Sarah Newman
Areas of Interest:
My dissertation research explores the nature, composition, and depositional history of varied archaeological deposits from the site of El Zotz (located northern Guatemala), as a means toward understanding and reconstructing the often-overlapping ancient concepts of ritual, refuse, and reuse. Drawing upon methods from zooarchaeological research (specifically, taphonomic investigations of object histories), my research extends those methods to other categories of artifacts (such as ceramic and lithic objects) to explore the ways in which objects were used, curated, reused, deposited, and discarded, often blurring the lines between ritual and secular, waste and value.
My dissertation research is funded by grants from the National Science Foundation, the Fulbright U.S. Student Program, and the Wenner-Gren Foundation, with additional support provided by the Casa Herrera of the Mesoamerica Center at the University of Texas at Austin.
In addition to my primary research, I am also the faunal analyst for Brown University's Proyecto Arquológico El Zotz. As the project's zooarchaeologist, I use the animal remains recovered from El Zotz to explore ancient Maya diet, hunting, butchery, cooking, and crafting practices, as well as social status and ancient ecology.
Status: In the field
M.A. Thesis: "The Last Supper: The Role of Ceramic Serving Vessels in Ancient Maya Mortuary Practice."
Previous Degrees:
M.A., Brown University (Anthropology) B.A., Yale University (Archaeological Studies)
Contact Information: sarah_newman@brown.edu
