In Summer 2024 graduate student Autumn Rose travelled to Central America to perform some preliminary field research for her PhD research. Autumn is a zooarchaeologist and photographer whose research focuses on understanding the history of relationships between indigenous communities and tropical wildlife in Mesoamerica. The purpose of the trip was to access the faunal preservation and site conditions at several different archaeological sites and to begin communicating with and building relationships with the involved communities. Autumn visited two different archaeological sites in two different countries: Honduras and Mexico. Additionally, she also spent a couple of weeks in Guatemala learning and immersing herself in the Spanish language so that she will be better able to communicate with people from the countries in which she works.
In Honduras, Autumn was part of a team of archaeologists excavating shell mounds as part of an investigation to understand ancient fisheries and the history of relationships between the Pech, an indigenous community from the region and the surrounding ocean, lagoon, and tropical wetlands through activities related to the procurement of food, such as fishing and hunting. The team also made efforts to engage and provide outreach both to the Pech community and more broadly to local school groups from surrounding communities. They visited school classrooms to talk about their work and organized an “Archaeology Day” at the community museum. Autumn helped to convert iconographic designs found on some of the excavated ceramics into coloring pages and activities for the students.
In Mexico, Autumn worked as part of the Suchilapan Archaeological Project, a team of archaeologists investigating human diets at various previously unexcavated Formative sites of Maya and/or Olmec origin. This included co-supervising archaeological excavation, and assessing the preservation conditions of faunal remains at the site(s), and learning how to perform flotation extract small plant and animal remains for identification.
Support from the Florida Museum of Natural History has been deeply valuable for Autumn as she pursues her dissertation research. It has allowed her to travel between places and develop the relationships, skills, and knowledge that she needs to complete her graduate research.
Autumn Rose is a graduate student pursuing a Ph.D. through the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Department of Anthropology, advised by Dr. Kitty Emery, Curator of Environmental Archaeology here at the Florida Museum.
The 2024 Summer Student Travel Awards are supported by the FLMNH Department of Natural History, including funds from the Louis C. and Jane Gapenski Endowed Fellowship and the B.J. and Eve Wilder Endowment. If you would like to help support this fund for future student awards, please go to:
Louis C. and Jane Gapenski Endowed Fellowship
B.J. and Eve Wilder Endowment