Elizabeth H. Paris

Elizabeth H. Paris is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Calgary. Her research focuses on Mesoamerican archaeology, particularly the organization of commercial exchange networks and institutions in the Maya region during the Postclassic period. Topics of particular interest include ancient cities, high-skill craft production, metallurgy, and market exchange within ancient commercial networks. Her current field research project, “Redes Económicas de Tenam Puente,” with co-directors Dr. Roberto López Bravo (Universidad de Ciencias y Artes de Chiapas) and Mtro. Gabriel Lalo Jacinto (Centro INAH Chiapas), is funded by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Insight Development Grant. She also directed the “Proyecto Económico de los Altos de Chiapas,” at sites in the Jovel Valley of highland Chiapas, Mexico, with co-director López Bravo, funded by the National Science Foundation and the Wenner-Gren Foundation. She is also a collaborator for projects at Mayapan, Yucatan, Mexico, with a particular focus on materials analysis and high-skill craft production. Her work has been published in the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, Journal of Archaeological Science, Ancient Mesoamerica, Lithic Technology, Estudios de la Cultura Maya, Journal of Field Archaeology, Journal of Archaeological Research, and Arqueología Iberoamericana. She obtained her Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University at Albany, SUNY, and received the Distinguished Doctoral Dissertation Award for her dissertation, “Political Economy on the Postclassic Western Maya Frontier.”