Clifford Brown
Background
I am an archaeologist and anthropologist in the Department of Anthropology at Florida Atlantic University, in Boca Raton, Florida.
Please visit my website at http://wise.fau.edu/~ctbrown/ and my blog at http://tibolon.blogspot.com for more detailed background information.
I received my B.A. in archaeology from Yale University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in anthropology from Tulane University. I worked in heritage management as a public archaeologist for some years before becoming an academic research archaeologist.
While writing my doctoral dissertation, I worked for a private archaeological contractor. As a project manager and laboratory director there, I helped direct a number of important excavations at sites in the southeastern United States, mainly in Mississippi and Florida and to a lesser extent in Louisiana and Alabama. I later worked for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as an archaeologist while I finished my dissertation. After that, I worked as Senior Archaeologist at the headquarters of the United States Department of the Navy.
Research
Most of my research and experience in archaeology focuses geographically on the culture area called Mesoamerica, which encompasses central and eastern Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, and western Honduras. Within Mesoamerica, I have conducted archaeological research in Mexico, Honduras, and Nicaragua. I have excavated mainly in the Maya region, particularly in the state of Yucatan in the northern Maya lowlands. I have directed excavations at the ancient Maya capital of Mayapan, and I have conducted survey in the central part of Yucatan. As a student, I participated in excavation projects in Quintana Roo, Veracruz, and Chiapas, Mexico, and Copan, Honduras. During graduate school, I also spent six months conducting ethnoarchaeological research in a Yucatec Maya hamlet in Yucatan.
Recently, I began survey and excavations in northwest Nicaragua, in the Department of Chinandega. I have now directed two seasons of survey and excavation there. We have located a number of sites and recovered interesting artifact assemblages, which we are still studying.
My research interests include the origins of civilization, particularly the emergence of inequality and social complexity; ceramic analysis; lithic analysis; and the application of quantitative methods in archaeology, especially fractal analysis.
Phone: (561) 297-3232
Address: 777 Glades Road
Boca Raton, FL 33431
I am an archaeologist and anthropologist in the Department of Anthropology at Florida Atlantic University, in Boca Raton, Florida.
Please visit my website at http://wise.fau.edu/~ctbrown/ and my blog at http://tibolon.blogspot.com for more detailed background information.
I received my B.A. in archaeology from Yale University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in anthropology from Tulane University. I worked in heritage management as a public archaeologist for some years before becoming an academic research archaeologist.
While writing my doctoral dissertation, I worked for a private archaeological contractor. As a project manager and laboratory director there, I helped direct a number of important excavations at sites in the southeastern United States, mainly in Mississippi and Florida and to a lesser extent in Louisiana and Alabama. I later worked for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as an archaeologist while I finished my dissertation. After that, I worked as Senior Archaeologist at the headquarters of the United States Department of the Navy.
Research
Most of my research and experience in archaeology focuses geographically on the culture area called Mesoamerica, which encompasses central and eastern Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, and western Honduras. Within Mesoamerica, I have conducted archaeological research in Mexico, Honduras, and Nicaragua. I have excavated mainly in the Maya region, particularly in the state of Yucatan in the northern Maya lowlands. I have directed excavations at the ancient Maya capital of Mayapan, and I have conducted survey in the central part of Yucatan. As a student, I participated in excavation projects in Quintana Roo, Veracruz, and Chiapas, Mexico, and Copan, Honduras. During graduate school, I also spent six months conducting ethnoarchaeological research in a Yucatec Maya hamlet in Yucatan.
Recently, I began survey and excavations in northwest Nicaragua, in the Department of Chinandega. I have now directed two seasons of survey and excavation there. We have located a number of sites and recovered interesting artifact assemblages, which we are still studying.
My research interests include the origins of civilization, particularly the emergence of inequality and social complexity; ceramic analysis; lithic analysis; and the application of quantitative methods in archaeology, especially fractal analysis.
Phone: (561) 297-3232
Address: 777 Glades Road
Boca Raton, FL 33431
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Books by Clifford Brown
Please note that to upload and post this, I had to convert it to pdf. The conversion ruined several of the maps that were exported from ArcGIS.
Mesoamerica is one of six major areas of the world where humans independently changed their culture from a nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle into settled communities, cities, and civilization. In addition to China (twice), the Indus Valley, the Fertile Crescent of southwest Asia, Egypt, and Peru, Mesoamerica was home to exciting and irreversible changes in human culture called the “Neolithic Revolution.” The changes included domestication of plants and animals, leading to agriculture, husbandry, and eventually sedentary village life. These developments set the stage for the growth of cities, social stratification, craft specialization, warfare, writing, mathematics, and astronomy, or what we call the rise of civilization. These changes forever transformed humankind.
The Historical Dictionary of Mesoamerica covers the history of Mesoamerica through a chronology, an introductory essay, an extensive bibliography, and over 900 cross-referenced dictionary entries covering the major peoples, places, ideas, and events related to Mesoamerica. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Mesoamerica.
A specialized presentation of fractal analysis oriented to the social sciences
This primer uses straightforward language to give the reader step-by-step instructions for identifying and analyzing fractal patterns and the social process that create them. By making fractals accessible to the social science students, this book has a significant impact on the understanding of human behavior.
Papers by Clifford Brown
iron, copper, zinc, and manganese concentrations near the butchering
posts were likely associated with the remnants of blood from butchered animals. The distributions and locations of elevated Fe concentrations were different for DTPA extractable Fe and pXRF total Fe and can be attributed to the different forms and solubility of crystalline iron in soil.
distribution. Nevertheless, compared to two Classic-period sites in Mexico—Palenque and Sayil—the distribution of wealth was more equal at Mayapan, suggesting that economic inequality was less extreme at the Postclassic city. One cause for the decadent material culture of Mayapan, therefore, was that the city was impoverished when compared to its Classic predecessors.
Please note that to upload and post this, I had to convert it to pdf. The conversion ruined several of the maps that were exported from ArcGIS.
Mesoamerica is one of six major areas of the world where humans independently changed their culture from a nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle into settled communities, cities, and civilization. In addition to China (twice), the Indus Valley, the Fertile Crescent of southwest Asia, Egypt, and Peru, Mesoamerica was home to exciting and irreversible changes in human culture called the “Neolithic Revolution.” The changes included domestication of plants and animals, leading to agriculture, husbandry, and eventually sedentary village life. These developments set the stage for the growth of cities, social stratification, craft specialization, warfare, writing, mathematics, and astronomy, or what we call the rise of civilization. These changes forever transformed humankind.
The Historical Dictionary of Mesoamerica covers the history of Mesoamerica through a chronology, an introductory essay, an extensive bibliography, and over 900 cross-referenced dictionary entries covering the major peoples, places, ideas, and events related to Mesoamerica. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Mesoamerica.
A specialized presentation of fractal analysis oriented to the social sciences
This primer uses straightforward language to give the reader step-by-step instructions for identifying and analyzing fractal patterns and the social process that create them. By making fractals accessible to the social science students, this book has a significant impact on the understanding of human behavior.
iron, copper, zinc, and manganese concentrations near the butchering
posts were likely associated with the remnants of blood from butchered animals. The distributions and locations of elevated Fe concentrations were different for DTPA extractable Fe and pXRF total Fe and can be attributed to the different forms and solubility of crystalline iron in soil.
distribution. Nevertheless, compared to two Classic-period sites in Mexico—Palenque and Sayil—the distribution of wealth was more equal at Mayapan, suggesting that economic inequality was less extreme at the Postclassic city. One cause for the decadent material culture of Mayapan, therefore, was that the city was impoverished when compared to its Classic predecessors.