Proyecto Arqueológico de Lugar, Plantas, y Animales de los Collaguas Antiguos (ALPACA) is a multinational archaeological research project centered in the Colca Valley (Arequipa, Peru). Our interdisciplinary team is examining prehistoric farming practices of the Collaguas to understand how wealth and inequality are generated under conditions of crisis.

I examine human-landscape interaction using a range of digital technologies and analytical approaches. In the field, I employ born-digital methods for capturing archaeological features: mobile GIS, drone/UAV imagery, and photogrammetry. In the lab, I employ a range of geospatial techniques including GIS, spatial analysis, spatial statistics, spatial modeling, and remote sensing.

Through survey and excavation, Proyecto Arqueológico Pukaras del Colca (PAPC) examined how long-term social and political processes of polity formation and colonization were negotiated in a landscape of warfare. This work demonstrated that ecological and social stress contributed to greater cooperation, coalescence, and emergent political complexity in the region.