Ari Caramanica

Assistant Professor

Specializations

While I’m an archaeologist, I consider my research to be directed at the modern-day climate crisis. I investigate how resilient farming systems emerge and adapt to climate change and natural disasters. My fieldwork takes place on the north coast of Peru, where I study ancient irrigation in arid farming zones.

This fall, I’ll be teaching Anth 2227 Food in the Ancient World and Anth 2225 Climate Change, Collapse, and Sustainability in History. 

Archaeology requires that we find creative new ways of understanding our world. Today and in the past, the north coast of Peru is one of the driest places on earth. In many ways, the region is a preview of what more and more of the planet will experience as the globe continues to warm. Through archaeology, we can recover the sustainable practices, risk management strategies, and tools of resilience that have already been tested over thousands of years—we can actually ask and answer, how did ancient, agricultural societies survive our climate future?