SBS Anthropology
Virtual Visit Request info Apply
MENUMENU
  • Degrees & Programs
    • B.A. Anthropology
    • M.A. Anthropology
    • Anthropology, Minor
    • Social Science Forensics, Minor
  • The Experience
    • Research
      • Anthropology Labs
      • Archaeology
      • Biological Anthropology
      • Sociocultural Anthropology
    • Clubs and Organizations
  • Student Resources
    • Student Resources
    • Scholarships
  • After NAU
    • Career Development
    • Alumni Careers 
    • Alumni Testimonials
    • Give Now
  • Faculty & Staff
  • NAU
  • SBS
  • Anthropology
  • Faculty Research Spotlight
Fall 2023 Faculty Spotlight: Dr. Gavin Healey, Indigenous Aerosol Muralism Headshot of Gavin. Fall 2022 Faculty Spotlight: Dr. Sharp in the field Celebrating the Life and Work of Dr. Leila Monaghan                     Summer 2022 Spotlight: Dr. Leszek Pawlowicz and Dr. Chris Downum, Breakthrough in Archaeological Applications of Machine Learning Drs. Downum and Pawlowicz

Spring 2022 Spotlight: Dr. Lisa Hardy, Community-Engaged Medical Anthropology Lisa Hardy Portrait Winter 2022 Spotlight: Dr. Melissa Libert, Human Biology and Health Melissa in the field Sociocultural Anthropology students looking at canyon Archaeology

Fall 2024 Faculty Spotlight: Meet Luke Auld-Thomas

Remote sensing of ancient Maya urbanism and its long-term environmental legacy

Luke Auld-Thomas is joining NAU Anthropology this fall as part of a cluster of experts in Remote Sensing

Remote sensing technologies are transforming archaeology with a torrent of new data, allowing researchers to revisit some of the discipline’s most elemental and stubborn research problems while also posing a host of new and exciting questions.

Nowhere have these changes been more powerfully felt than in the Maya Lowlands of northern Central America, where airborne laser scanning (a.k.a. lidar) has revealed a landscape utterly transformed by human activity and subsequently blanketed—and thus preserved—by dense forest for a millennium. Luke Auld-Thomas’ ground-breaking work introduces recent and ongoing research that uses remote sensing to reconstruct the magnitude of ancient populations and the extent of pre-Columbian urbanization across the Maya Lowlands. He also looks at  how the same data now being used to map ancient settlement systems are poised to shed new light on the ecology of post-urban landscapes in Mesoamerica and beyond.

Luke Auld-Thomas’ work has been featured in lots of news stories and academic paper. A few are linked below.

Researchers Discover Incredible Mayan Monument | Huff Post

Taking the high ground: A model for lowland Maya settlement patterns | With Dr. Marcelo Canuto in The Journal of Anthropological Archaeology

Department of Anthropology
Location
Room 228 Building 065
SBS - Raul H. Castro
5 E. McConnell Drive
Flagstaff, AZ 86011-5200
Mailing Address
PO Box: 15200
Flagstaff, AZ 86011-5200
Email
anthropology@nau.edu
Phone
928-523-3180
Social Media
Facebook Instagram