The project relies on a multinational team of specialists and researchers, who all contribute invaluable work to Hacienda Metepec.
Project Directors
Dr. Marion Forest
Marion Forest received her Ph.D in archaeology from the University Paris Pantheon Sorbonne and is currently a principle investigator at Chronical Heritage. Since 2008 she has specialized in ancient urbanism and urbanization processes in western central Mexico. She has participated in multiple projects focusing on spatial organization, mapping, and remote sensing in west, central, and northern Mexico, as well as in the southwest of the United States. She served as a Fyssen Foundation Fellow (2016-2018) at Arizona State University and a postdoctoral fellow at Brigham Young University. Her last publication on ancient Mesoamerica discusses the integration of lidar data in archaeological research on urbanism.
Dr. Andrew Somerville
Andrew Somerville is an archaeologist and biological anthropologist at Iowa State University. He received his BA in anthropology from Arizona State (2001-2006) and his MA and PhD from the University of California, San Diego (2007-2015). At UCSD, he was a NSF-IGERT fellow with the Scripps institute of oceanography’s project – Global Climate Change, Marine Ecosystems, and Society. He served as a lecturer in Anthropology at California State University, Dominguez Hills and as a post doctoral research fellow at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City. In 2018 he joined the World Languages and Culture department at Iowa State University where he is currently an Associate Professor of Anthropology. His research uses skeletal analysis, archaeological excavation , and stable isotope analysis to gain insights about past practices of food production, distribution, and consumption. With a focus on the relationship between food production and climate change.
Collaborators
Jennifer Saumer
Dr. Jennifer Saumur is an archaeologist specializing in the study of classic-post classic Mesoamerica, specifically in the Mixteca region of Oaxaca. She currently participates in Cerro Jazmin, Oaxaca with Dr. Veronica Perez Rodriguez (University of Albany). She specializes in pottery identification and manufacturing, pre-hispanic writing systems, and codices. She got her PhD from University of Paris Pantheon-Sorbonne and is a member of the Laboratory of Archeology of the Americas.
Manon Fafin
Manon plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with creation of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that have had human occupancy or use as their purpose.
Issac Barrientos Juarez
Issac Barrientos Juarez has a degree in bio archaeology. He specializes in the analysis of human skeletal material. His research has allowed him to participate in field excavations in the Maya area, west Mexico, and at Teotihuacan.
Feben Ruscitti
Feben graduated from Iowa State University with a degree in Anthropology and has participated in both archaeological laboratory studies associated with ISU’s paleoecology lab. In summer 2022 she participated in excavations at the archaeological site of Hacienda Metepec/Teotihuacan. In the laboratory, her research explores the effect of bone particle size on the consistency of stable isotope data.
Annie Sherfield
Annie Sheffield is an archaeologist with a specific interest in built environments and their cultural impact. She has spent her time cultivating skills in historic/legacy data use, quantitative analysis, geospatial information systems, database management and mentoring. She hopes to bring her interdisciplinary knowledge of past and present urban environments as well as her skills in data management to the field.
Jazmin Alvarado De Landa
Jazmin is an archaeologist studying at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. She has worked with the Hacienda Metepec Project during the 2022 and 2023 seasons. She has a specialization in paleoethnobotanical analysis
Serena Webster
Serena has a BA in Anthropology from the University of Maine and an MA in archeology from Iowa State University. She specializes in the analysis of obsidian artifacts in the Americas. Her MA thesis research used a pXRF instrument to determine source locations of obsidian samples from Teotihuacan and Hacienda Metepec – where she participated in field excavations during the summers of 2022 and 2024.
Luis Martinez Mendez
Luis Martinz Mendez is an archaeologist specializing in topography and archaeology in NW Mesoamerica. He recieved his licenciatura in Anthropology with a specialization in archaeology from the Autonomous University of Zacatecas. He is a specialist in drone mapping and collaborated with the project in 2022 to create detailed topographical maps and take photos of the Hacienda Metepec neighborhood.
Maddy Tribbett
Maddy recently completed her MA in Anthropology with a focus on biological research in Mesoamerica from Iowa State University. She obtained her undergraduate degree in Anthropology with a minor in chemistry from Northern Arizona Univeristy on 2022. She has participated in the field work on the Maya in Belize, and at Hacienda Metepec. She also worked in ISU’s paleoecology laboratory. Her MA project centered on reconstructing dietary patterns of the ancient Maya over time and space.
Colburn Avery
Colburn graduated with his BA in anthropology from Iowa State University, with a minor in linguistics. He is interested in what linguistics can bring to the field of anthropology. His work in the paleoecology lab included using Abode illustrator to outline maps for reports and web design and digitize documents.
Madeline Shumaker
Madeline has a BA in Anthropology and Graphic Design from Iowa State. Her work in the paleoecology lab includes creating profiles of excavation sites, data entry, rebranding the PHM, and lab work – including prepping samples for mass spectrometry.
Proyecto Hacienda Metepec 