Anthropology

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Research Interests

Landscape archaeology, historical and political ecology, sociopolitical organization, resilience and sustainability, household archaeology, remote sensing, cultural heritage, ceramics, Archaeology of the Americas (focus on Mesoamerica)

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Personal Statement

I am an anthropological archaeologist interested in how individuals and communities create and shape their landscapes to address short-term and long-term socioenvironmental risks. My research is informed by the frameworks of historical and political ecology that emphasize the reciprocal dynamics between people and the environment; both how the environment influences societies and how communities in turn modify their cultural landscapes. I use several remote sensing technologies to document and interpret landscapes. These technologies include the use of unoccupied aerial vehicles (drones), lidar, and photogrammetry for mapping and archaeological prospection, including leveraging legacy datasets for archaeological applications. I am also interested in the use of machine learning, modeling, and data science to analyze large datasets. I am dedicated to interdisciplinary collaboration, community engagement, and the integration of empirical and quantitative data with interpretive, qualitative methods and indigenous or local knowledge.

I currently direct the Proyecto Arqueológico Bajo Lacantún in southeastern Chiapas, Mexico, with the permission and support of the Consejo de Arqueología of the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia and the local communities of Benemérito de las Américas and Quiringüicharo. This project investigates long-term urban development, agricultural intensification, and water management across the Lower Lacantún River and its confluence with the Usumacinta River, a region likely associated with the Maya kingdom of Lakamtuun, known from inscriptions as early as the 6th century CE. In addition to integrating on-the-ground archaeological techniques with remote sensing, this project has an explicit applied focus to trace long-term indigenous knowledge to benefit modern communities through increasing climate vulnerability. I am also involved with several projects through collaborations with the Florida Institute for Built Environment Resilience in Florida, Ecuador, and Italy to help communities prepare for and recover from socioclimatic crises.

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Selected Publications

Herndon, Kelsey E., Robert Griffin, Whittaker Schroder, Timothy Murtha, Charles Golden, Daniel A. Contreras, Emil Cherrington, Luwei Wang, Alexandra Bazarsky, G. Van Kollias, and Omar Alcover Firpi
2023          Google Earth Engine for Archaeologists: An Updated Look at the Progress and Promise of Remotely Sensed Big Data. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 50:104094.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2023.104094

Murtha, Timothy, Whittaker Schroder, Charles Golden, Kelsey Herndon, and Robert Griffin
2023         Does the Past Influence the Present or the Future? Deep Time, Land Use, and Remote Sensing in Southern Mexico. Journal of Digital Landscape Architecture 8-2023:75–83.

Brown, Madeline, Whittaker Schroder, and Timothy Murtha
2022          Are Threats the Connection?: Linking Cultural and Natural Resource Conservation. Conservation and Society 20(4):313–324.
 https://doi.org/10.4103/cs.cs_78_21 

Brown, Madeline, Timothy Murtha, Whittaker Schroder, and Luwei Wang
2022           Defining Cultural Resources: A Case Study from the Mid-Atlantic United States. Human Organization 81(1):47-59.
https://doi.org/10.17730/1938-3525-81.1.47

Scherer, Andrew K., Charles Golden, Stephen Houston, Mallory Matsumoto, Omar Alcover Firpi, Whittaker Schroder, Alejandra Roche Recinos, Socorro Jiménez Álvarez, Mónica Urquizú, Griselda Pérez Robles, Joshua T. Schnell, and Zachary X. Hruby
2022          Chronology and the Evidence for War in the Ancient Maya Kingdom of Piedras Negras. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 66:101408.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2022.101408

Schroder, Whittaker, Timothy Murtha, Charles Golden, Andrew K. Scherer, Eben N. Broadbent, Angélica M. Almeyda Zambrano, Kelsey Herndon, and Robert Griffin
2021          UAV LiDAR Survey for Archaeological Documentation in Chiapas, Mexico. Remote Sensing 13(23):4731.
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13234731 

Golden, Charles, Andrew K. Scherer, Whittaker Schroder, Timothy Murtha,
Shanti Morell-Hart, Juan Carlos Fernandez-Diaz, Socorro del Pilar Jiménez Álvarez, Omar Alcover Firpi, Mark Agostini, Alexandra Bazarsky, Morgan Clark, G. Van Kollias III, Mallory Matsumoto, Alejandra Roche Recinos, Joshua Schnell, and Bethany Whitlock
2021          Airborne Lidar Survey, Density-Based Clustering, and Ancient Maya Settlement in the Upper Usumacinta River Region of Mexico and Guatemala.Remote Sensing 13(20):4109.
 https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13204109 

Schroder, Whittaker, Timothy Murtha, Eben Broadbent, and Angélica Almeyda Zambrano
2021          A Confluence of Communities: Households and Land Use at the Junction of the Upper Usumacinta and Lacantún Rivers, Chiapas, Mexico. World Archaeology 53(4):688-715.                      https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2021.1930135

Schroder, Whittaker
2021          Cycles of Defence on the Periphery of the Piedras Negras Kingdom: Landscape Patrimony at the Fortified Hilltop Community of El Infiernito, Chiapas. Landscape Research 46(6):793-810.
https://doi.org/10.1080/01426397.2021.1899150

Schroder, Whittaker, Timothy Murtha, Charles Golden, Armando Anaya Hernández, Andrew Scherer, Shanti Morell-Hart, Angélica Almeyda Zambrano, Eben Broadbent, and Madeline Brown
2020          The Lowland Maya Settlement Landscape: Environmental LiDAR and Ecology. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 33.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2020.102543 

Magnani, Matthew, Matthew Douglass, Whittaker Schroder, Jonathan Reeves, and David Braun
2020          The Digital Revolution to Come: Photogrammetry in Contemporary Archaeological Practice. American Antiquity 85(4):737-760.
 https://doi.org/10.1017/aaq.2020.59

Schroder, Whittaker
2020          Interpreting Cultural and Landscape Resilience Through Comparative Approaches. The SAA Archaeological Record. January 2020:26-30.
http://onlinedigeditions.com/publication/?i=647266

Golden, Charles, Andrew K. Scherer, Stephen Houston, Whittaker Schroder, Shanti Morell-Hart, Socorro del Pilar Jiménez Álvarez, George Van Kollias, Moises Yerath Ramiro Talavera, Jeffrey Dobereiner, and Omar Alcover Firpi
2020          Centering the Classic Maya Kingdom of Sak Tz’i’.Journal of Field Archaeology 45(2):67-85.
https://doi.org/10.1080/00934690.2019.1684748

Golden, Charles, Andrew K. Scherer, Whittaker Schroder, Clive Vella, and Alejandra Roche Recinos
2020          “Decentralizing the Economies of the Maya West.” In The Real Business of Ancient Maya Economies: From Farmers’ Fields to Rulers’ Realms (edited by M. Masson, D. Freidel, and A. Demarest). Gainesville: University Press of Florida.

Scherer, Andrew K., Charles Golden, Omar Alcover Firpi, Whittaker Schroder, Monica Urquizú, and Edwin Román
2019          Yaxchilan from the Perspective of Guatemala: New Data on Settlement, Fortifications, and Sculptural Monuments. The PARI Journal 20(2):1-14.
http://www.mesoweb.com/pari/journal/archive/PARI2002.pdf

Schroder, Whittaker, Charles Golden, Andrew Scherer, Timothy Murtha, and Omar Alcover Firpi
2019         Remote Sensing and Reconnaissance Along the Lacantún River: The Lakamtuun Dynasty and the Sites of El Palma and Benemérito de las Américas, Primera Sección. Mexicon 41(6):157-167.
https://www.academia.edu/41806800/Remote_Sensing_and_Reconnaissance_along_the_Lacantun_River_The_Lakamtuun_Dynasty_and_the_Sites_of_El_Palma_and_Benemerito_de_las_Americas_Primera_Seccion

Murtha, Timothy M., Eben N. Broadbent, Charles Golden, Andrew Scherer, Whittaker Schroder, Ben Wilkinson, and Angélica Almeyda Zambrano
2019          Drone-Mounted LIDAR Survey of Maya Settlement and Landscape.Latin American Antiquity 30(3):630-636.
https://doi.org/10.1017/laq.2019.51

Schroder, Whittaker, Charles Golden, Andrew K. Scherer, Socorro del Pilar Jiménez Álvarez, Jeffrey Dobereiner, and Alan Mendez Cab
2017          At the Crossroads of Kingdoms: Recent Investigations on the Periphery of Piedras Negras and its Neighbors. PARI Journal 17(4):115.
http://www.mesoweb.com/pari/publications/journal/1704/Crossroads.singles.pdf

Golden, Charles, Timothy Murtha, Bruce Cook, Derek S. Shaffer, Whittaker Schroder, Elijah J. Hermitt, Omar Alcover, and Andrew K. Scherer
2016          Reanalyzing Environmental LIDAR Data for Archaeology: Mesoamerican Applications and Implications. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 9:293-308.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2016.07.029

Magnani, Matthew and Whittaker Schroder
2015         New Approaches to Modeling Volumetric and Energetic Costs of Earthen Archaeological Features: A Case-Study from the Hopewell Culture Mounds. Journal of Archaeological Science 64:12-21.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2015.09.001

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Research Support

Ongoing Research Support

• Dumbarton Oaks Research Grant (PI), “The Lower Lacantún River and the Lakamtuun Dynasty: Investigating an At-Risk Archaeological Landscape”Gerda Henkel Foundation Research Grant (PI), “Risk, Resilience, and Political Cycling in the Archaeological Landscape of the Lower Lacantún River, Mexico”
• NASA (19-IDS19-0060) (Postdoc and co-PI; with T. Murtha, PI; A. Almeyda Zambrano, co-PI; E. Broadbent, co-PI; R. Griffin, co-PI; K. Herndon, co-PI; T. Sever, co-PI; A. O’Connor, co-PI; C.Golden, co-PI), “The Ancient Maya Landscape: Households, Settlement, and Ecology of the Lowlands.”

Completed Research Support (within the past three years)

National Science Foundation (BCS #1917671) (Postdoc; with C. Golden, PI; A. Scherer, co-PI; T. Murtha, co-PI), “Dynamic Landscapes of Warfare and Agricultural Intensification in the Western Maya Lowlands.”

National Science Foundation (BCS #1849921) (Postdoc; with T. Murtha, PI; C. Golden, co-PI; A. Scherer, co-PI; A. Anaya, co-PI; A. Zambrano, co-PI; S Morrell-Hart, co-PI; and E. Broadbent, co-PI), “Resilient Landscapes: Terracing and Settlement Ecology Across the Maya Lowlands.”

American Philosophical Society Franklin Research Grant (PI), “Risk, Resilience, and Political Cycling in the Archaeological Landscape of the Lower Lacantún River”

Penn Museum Director’s Funds (PI), “The Lower Lacantún Archaeological Project”

Rust Family Foundation Funding Program (PI), “The Lower Lacantún Archaeological Project”

ANT 4168: Maya Civilization