Category: Outreach

Joe Hirst and Harper Dine presented their previous PhD projects as a research seminar for the Centre for the Archaeology of the Americas within the Department of Archaeology at the University of Exeter.

Joe presented on “Domesticating Amazonian Landscapes: The Maize Agriculture of the pre-Colonial Casarabe Culture” including the palaeoecology and agent-based modelling he completed during his PhD towards understanding the environmental impact of the Casarabe Culture in modern Bolivia. You can read more about his work in his publications.^1,2

Harper presented on “A botanical view of food culture in the northern Maya lowlands” including the microbotanical methods she completed during her PhD towards better understanding Maya plant use in a variety of archaeological contexts.

1. Hirst et al. 2025 “Localised land-use and maize agriculture by the pre-Columbian Casarabe Culture in Lowland Bolivia” The Holocene ↩︎
2. Hirst et al. 2025 “Modelling Maize Agriculture by the Pre-Columbian Casarabe Culture of Amazonian Bolivia: An Agent-Based Approach” JASSS ↩︎

Harper Dine, Mark Robinson, and Sara Eshleman had a table presentation at the 2nd Dead Important Festival on 23 March 2026. The Dead Important Festival is an annual event at the University of Exeter that aims to demonstrate ways that the past can inform and inspire approaches to modern pressing issues.

Our group presented on the lasting heritage of the ancient Maya on present environments and food systems. At our table, festival participants could observe a maize phytolith under a microscope, see examples of modern food that comes from the Americas, follow the process of lidar surveys to understand human-environment relationships, and engage with us about the role of humans in the tropics.

We had a lovely time engaging with attendees and our fellow presenters and it is clear that the “Humanities are Dead Important.”