Damien Marken

Why Anthropology?

I am an anthropological archaeologist whose interest in the past began at an early age. Growing up, I frequently visited the ancient cities of the Classic Maya in Guatemala, Belize, and southern Mexico with my parents, particularly the site of Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico (where I eventually worked as an undergraduate and masters student).

As a kid I marveled at the size of the ancient Maya temples and palaces, and wondered how these 1300-year old buildings were still standing. As I got older, I became more interested in the populations living within and around these clearly royal ceremonial centers. How and/or why did local farmers and hinterland leaders buy into such a precarious political and economic system?

How did they participate with and/or resist attempts by Classic period dynasts and other elites in building integrated urban settlement systems that typify the Maya Classic period (250-900 C.E.)?

Interests

Archaeology, ancient Mesoamerica, urbanism, state formation, organization, and collapse, settlement patterns, household economy, landscape ecology, GIS and remote sensing.

Student Research Opportunities

Dr. Marken co-directs the Waka’ Archaeological Project (PAW) which has been investigating the ancestral Maya city of El Perú-Waka’, Guatemala since 2003. Over the years, numerous Anthropology Majors and Minors have participated in archaeological mapping and excavation at the lowland site, and archaeological analysis of artifacts and geographic information in the Project lab in Guatemala City. Interested students should email Dr. Marken directly.

For more information about the Waka’ Archaeological Project visit: https://proyectowaka.org/Publications

Edited Volumes

• Eppich, Keith, Damien B. Marken and David Freidel, editors

  2024     El Perú-Waka’: New Archaeological Perspectives on the Kingdom of the Centipede. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.

• Marken, Damien B. and M. Charlotte Arnauld, editors

  2023     Building an Archaeology of Maya Urbanism: Planning and Flexibility in the American     Tropics. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.  

• Marken, Damien B. and James L. Fitzsimmons, editors

  2015     Classic Maya Polities of the Southern Lowlands: Integration, Interaction, Dissolution. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.

• Marken, Damien B., editor

  2007     Palenque: Recent Investigations at the Classic Maya Center. AltaMira Press, New York, NY.

Articles, Chapters and Conference Proceedings

• Marken, Damien B., Olivia C. Navarro-Farr and David Freidel

  In press The Preclassic to Late Classic Evolution of Political Regimes at El Perú-Waka’, Petén, Guatemala. In Maya Political Regimes, edited by Marcello A. Canuto and Maxime Lamoureux-St.-Hilaire. Oxford University Press, New York.  

• Horowitz, Rachel, Damien B. Marken, and Juan Carlos Meléndez

  2024     Identifying Elite Crafting: An Assemblage of Stone Modifiers from the Ancestral Maya Site of El Perú-Waka’. Antiquity. Online 2024:1-17. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2024.183

• Eppich, Keith, Damien B. Marken and Juan Carlos Pérez

  2024     An Introduction to a Ruined City. In El Perú-Waka’: New Archaeological Perspectives on the Kingdom of the Centipede., edited by Keith Eppich, Damien B. Marken and David Freidel, pp. 1-20. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.

• Marken, Damien B. and Matthew C. Ricker

  2024     Fire, Earth, and Water: Settlement, Soils and Hydrology at El Perú-Waka’. In El Perú-Waka’: New Archaeological Perspectives on the Kingdom of the Centipede, edited by Keith Eppich, Damien B. Marken and David Freidel, pp. 57-89. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.

• Marken, Damien B.

  2023     Residential Differentiation Across Urban Zones at the Lowland Maya City El Perú-Waka’, Petén, Guatemala. Ancient Mesoamerica 34, e5, 1-11. doi:10.1017/S0956536123000056

• Marken, Damien B. and M. Charlotte Arnauld

  2023     Building an Archaeology of Lowland Maya Urbanism. In Building an Archaeology of Maya Urbanism: Planning and Flexibility in the American Tropics, edited by Damien B. Marken and M. Charlotte Arnauld, pp. 5-52. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.

• Eppich, Keith, Damien B. Marken and Elsa Damaris Menéndez

  2023     A City in Flux: The Dynamic Urban Form and Function of El Perú-Waka’. In Building an Archaeology of Maya Urbanism: Planning and Flexibility in the American Tropics, edited by Damien B. Marken and M. Charlotte Arnauld, pp. 105-147. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.

• Thompson, Amy E., John P. Walden, Adrian S.Z. Chase, Scott R. Hutson, Damien B. Marken, Bernadette Cap, Eric C. Fries, M. Rodrigo Guzman Piedrasanta, Timothy Hare, Sherman Horn III, George J. Micheletti, Shane Montgomery, Jessica Munson, Heather Richards-Rissetto, Kyle Shaw-Müller, Jaime J. Awe, M. Kathryn Brown, Claire E. Ebert, Anabel Ford, Julie A. Hoggarth, Holley Moyes, Terry Powis, Keith M. Prufer, Jason Yaeger, Brett A. Houk, Arlen F. Chase, and Diane Z. Chase

  2022     Ancient Lowland Maya Neighborhoods: Average Nearest Neighbor Analysis and Kernel Density Models, Environments, and Urban Scale. PLoS ONE 17(11):e0275916. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0275916

• Marken, Damien B., Matthew C. Ricker and Robert Austin

  2022     Combining Survey, Soil Coring, and GIS Methods to Improve Lowland Maya Reservoir Capacity Estimates. Advances in Archaeological Practice 10(2):187-199.

• Navarro-Farr, Olivia, Damien B. Marken, Mary Kate Kelly, Keith Eppich, Griselda Pérez, and Juan Carlos Pérez

  2022     Queens and Statecraft: Royal Women as Agents of Kaanul at El Perú-Waka’. In 3,000 Years of War and Peace in the Maya Lowlands: Identity, Power, and Politics, edited by Geoffrey Braswell, pp. 159-183. Routledge Press, New York City.Marken, Damien B., Matthew Ricker, Alex Rivas, and Erika Maxson
  2019 Urbanismo de Bajo Densidad en las Tierras Bajas Maya: El Caso de El Perú-Waka', Petén, Guatemala. Estudios de Cultura Maya 54:11-42. DOI:10.19130/iifl.ecm.2019.54.970

• Marken, Damien B., Juan Carlos Pérez, Olivia Navarro-Farr, and Keith Eppich
  2019 Ciudad del Ciempiés: Urbanismo, Límites y Comunidad en El Perú-Waka', Petén Guatemala. XXXII Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala, 2018, edited by Bárbara Arroyo, Luis Méndez Salinas, Gloria Ajú Álvarez, pp. 531-546. IDEAH, Guatemala City.
• Canuto, Marcello A., Francisco Estrada-Belli, Thomas Garrison, Stephen D. Houston, Mary Jane Acuña, Milan Kováč, Damien Marken, Philippe Nondédéo, Luke Auld-Thomas, Cyril Castanet, David Chatelain, Carlos R. Chiriboga, Tomáš Drápela, Tibor Lieskovský, Alexandre Tokovinine, Antolín Velasquez, Juan C. Fernández Díaz, and Ramesh Shresta
  2018 Airborne laser scanning of northern Guatemala: A Reckoning with Ancient Lowland Maya Complexity. Science 361: eaau0137 DOI: 10.1126/science.aau0137
• Marken, Damien B., Stanley Guenter and David A. Freidel
  2017 He's Maya, but He's not my Brother: Exploring the Place of Ethnicity in Classic Maya Social Organization. In “The One True People”: Linking Mayan Identities Past and Present, edited by Bethany J. Myers & Lisa LeCount, pp. 187-217. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.
• Marken, Damien B. and Timothy Murtha
  2017 Maya Cities, People and Place: Comparative Perspectives from El Peru and Tikal. Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology 14:177-187.
• Marken, Damien B.
  2016 Broadened Conceptions of Classic Maya Cities. Book Review Essay of Ancient Maya Cities of the Eastern Lowlands and Tikal: Paleoecology of an Ancient Maya City. American Anthropologist 118(2):408-410.
  2015 Conceptualizing the Spatial Dimensions of Classic Maya States: Polity and Urbanism at El Perú-Waka', Petén. In Classic Maya Polities of the Southern Lowlands, edited by Damien B. Marken and James Fitzsimmons, pp. 123-166. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.
• Marken, Damien B. and James Fitzsimmons
  2015 Introducing Classic Maya Polities: Models and Definitions. In Classic Maya Polities of the Southern Lowlands, edited by Damien B. Marken and James Fitzsimmons, pp. 3-37. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.
• Fitzsimmons, James L. and Damien B. Marken
  2015 Ideas of City and State: Maya Polities of the Southern Lowlands. In Classic Maya Polities of the Southern Lowlands, edited by Damien B. Marken and James Fitzsimmons, pp. 263-274. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.
• Marken, Damien B.
  2014 Sansamal Performance: Variability in Ritual Contexts at El Perú-Waka'. In Archaeology at El Perú-Waka': Performances of Ritual, Memory and Power, edited by Olivia Navarro-Farr & Michelle Rich, pp. 134-146. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
• Marken, Damien B. and Francisco Castañeda
  2014 Sitios Satelitales en la Región de El Perú-Waka'. XXVII Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala, 2013, edited by Bárbara Arroyo, Luis Méndez Salinas, Andrea Rojas, pp. 733-742. IDEAH, Guatemala City.
• Marken, Damien B.
  2013 Gordon Willey. Oxford Bibliographies in Anthropology, edited by John Jackson. Oxford University Press, New York. 10/1/13.
  López, Joel, Damien B. Marken, Ana Lucía Arroyave, and Varinia Matute
  2011 Relación Modal o Diferenciación de la Cerámica en las Áreas Periféricas del Sitio Arqueológico El Perú-Waka'. In XXIV Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala, 2010, edited by Bárbara Arroyo, Lorena Paiz Aragón, Andriana Linares Palma, & Ana Lucía Arroyave, pp.879-890. IDEAH, Guatemala City.
• Marken, Damien B.
  2007 Preface. In Palenque: Recent Investigations at the Classic Maya Center, edited by Damien B. Marken, pp. xxi-xxiii. AltaMira Press, New York, NY.
  2007 The Construction Chronology of Palenque: Seriation within an Architectural Form. In Palenque: Recent Investigations at the Classic Maya Center, edited by Damien B. Marken, pp. 57-81. AltaMira Press, New York, NY.
• Marken, Damien B. and Arnoldo González Cruz
  2007 Elite Residential Compounds at Late Classic Palenque. In Palenque: Recent Investigations at the Classic Maya Center, edited by Damien B. Marken, pp. 135- 160. AltaMira Press, New York, NY.
• Marken, Damien B. and Kirk D. Straight
  2007 Conclusion: Reconceptualizing the Palenque Polity. In Palenque: Recent Investigations at the Classic Maya Center, edited by Damien B. Marken, pp. 279-324. AltaMira Press, New York, NY.
• Marken, Damien B.
  2006 Review of Copán: The History of an Ancient Maya Kingdom, edited by E. Wyllys Andrews and William L. Fash. Journal of Latin American Anthropology 11(1): 224-225.
• Straight, Kirk D. and Damien B. Marken
  2006 Los Depósitos de Terminación del Templo XIX, Palenque, Chiapas. In XIX Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala, 2005, edited by J. P. Laporte, B. Arroyo, & H. Mejía, pp. 387-396. IDEAH, Guatemala City.
  2002 'U-Pakal K'in'ich at Palenque and Its Use as a Pre-Accession Name. PARI Journal II(4)/III(1):1-4. PreColumbian Art Research Institute, San Francisco, CA.