Antonia E. Foias

Photo of Antonia E. Foias

Preston S. Parish '41 Third Century Professor of Anthropology

413-597-2264
Hollander Hall Rm 309

Education

B.A. Harvard University (1987)
Ph.D. Vanderbilt University, Anthropology (1996)

Areas of Expertise

MAJOR INTERESTS

  • Archaeology
  • Cultural evolution
  • Ceramic analysis
  • Pottery producion and exchange
  • Archaeometry
  • Mesoamerica & South America, especially Maya

Courses

ANTH 216 / GBST 216 TUT

Urbanism in the Ancient World (not offered 2023/24)

ANTH 281 / REL 280 / ARTH 281 SEM

The Seeds of Divinity: Exploring Precolumbian Art & Civilization in a Museum Exhibit (not offered 2023/24)

ANTH 324 SEM

Empires of Antiquity
(not offered 2023/24)

Scholarship/Creative Work

Website, Motul de San José Archaeological Project
Website, Seeds of Divinity

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

In press             Ceramics and Polity at Motul de San José and its Periphery during the Late to Terminal Classic. Chapter submitted to the volume Ceramics and Society among the Classic Maya Cities of the Western Peten, edited by Keith Eppich. University Press of Colorado.  [Co-authored with Jeanette Castellanos and Kitty Emery]

In press             Tribute Lists and Bureaucrats: Understanding Classic Maya Politics. Chapter submitted to the volume Regimes of the Classic Maya, edited by Marcelo Canuto and Max Lamoureux-St-Hilaire. Cambridge University Press, March 2018.

2017                 La Cerámica Arqueológica de Motul de San José y su Periferia. Serie Unen No. 1, Museo Nacional de Antropologia y Etnologia, Guatemala City. Digital publication on webpage of the Ministerio de Cultura y Deportes, Guatemala (mcd.gob.gt). [Co-authored with Jeanette Castellanos].

2017                 The Earliest Maya Farmers of Peten: New Evidence from Buenavista-Nuevo San Jose, central Peten Lakes Region, Guatemala. Journal of Anthropology, vol. 2017, Article ID 8109137, 45 pages. doi:10.1155/2017/8109137. Open Source Journal. Hindawi Press. [Co-authored: Castellanos, Jeanette and Antonia E. Foias]

2016                 Household Garbage: Classic period (ca. 300-900 CE) Maya Practices of Discard. Special section “Household Archaeology: A Transatlantic Comparative Approach,” Proceedings of the International Symposium, October 24-25 2014, Université de Montréal, edited by C. Chapdelaine, A.L. Burke, and K. Gernigon. Palethnology/Palethnologie 8: 126-145.  [Co-authored: Halperin, Christina T. and Antonia Foias]

2016                 Connections between the Northern and Southern Maya: Perspectives from Three Unprovenanced Puuc Columns. Mexicon vol. XXXVIII, pp. 150-156.  [Co-authored: DesMeules, Hadley and Antonia E. Foias}

2013                 Ancient Maya Political Dynamics. Monograph synthesizing debates and archaeological knowledge of Maya politics during the first millennium A.D. University Press of Florida, Gainesville, Florida.

2013                 Ceramics, Production and Exchange in the Petexbatun Region: The Economic Parameters of the Classic Maya Collapse. VIMA Petexbatun Monograph Series No. 7. Vanderbilt University Press, Nashville, Tennessee.  [Co-authored: Foias, Antonia E. and Ronald L. Bishop].

2012                 Motul de San José: Politics, History, and Economy in a Classic Maya Polity. University Press of Florida, Gainesville, Florida.  [Foias, Antonia E. and Kitty Emery (editors)]

2012                 Architecture, Volumetrics and Social Stratification at Motul de San José during the Late and Terminal Classic. In Motul de San José: Politics, History, and Economy in a Classic Maya Polity, ed. by A.E. Foias and K.F. Emery, pp. 94-138. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.  [Foias, Antonia, C.T. Halperin, E. Spensley Moriarty, J. Castellanos]

2012                 Archaeological Explorations of an Ik’ Pottery Producing Center. In Dancing into Dreams: Maya Vase Painting of the Ik Kingdom, edited by Bryan Just. Princeton University Art Museum and Yale University Press, Princeton.  [Halperin, Christina T. and Antonia E. Foias]

2012                 Motul de San José Palace Pottery Production: Reconstructions from Wasters and Debris. In Motul de San José: Politics, History, and Economy in a Classic Maya Polity, ed. by A.E. Foias and K.F. Emery, pp. 167-193. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.

2010                 Pottery politics: Late Classic Maya palace production at Motul de San José, Peten, Guatemala. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 29(3): 392-411.

2007                 Pots, Sherds and Glyphs: Pottery Production and Exchange in the Petexbatun Polity, Peten, Guatemala. In Pottery Economics in Mesoamerica, edited by C. A. Pool and G. J. Bey III, pp. 212-236. University of Arizona Press, Tucson, Arizona.  [Co-authored: Foias, Antonia E. and Ronald L. Bishop]

2007                 Ritual, Politics and Pottery Economies in the Classic Maya Southern Lowlands. In Mesoamerican Ritual Economy: Archaeological and Ethnological Perspectives, ed. by E. Christian Wells and Karla L. Davis-Salazar, pp 167-194. University of Colorado Press, Boulder, Colorado.

2007                Interacciones Politicas y el Sitio Ik’ (Motul de San Jose): Datos de la Ceramica. In XX Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueologicas en Guatemala, ed. by J.P.Laporte, B. Arroyo, pp. 1141-1159. Ministerio de Cultura y Deportes, Museo Nacional de Antropologia e Etnologia, Guatemala City. [Co-authored: Reents-Budet, A. Foias, D. R. Bishop, J. Blackman, S. Guenter].

2007                 El Juego de Poder en el Centro de Peten: Evidencia Ceramica sobre Festejos Asociados al Juego de Pelota en La Trinidad de Nosotros, Peten. In XX Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueologicas en Guatemala, ed. by J.P.Laporte, B. Arroyo, pp. 1127-1139. Ministerio de Cultura y Deportes, Museo Nacional de Antropologia e Etnologia, Guatemala City.  [Co-authored: Moriarty, Matthew and Antonia E. Foias]

2005                 Fine Paste Wares and the Terminal Classic in the Petexbatun and Pasion Regions, Peten, Guatemala. In Geographies of Power: Understanding the Nature of Terminal Classic Pottery in the Maya Lowlands, edited by S.L. Lopez Varela and A. Foias. British Archaeological Reports (BAR) International Series No. 1447, pp. 23-40. Archaeopress: Oxford.  [Co-authored: Foias, Antonia E., and Ronald L. Bishop]

2005                 Geographies of Power: Understanding the Nature of Terminal Classic Pottery in the Maya Lowlands. British Archaeological Reports (BAR) International Series No. 1447. Archaeopress: Oxford. [Lopez Varela, Sandra and Antonia E. Foias (editors)]

2004                 The Past and Future of Maya Ceramic Studies. In Continuities and Changes in Maya Archaeology: Perspectives at the Millennium, edited by Charles Golden and Greg Borgstede, pp. 143-175. Routledge Press: New York.

2004                 Review of Cultural Evolution: Contemporary Viewpoints. Gary M. Feinman and Linda Manzanilla, eds. New York, N.Y.: Kuwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, 2000. 267 pp. American Anthropologist 106(1): 188-189.

2003                 Perspectivas Teóricas en las Dinámicas del Estado Clasico Maya: Resultados Preliminares del Proyecto Arqueologico Motul de San Jose, 1998-2001. Mayab 16: 15-32. Sociedad Espanola de Estudios Mayas: Madrid, Spain.

2002                 At the Crossroads: The Economic Basis of Political Power in the Petexbatun Region.  In Ancient Maya Political Economies, edited by M. Masson and D. Freidel, pp.223-248. Altamira Press: Oxford.

2000                 Entre Politica y Economia: Cual era la Naturaleza de la Economia Maya Clasica? In Los Investigadores de la Cultura Maya 8, vol. II, ed. by William Folan, pp.  298-311. Universidad Autonoma de Campeche, SECUD, Campeche, Mexico.

2000                 Kaminaljuyu. In The Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures, ed. by David Carrasco and William Fash. Oxford University Press, New York.

2000                 Entre la Politica y Economia: Resultados Preliminares de las Primeras Dos Temporadas del Proyecto Arqueologico Motul de San José. In XIII Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueologicas en Guatemala, ed. by J.P. Laporte, H.L. Escobedo, A.C. de Suasnavar, y B. Arroyo, pp. 945-973. Ministerio de Cultura y Deportes, IDAEH, Asociacion Tikal, Guatemala.

1998                 La Vida a la Orilla del Colapso: Resultados de la Primera Temporada del Proyecto Arqueologico La Amelia, Peten. Utz’ib 2(5): 1-19. Asociacion Tikal, Guatemala City.

1997                 Changing Ceramic Production and Exchange in the Petexbatun Region, Guatemala: Reconsidering the Classic Maya Collapse. Ancient Mesoamerica 8: 275-291.  [Co-authored: Foias, Antonia E. and Ronald L. Bishop]

1996                 La Produccion e Intercambio de la Cerámica Impresa del Clásico en la Region del Petexbatun, Peten.  In IX Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueologicas en Guatemala, 1995, ed. by J.P. Laporte and H. Escobedo, pp. 450-472. Ministerio de Cultura y Deportes, Instituto de Antropologia e Historia, Asociacion Tikal, Guatemala City. [Co-authored: Foias, Antonia E., James Brady and Stephen Houston]

1995              Poder y Gloria en Petexbatun: Nuevas Evidencias para el Centro de Tamarindito. In VIII Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueologicas en Guatemala, 1994, ed. by J.P. Laporte and H. Escobedo, pp. 489-515. Ministerio de Cultura y Deportes, Instituto de Antropologia e Historia, Asociacion Tikal, Guatemala City. [Co-authored: Valdés, Juan Antonio, Antonia E. Foias, Kitty Emery, Tannia Cabrera, and Nancy Monterroso]

1994              El Colapso Clásico Maya y las Vajillas de Pasta Fina en la Region de Petexbatún. In VII Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueologicas en Guatemala, 1993, ed. by J.P. Laporte and H.L. Escobedo, pp. 563-86.  Ministerio de Cultura y Deportes, Instituto de Antropologia e Historia, Asociacion Tikal, Guatemala City.  [Co-authored: Foias, Antonia E. and Ronald L. Bishop]

1994              Tamarindito: Un Sitio con Historia en la Region de Petexbatun. In VII Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueologicas en Guatemala, 1993, ed. by J.P. Laporte and H.L. Escobedo, pp. 439-52.  Ministerio de Cultura y Deportes, Instituto de Antropologia e       Historia, Asociacion Tikal, Guatemala City.  [Co-authored: Valdes, Juan Antonio, Antonia Foias and Oswaldo Chinchilla]

1993              Resultados Preliminares del Análisis Cerámico del Proyecto Petexbatún.  Apuntes Arqueologicos vol. 3, no. 1: 37-54. Guatemala: Universidad de San Carlos.

1993              Mesoamerican Horizons and the Cultural Transformations of Maya Civilization. In Latin American Horizons: Symposium at Dumbarton Oaks, 11th and 12th October 1986, ed. by D. Rice, pp.147-192. Dumbarton Oaks: Harvard University. [Co-authored: Demarest, Arthur A. and Antonia E. Foias]

1993              Resultados de Excavaciones en Unidades Residenciales de Dos Pilas.  In VI Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueologicas en Guatemala, ed. by J.P. Laporte, H. L. Escobedo, and S. Villagran de Brady, pp. 159-178.  Instituto de Antropologia e Historia, Ministerio de Cultura y Deportes, Guatemala. [Co-authored: Palka, J, K.F. Emery, F. Moscoso, J. Brandon, K. Poche, A. Foias, y L.E. Wright]

1990              Analisis Preliminar de la Ceramica de los Sitios de la Zona Petexbatun.  In IV Simposio de Arqueología Guatemalteca, Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología, Julio de 1990, ed. by J.P. Laporte, S. Brady and H. Escobedo, pp. 179-200. Guatemala City: Ministerio de Cultura y Deportes, IAEH, Asociación Tikal.  [Co-authored:  Foias, A.E., J. Brady, C. Foncea, D. Stuart, T. Robles, and R. Bishop]