Elizabeth Graham

Elizabeth Graham is a professor of Mesoamerican Archaeology at UCL. She has worked, for decades, on the Maya civilization, both in prehispanic and colonial times, specifically in Belize. She has recently turned her attention to Maya Dark Earths, and conducts pioneering work in the maya region as dark earths have mostly been studied in the Amazonia. She particularly focuses on how human occupation (domestic and industrial waste, burials, abandoned houses and processing sites) influences soil formation and production. Education Graham completed a BA in history at the University of Rhode Island in 1970. She obtained a Phd in Archaeology from the University of Cambridge in 1983, entitled The Highlands of the Lowlands: Environment and Archaeology in the Stann Creek District, Belize, Central America. Career From 1978 to 1980, Graham was the Archaeological Commissioner in Belize. During this time she orchestrated the international training of colleagues in Belize . During the 1980s, she conducted coastal surveys in the Stann Creek District region of Belize. In the late 1980s she commenced work on Postclassic site at Lamanai. She has also conducted excavations at Negroman-Tipu, Belize. Graham directs excavations at Lamanai on the New River Lagoon in Belize, and at Marco Gonzalez, on Ambergris Caye. Recent work has focused on mission churches from the early Spanish colonial period.