Holley Moyes Principal Investigator

Barbara Voorhies

Barbara Voorhies is currently a Research Professor and Professor Emerita at the University of California, Santa Barbara,(UCSB). She earned a B.S. in geology from Tufts University in 1961 and a Ph.D. in anthropology from Yale University in 1969. She has spent most of her professional career at UCSB but also held positions at the University of Colorado, Boulder, San Diego State College and the Universidad de las Américas-Puebla. Her archaeological research has focused primarily on the transition from foraging to farming on the South Pacific coast of Mexico with particular emphasis on the relationship between humans and their physical environment.

Laura Kosakowsky

Originally from New York City, Laura Kosakowsky’s interest in Maya archaeology began at the age of twelve with a visit to the site of Tikal, Guatemala. She did her undergraduate degree in anthropology at Stanford University (BA with distinction and honors 1976), and received her master’s (1978) and doctoral (1983) degrees from the University of Arizona, in anthropology, with a specialty in archaeology. While she has engaged in archaeological fieldwork in California, England, Italy, and the American Southwest, her primary focus has been on the ancient Maya in Belize and Guatemala. Her dissertation work was on the Preclassic pottery from Cuello, Belize, and since that time she also has worked at the Maya sites of Nohmul and La Milpa in northern Belize, Holmul in the Petén region of Guatemala, Chan in the Belize Valley, as well as numerous sites on the Pacific Coast of Guatemala. Her research interests include ancient Maya ceramics, archaeological site formation processes, and rise of complex societies in the Maya Lowlands. She resides in Tucson, where she is a Research Scholar with the University of Arizona.

Mark Robinson

He is pursuing a PhD in Geography with an Anthropology concentration at Louisiana State University, researching ancient Maya wood selection and resource exploitation at Classic period salt works on the coast of southern Belize. He received his MA in Art History at the University of Essex, England, studying Mesoamerican iconography and writing systems. Eight years of fieldwork on a number of projects in Belize has taken him from the coast to the hills, from swamps to caves, and commoner workshops to elite tombs and back.

Rafael Guerra

Rafael Guerra was born in San Ignacio, Cayo, Belize. After completing his Junior College Degree he worked as a tour guide with several operators in the Cayo district. Rafael joined the (Belize Valley Archaeological) BVAR project in 1999. After successfully completing the field course he returned to the project as volunteer and junior staff member. During this time Rafael worked at several sites with BVAR/WBRCP, where he learned numerous skills including excavating, reconnaissance and surveying. He received his B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Indianapolis (program offered in Belize at Galen University). Currently Rafael is in employment with the Belize Institute of Archaeology, as an Archaeologist. His responsibilities include the development of a multivariate database, for all known archaeological sites in Belize, spanning from the Archaic to Historic Periods (8,000 BC – AD 1900’s), and conducting reconnaissance and mapping of newly discovered sites. He is also the surveyor and field director, for the Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance Project, focusing on monumental and settlement survey and excavations at the Lower Dover Maya Site in the Cayo District. His interest include settlement pattern and site development processes in ancient Maya Communities. At present, Rafael is a graduate student at The University of New Mexico at Albuquerque pursuing a Master’s Degree in Public Archaeology.