Gregory Zaro
Address: 5773 S. Stevens Hall, University of Maine, Orono, Maine 04469
Bio:
Gregory Zaro earned a B.A. in Spanish from The University of Texas at Austin (1994), an M.A. in Anthropology from the University of Chicago (1998), and a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of New Mexico (2005). He has been at the University of Maine since 2006. Trained in archaeology, his interests relate to the interplay between humans and the environment, primarily conceptualized through historical ecology, subsistence economies, agriculture, urbanism, and cosmology. He is particularly interested in assessing the role human groups play in shaping environmental conditions through time. His geographic areas of interest include Andean South America, Mesoamerica, and the eastern Adriatic.
Research Area:
Zaro currently co-directs the Nadin Gradina Archaeological Project (NGAP) in the Ravni Kotari region of Croatia’s central coast. Situated near the 3,000-year-old port city of Zadar, the project is designed to delineate millennial scale processes of urbanization surrounding Nadin, from the Liburnian Iron Age through the early modern era Ottoman settlements. His long-term interests in the project are to articulate ancient, historic, and modern records as they relate to contemporary issues of urbanization, land use, and environmental change. The NGAP is an internationally collaborative program of research and education between the University of Maine and the University of Zadar, involving students and scholars from both institutions.
Publications:
Mirosevic, L., G. Zaro, M. Katic, and D. Birt (eds.) (in review). Landscapes of Southeastern Europe. Lit Verlag, Berlin-London_Munster-Wien-Zurich.
Zaro, G. and M. Čelhar (in review). Landscape as legacy in northern Dalmatia. In Landscapes of Southeastern Europe, by L. Mirosevic, G. Zaro, M. Katic, and D. Birt (eds.). Lit Verlag, Berlin-London_Munster-Wien-Zurich.
Zaro, G. (in review). Concluding thoughts: (Cultural) Landscapes of Southeastern Europe. In Landscapes of Southeastern Europe, by L. Mirosevic, G. Zaro, M. Katic, and D. Birt (eds.). Lit Verlag, Berlin-London_Munster-Wien-Zurich.
Čelhar, M. and G. Zaro (in press). Nadin-Gradina: Razvoj Grada [Nadin-Gradina: Evolution of the City]. In Antiquitatis sollemnia – Antidoron Mate Suić / Svečanost starine – Uzdarje Mati Suiću.
Zaro, G. (2014). From terraces to trees: Ancient and historical landscape changes in southern Peru. In Landesque Capital: The Historical Ecology of Enduring Landscape Modifications, edited by N. Thomas Håkansson and Mats Widgren, pp. 232-250. Left Coast Press, Walnut Creek, CA.
Zaro, G., K. Nystrom, and D. Keefer (2013). Environmental catastrophe and the archaeological record: Complexities of volcanism, floods, and farming in south coastal Peru, A.D. 1200-1700. Andean Past 11:233-262.
Zaro, G. and B.A. Houk (2012). The growth and decline of the ancient Maya city of La Milpa, Belize: New data and new perspectives from the southern plazas. Ancient Mesoamerica 23:143-159.
Houk, B.A. and G. Zaro (2011). Evidence for ritual engineering in the Late/Terminal Classic site plan of La Milpa, Belize. Latin American Antiquity 22:178-198.
Zaro, G., K.C. Nystrom, A. Umire-Alvarez, A. Bar, and A. Miranda (2010). Tierras Olvidadas: Chiribaya landscape engineering and marginality in southern Peru. Latin American Antiquity 21(4):355-374.
Zaro, G., H. Builth, C. Rivera, J. Roldan, and G. Suvires (2008). Landscape evolution and human agency: archaeological case studies from drylands in western South America and Australia. Chungará, Revista de Antropología Chilena 40, Número Especial, 261-271.
Zaro, G. (2007). Diversity specialists: Coastal resource management and historical contingency in the Osmore desert of southern Peru. Latin American Antiquity 18(2):161-179.
Zaro, G. and A. Umire-Alvarez (2005). Late Chiribaya agriculture and risk management along the arid Andean coast of southern Peru, AD 1200-1400. Geoarchaeology: An International Journal 20(7):717-737.
Zaro, Gregory and J.C. Lohse (2005). Agricultural rhythms and rituals: Ancient Maya solar observation in hinterland Blue Creek, northwestern Belize. Latin American Antiquity 16(1):81-98.
