Charles Golden
Brown 206
Department of Anthropology
Brandeis University
P.O. Box 549110, MS 006
Waltham, MA 02454-9110
cgolden@brandeis.edu
(781) 736-2217
AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION
Archaeology of complex societies. Modern contexts of archaeological research. Mesoamerica. The Maya.
Background and Description
Charles Golden is an archaeologist with a particular interest in the prehispanic cultures of Mesoamerica. He received his AB in Anthropology and History from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and his PhD in Anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Golden is strongly committed to the notion of archaeology as a broadly anthropological discipline that should draw insights from throughout the social sciences, humanities and the physical sciences. His interests include the significance of architecture for the construction of understandings of time, history, and social memory, the semiotics of material culture, the development of political boundaries and frontiers in complex societies, the social impact of archaeology in modern Latin America, the use and development of in-field chemical testing programs, and remote sensing methods in archaeology. He has conducted field research in Belize, Honduras, and most recently Guatemala, where he has been working since 1997. His doctoral research was carried out in the royal palace of the Maya site of Piedras Negras in the Sierra del Lacandón National Park of northwestern Guatemala. He is currently the director of the Sierra del Lacandón Regional Archaeology Project, the first systematic archaeological survey in the Sierra del Lacandón. Examining the region between the Classic period Maya kingdoms of Piedras Negras and Yaxchilán, this effort is focused on developing a better understanding of political, cultural and social boundaries and frontiers between Classic period Maya polities. He has taught at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Delaware, and Haverford College, and is the co-editor of “Continuities and Changes in Maya Archaeology: Perspectives at the Millennium.”