Ph.D. Candidate Rocío M. López Cabral was awarded the National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant for her project “A Geoarchaeological Approach to the Materiality and Historical Ecology of Earth Mounds: The Colina da Monte Site (India Muerta Wetlands, Uruguary).”
Rocío’s research examines how and why mid-to late-Holocene societies in southeast Uruguay carried out practices that resulted, intentionally or unintentionally, in the elevation of earthen mounds in lowland environments, and the effects that those practices had in both the landscape and in human experiences. She will apply a geoarchaeological methodology consisting of a broad-coverage auger survey, test pits, and excavations in order to reconstruct the pre-mound landscape, and the history of mound-building in a mound complex known as “Colina Da Monte”, East of Uruguay. She will also examine human-environment long-term interactions and mound formation processes through studies of soil chemical elements, granulometry, and radiocarbon dating analyses. Her research generates a geoarchaeological and anthropological approach to the ways humans over time have shaped themselves and their world, creating meaningful places.
Congratulations, Rocío!