in the Cuzco region and the provincial capital of Huánuco Pampa. His books include How the Incas Built Their Heartland: State Formation and the Innovation of Imperial Strategies in the Sacred Valley, Peru (University of Michigan Press, 2006) and the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of the Inca (coedited with Sonia Alconini). (R.Alan.Covey@austin.utexas.edu)
Víctor Falcón-Huayta is an archaeologist from the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Peru. He has undertaken graduate studies (Andean Studies) in the Centro Bartolomé de las Casas, Cuzco, Peru, and a master’s degree in cultural heritage management. He has published on the Lima Culture and Inka rock paintings in the Central Andes. (vic1falcon@hotmail.com)
Enrica Fiandra is a retired scholar, affiliated with the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage as an expert in ancient architecture and archaeology, and then assigned to do research at the Universitá di Roma “la Sapienza.‘ Along with her research partner Piera Ferioli, she is a highly respected and productive pioneer in the study of seals and sealings (cretulae) as administrative objects. Her work carried her from Libya to Crete to Iran and ultimately to the site of Arslantepe in Eastern Anatolia. Her articles from 1952 to today, too numerous to list, are a map for those interested in ancient administrative devices and systems. The respect she garnered is represented by her festschrift, Studi in Onore di Enrica Fiandra: Contributi di archacheologia egea e vicinorientale (M. Perna, ed. De Boccard 2005), with contributions from an international group of scholars. (enricafi@tin.it)
Silvia Garza-Tarazona has been working as an archaeologist at the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH) since 1964. She received her BA and MA degrees in archaeology from the Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia in 1970. Her research interests include settlement patterns, field archaeology, and artifact analysis. She has been working in Xochicalco, Morelos, Mexico, since 1983. She has published several articles on religion, mural paintings, and ceramics, among other topics related to Xochicalco. (gargon12000@yahoo.com.mx)
Norberto González-Crespo(†) received his BA and MA degrees in archaeology from the Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia in 1970. He worked at the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH) from 1963 until 2013. He conducted projects at Chichén Itzá, Uxmal, Komchen, Loltún, Tulúm, Cobá, Kohunlich, and Xochicalco.
Yigal Israel is the director of the Israel Antiquities Authority, Southern District. His focus of research is on southern Israel archaeology. His PhD thesis is on the so-called Gaza Ware Ottoman pottery. (yigal@isratique.org.il)
Ianir Milevski is a senior research archaeologist at the Department of Excavations, Surveys, and Research of the Israel Antiquities Authority and visiting professor in Argentina in the “Raices‘ program of the Ministry of Science and Technology. He is also associate fellow at the William F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research, Jerusalem. His research has involved the application of social theory to the late prehistory of the southern Levant (Neolithic, Chalcolithic, and Early Bronze Ages). He organized with other colleagues the Forum for the Research of the Chalcolithic Period in Israel. (ianir@israntique.org.il; ianirmilevski@gmail.com)
Gaspar Muñoz-Cosme received a doctorate in architecture from the Polytechnic University of Valencia. He is full professor at the Department of Architectural Composition and researcher of the Instituto de Restauración del Patrimonio of the Polytechnic University of Valencia. His research focuses on pre-Columbian architecture and cultural heritage preservation. He was the director of the Cultural Heritage Preservation Program in Guatemala, supported by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation, and director of the projects “Temple I Great Jaguar‘ and “Temple V of Tikal‘ from 1992 to 1997. He was also the director of various projects of Maya architecture and cultural heritage preservation, and he is the author of many books and articles on these topics. Currently, he is the coordinator of the Inter-University master’s program in Conservation and Cultural Heritage Management for the Development, which takes place in Central America, and the director of the project “Maya Architecture: Building Systems, Formal Aesthetics and New Tecnologías,‘ sponsored by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. Since 2004 he has been the director of architecture and restoration of “La Blanca Archaeological Project‘ and in 2013, he was honored, together with Cristina Vidal, with the Best Practices in Site Preservation Award, by the Archaeological Institute of America. (gmcosme@upv.es)
Beatriz Palavicini-Beltrán(†) received her BA degree in archaeology from the Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia, and was an MA candidate in Estudios Mesoamericanos from UNAM (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México). She was a research assistant in the Proyecto Xochicalco and worked as an archaeologist in Cacaxtla, Tlaxcala, Mexico. Her research was centered in the Epiclassic period, complex societies, and state formations.
Tate Paulette is a postdoctoral fellow in archaeology at the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World at Brown University. His research explores the intersection of foodways, institutions, and inequality in Bronze Age Mesopotamia, with a particular focus on the agro-pastoral economy and the production and consumption of alcoholic beverages. He has excavated throughout the Middle East and, in recent years, has spearheaded a collaborative effort to re-create Sumerian beer. (tate_paulette@brown.edu)
Shelia Pozorski is a professor of anthropology (retired) at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Her long-term research interests include prehistoric diet and subsistence, the origins and development of complex society in the Andean area, and pre-Hispanic irrigation. She began conducting research in the Casma Valley in 1980, where she has focused on the Initial Period, a time of precocious development. She is currently directing an archaeological research project at the site of Taukachi-Konkán in the Casma Valley on the north coast of Peru. (spozorski80@gmail.com; shelia.pozorski@retiree.utrgv.edu)
Thomas Pozorski is a professor of anthropology (retired) at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. His general research interests include prehistoric the archaeology of ancient Peru, complex societies, and geoarchaeology. He started work in the Casma Valley in 1980, focusing on the rise of complex society there during the Initial Period (2100 to 1000 BC). This fieldwork has defined the Sechín Alto Polity, which administered the Casma Valley area using a network of sites with complementary functions that are tangibly linked by a unique modular architectural unit that served as an emblem of polity authority. He is currently codirecting an archaeological research project at the site of Taukachi-Konkán in the Casma Valley on the north coast of Peru. (tpozorski1@gmail.com; thomas.pozorski@retiree.utrgv.edu)
Kylie E. Quave is a visiting assistant professor of anthropology and postdoctoral research fellow at the Logan Museum of Anthropology, Beloit College. She has conducted archaeological and ethnohistoric work throughout the South American Andes for the past ten years, particularly concerning the development of the Inka and Spanish empires. She currently directs the Yunkaray Archaeological Research Project in Cuzco, Peru, which examines interactions between pre-Inka complex polities through the lens of household archaeology. Quave completed her PhD at Southern Methodist University. (quaveke@beloit.edu)
José Luis de Rojas is a professor at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. He is the author of several books, including Mexico-Tenochtitlan: Economía y sociedad en el siglo XVI (Colegio de Michoacán, 1988), Cambiar para que yo no cambie: La nobleza indígena en la Nueva España (SB Ediciones, 2010), and Tenochtitlan: Capital of the Aztec Empire (University Press of Florida, 2012). He is interested in prehispanic economy and social organization of Central Mexico and sixteenth-century New Spain. (phempo@ghis.ucm.es)
Frank Salomon is John V. Murra Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His specialties include Andean ethnography, anthropology of religion, and the ethnographic study of literacy. His early career centered on the non-Inka peoples in what is now Ecuador (Native Lords of Quito, Cambridge University Press, 1986). With George Urioste he translated the anonymous Peruvian Quechua manuscript (1608?), which contains the only known native’s-eye account of the pre-Christian deities (T e Huarochirí Manuscript, University of Texas Press, 1991). His 2004 The Cord Keepers (Duke University Press) concerns the survival of quipu, the precolumbian art of making records on knotted cords. A companion ethnography is The Lettered Mountain: A Peruvian Village’s Way with Writing (with Mercedes Niño-Murcia, 2011). In 1999, the two South American volumes of The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas—South America were published under his and Stuart Schwartz’s editorship. In 1998–99 he received a Guggenheim award for his ongoing field research and has held among other research awards and prizes two NSF research fellowships. Salomon is a past president of the American Society for Ethnohistory. In 2014–15 he was a resident fellow at the Obermann Center for Advanced Study at the University of Iowa. (fsalomon@wisc.edu)
Michael P. Smyth is president of the Foundation for Americas Research, Inc. (www.FARINCO.org). He received his PhD in anthropology from the University of New Mexico (1988) and has served as faculty at the Universities of New Mexico, Cincinnati, Kentucky, Central Florida, Buffalo, Rollins College, and Stetson. Having worked and researched in Mexico for thirty years at the sites of Sayil, Chac II, and Xcoch, Yucatan, he has written numerous articles on Mesoamerican archaeology, Maya storage and subsistence systems, and climate change and human ecodynamics. Smyth is currently directing a sponsored research project into climate change, environmental systems, and the formation of Colombian Andean chiefdoms. (mpsmyth@netzero.net)
John R. Topic is professor emeritus at Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario. His research interests include urbanism, warfare, bureaucracy, and modes of governance. He has conducted archaeological research in Peru and Ecuador and archival research in Peru, Ecuador, and Spain. (jtopic@trentu.ca)
Daniel Varga is the scientific adviser of the Israel Antiquities Authority Southern District. His BA and MA studies focused on Classical archaeology and history. He wrote his PhD thesis on guerrilla warfare during the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula by the Roman army (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev). (daniel@israntique.org.il)
Ma Luisa Vázquez de Ágredos-Pascual holds a first doctorate in geography and history from the University of Valencia (Spain), and a second doctorate in art history from the Polytechnic University of Valencia (Spain). She also completed a master’s in international cooperation from Universitat Jaume I de Castellón (Spain). She has been a professor at the Department of Art History, University of Valencia, since 2009. Her research focuses on the archaeometric and cultural studies of Maya mural painting, and more recently on the physical-chemical analysis of the body paint and perfume in ancient Mesoamerica, in order to understand their materiality and cultural significances. She was the director of the projects “Archaeometry of Body Pigment and Perfume of Ancient Mesoamerica‘ (2011–12) and “Archaeometry of the Color in the Mayan Area‘ (2012–14). Her current research project is “Maya Art and Architecture. New Technologies for Its Study and Conservation‘ (2015–18). (M.Luisa.Vazquez@uv.es)
Cristina Vidal-Lorenzo received a doctorate in geography and history from the Department of American History II (Complutense University of Madrid, 1995). She is full professor at the Department of Art History of the University of Valencia, and her main research focus is precolumbian art and archaeology. Other research focuses are on Christian archaeology, iconography, and cultural heritage preservation. She has participated in various excavations in America and Europe and has published a number of books and articles on art and archaeology. She was the director of the “Maya Graffiti Research Project: Iconography and Preservation‘ (2008–9), the “New Technologies for the Study and Diffusion of Mayan Cultural Heritage as a Factor of Education and Development Project‘ (2010–11), and the “Artistic Expressions in Maya Architecture Research Project‘ (2012–14). Since 2004, she has been the scientific director of the “La Blanca Archaeological Project, Peten, Guatemala‘ (www.uv.es/arsmaya), sponsored by the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture, and Sport, and recently her research has been supported by grants from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for the project “Maya Art and Architecture: New Technologies for Its Study and Conservation‘ (2015–18). (cristina.vidal@uv. es)
(†) deceased