Overview

Prof. Jose Iriarte is an archaeologist and archaeobotanist whose principal research interests are:

• the investigation of coupled human environment systems in the Neotropics and subtropics of Latin America
• the peopling of the Americas
• plant domestication and the development of agricultural landscapes
• the emergence of complex societies in the Americas.

He currently directs the ERC funded project The End of the Journey: The Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene Colonisation of South America (2019-2024) looking at the last terra incognita (other than Antartica) to be colonised by humans, a process that took place amidst one of the most significant climatic, environmental, and subsistence regime shifts in human history, which contributed to the extinction of megafauna (the most recent substantial extinction event in the geological record), plant domestication, and today’s remarkable diversity of indigenous South American groups.

Iriarte is member of the Centre for the Archaeology of the Americas and HUMANE research centres. He is also a National Geographic Explorer (watch NATGEO Explorer Festival).

• LASTJOURNEY - The End of the Journey: The Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene Colonisation of South America (ERC_Advanced 2019-2024)
• Cultural heritage tourism in the Versalles Itonama Indigenous Community, Itenez, Bolivia (GRCF-GIAA 2019)
• FUTURES -Forefront UAV Technology for Underpinning Rainforest Environmental Sustainability (ERC_PoC 2018-2019)
• PAST - Pre-Columbian Amazon Scale-Transformations – (ERC_Consolidator 2014-2018)
• New light under the Amazon rainforest: Uncovering archaeological landscapes and cultural forests along the southern rim of the Amazon using UAV-Lidar (National Geographic, 2017-2018)
• JE LANDSCAPES - Je Landscapes of southern Brazil: Ecology, Power and History in a transitional landscapes during the Holocene (AHRC-FAPESP, 2014-2017)

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Research

Coupled human and natural systems: the legacy of past human impact in Amazonia and the Rio de la Plata Basin

Were the tropical forests of Amazonia a pristine, virgin forest inhabited by small band of hunter-gatherers or slash and burn horticulturalists passively adapting to the environment with a minimal impact on it or was it a cultural parkland, a manufactured landscape supporting large regionally organized, hierarchical societies with a larger impact on the environment? Iriarte’s international interdisciplinary projects, which bring together archaeologists, archaeobotanists, paleoecologists, soil scientists, remote sensing and biologists investigate this crucial question in several case studies across Amazonia ranging from Amazonian Dark Earth anthrosols (Nature Plants, Nature Communications) to raised-field agricultural landscapes in tropical savannas (e.g, PNAS, Journal of Archaeological Sciences). These projects have been funded by ERC, AHRC, NERC, Leverhulme Trust, the British Academy, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, CNRS-France and National Geographic Society.

Watch Amazonian Dark Earths, Polyculture Agroforestry Systems and their Modern Legacy

Dispersal of humans in the Americas

Understanding the human journey of global colonisation is the history of modern humanity and the development of cultural diversity around the world. Through his new project, LAST JOURNEY (ERC Advanced), Iriarte will investigate the peopling of South America, the last continental terra incognita (other than Antarctica) to be colonised by humans, constituting a virtually unprecedented migration of modern humans across richly diverse, empty landscapes during the Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene transition. Situated at the geographical gateway of one of the most momentous demographic dispersals of our species, the project will explore the human dispersion into the diverse environments of north-western South America, encompassing coasts, savannahs, and tropical forests of what is today Colombia. This process took place amidst one of the most significant climatic, environmental, and subsistence regime shifts in human history, which resulted in the extinction of megafauna, plant domestication, and today’s remarkable diversity of South American indigenous groups.

Assist to the online Early Rock Art Symposium. 

Watch An Ice Age Rock Art Gallery in Amazonia?

Plant Domestication and the dispersal of Agriculture

José is also interested in early plant domestication and the spread of agriculture in the Americas. He uses plant microfossils, including phytoliths, starch grains and pollen from archaeological sites and lake and wetlands to research these problems. You can read his new ideas about plant domestication and early dispersal of agriculture in his co-edited book Rethinking Agriculture. Also look for his and his colleagues articles on maize (Zea mays L.) domestication in Mexico (PNAS 2009) and about early maize dispersals in Peru (PNAS 2012) and Uruguay (Nature 2004). Jose’s ideas about the diversity of early food production systems in the Americas can be read in Current Anthropology. Lately, Iriarte’s team documented the third event of rice domestication in the wetlands of SW Amazonia (Nature Ecology and Evolution). Iriarte’s laboratory of Tropical and Subtropical Archaeobotany houses one of the largest phytolith reference collections in the world.

Early complex societies.

The emergence of complex societies and its relationship to the arrival of monumental burial practices, changes in subsistence, population growth, ranking and inheritance, territoriality, and ideology are topics of major concern in archaeology. Iriarte research has shed light on these processes on the mound-building societies of SE Uruguay (Nature, World Archaeology) and the southern proto-Je of the southern Brazilian highlands (Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, Journal of Archaeological Research).

Watch New Light Under the Amazon. 

Student supervision

Prof. Iriarte is happy to supervise postgraduate research students working in the following areas: phytolith analysis, human environmental interactions, plant domestication and the early dispersal of agriculture, landscape archaeology and Formative cultures of the Americas.

Find out more at his personal web-site.

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Supervision

I supervise PhD students in the following subject areas:

• Latin American Archaeology (in particular lowland South America)
• Archaeobotany (in particular phytolith and starch grain analysis)
• Coupled human and environment systems
• Climate Change Archaeology
• Plant Domestication, Dispersal of Agriculture
• Peopling of the Americas

Research students

Current:

Josie Handley 'Testing the resilience of traditional agriculture in the Peruvian Andes to periods of climate change and human activity' 

Felipe do Nascimento Rodrigues: 'Many Rocks, Many Functions? Investigating Stone Raw Material Selection, Use and its Socio-Economic Implications for Southern Jê prehistory in South Brazil'

Bastiaan van Dalen 'Comparing pre-Columbian land use in Amazonia and the Maya' (prelim title).

Recently completed:

Regina Gonda (2019): 'Pre-Columbian Land Use and its Modern Legacy in the Purus-Madeira Interfluve, Central Amazonia'

Lautaro Hilbert (2017): 'Investigating Plant Management in the Monte Castelo (Rondônia- Brazil) and Tucumã (Pará-Brazil) Shell Mound Using Phytoliths Analysis'

Daiana Travassos (2017): 'Dark Earth Plant Management in the Lower Tapajos'

Jonas Gregorio de Souza (2017): 'Pathways to power in the southern Brazilian highlands: Households, communities and status at Southern Proto-Jê pit house settlements'. 

Jennifer Watling (2014): 'Environmental Impact of the Pre-Columbian Geoglyph Builders of Western Amazonia'.

Ciprian Ardelean (2013):  'Archaeology of Early Human Occupations and the Pleistocene-Holocene Transition in the Zacatecas Desert, Northern Mexico'.

Rafael Corteletti (2010):  'Upper Canoas Archaeological Project: A Study of the Jê presence on the Santa Catarina Plateau' (CNPq PhD Studentship, MAE-USP (São Paulo, Brazil), University of Exeter (started 2010).

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Publications

_{Copyright Notice: Any articles made available for download are for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the copyright holder.}

| To Appear | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2004 | 2003 |

To Appear

• Whitney BS, Dickau R, Mayle FE, Soto D, Iriarte J. Pre-Columbian landscape impact and agriculture in the Monumental Mound region of the Llanos de Moxos, lowland Bolivia, Quaternary Research, volume 80, pages 207-217, DOI:10.1016/j.yqres.2013.06.005.
• Whitney BS, Dickau R, Mayle FE, Soto D, Iriarte J. Pre-Columbian raised-field agriculture and land use in the Bolivian Amazon, The Holocene, DOI:10.1177/0959683613517401.
• Dickau R, Bruno M, Iriarte J, Prumers H, Jaime C, Mayle F. Archaeobotanical remains from habitation sites in the Llanos de Mojos, El Beni, Bolivia, Journal of Archaeological Sciences, volume 39, pages 357-370, DOI:10.1016/j.jas.2011.09.021.
• Grobman A, Bonavia D, Dillehay T, Piperno D, Iriarte J, Holst I. Preceramic maize from Paredones and Huaca Prita, Peru, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, volume 109, pages 1755-1759, DOI:10.1073/pnas.1120270109.

2024

• Robinson M, Iriarte J, Osborn J. (2024) The peopling of Amazonia: Chrono-stratigraphic evidence from Serranía La Lindosa, Colombian Amazon, Quaternary Science Reviews, volume 327, DOI:10.1016/j.quascirev.2024.108522.
• Iriarte J. (2024) The Archaeology of Amazonia: A Human History, Bloomsbury Academic Press.

2023

• Peripato V, Levis C, Moreira GA, Gamerman D, Ter Steege H, Pitman NCA, de Souza JG, Iriarte J, Robinson M, Junqueira AB. (2023) More than 10,000 pre-Columbian earthworks are still hidden throughout Amazonia, Science, volume 382, no. 6666, pages 103-109, DOI:10.1126/science.ade2541. [PDF]
• Handley J, Branch N, Meddens FM, Simmonds M, Iriarte J. (2023) Pre-Hispanic terrace agricultural practices and long-distance transfer of plant taxa in the southern-central Peruvian Andes revealed by phytolith and pollen analysis, VEGETATION HISTORY AND ARCHAEOBOTANY, DOI:10.1007/s00334-023-00946-w. [PDF]
• Handley J, Branch N, Meddens FM, Simmonds M, Iriarte J. (2023) Pre-Hispanic terrace agricultural practices and long-distance transfer of plant taxa in the southern-central Peruvian Andes revealed by phytolith and pollen analysis, Vegetation History and Archaeobotany, volume 33, no. 3, pages 375-391, DOI:10.1007/s00334-023-00946-w. [PDF]
• Hilbert L, Alves DT, Neves EG, Iriarte J. (2023) A glimpse into shell mound builders’ diet during mid-to-late Holocene on Marajó island, Vegetation History and Archaeobotany, DOI:10.1007/s00334-023-00930-4.
• Do Nascimento Rodrigues F. (2023) Many Rocks, Many Functions? Investigating Stone Raw Material Selection, Use and its Socio-Economic Implications for Southern Jê prehistory in South Brazil.

2022

• Carlini AA, Carrillo-Briceño JD, Jaimes A, Aguilera O, Zurita AE, Iriarte J, Sánchez-Villagra MR. (2022) Damaged glyptodontid skulls from Late Pleistocene sites of northwestern Venezuela: evidence of hunting by humans?, Swiss Journal of Palaeontology, volume 141, no. 1, article no. 11, DOI:10.1186/s13358-022-00253-3. [PDF]
• Prümers H, Betancourt CJ, Iriarte J, Robinson M, Schaich M. (2022) Lidar reveals pre-Hispanic low-density urbanism in the Bolivian Amazon, Nature, volume 606, no. 7913, pages 325-328, DOI:10.1038/s41586-022-04780-4. [PDF]
• Iriarte J. (2022) Legacies of Indigenous land use and cultural burning in the Bolivian Amazon rainforest ecotone, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, DOI:10.1098/rstb.2020.0499.
• Iriarte J, Ziegler MJ, Outram AK, Robinson M, Roberts P, Aceituno FJ, Morcote-Ríos G, Keesey TM. (2022) Ice Age megafauna rock art in the Colombian Amazon?, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, volume 377, no. 1849, DOI:10.1098/rstb.2020.0496.
• Maezumi SY, Elliott S, Robinson M, Betancourt CJ, Gregorio de Souza J, Alves D, Grosvenor M, Hilbert L, Urrego DH, Gosling WD. (2022) Legacies of Indigenous land use and cultural burning in the Bolivian Amazon rainforest ecotone, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, volume 377, no. 1849, DOI:10.1098/rstb.2020.0499.

2021

• Aceituno FJ, Robinson M, Iriarte J, Morcote-Rios G. (2021) Colombian Amazon: The Millenary History of Serranía la Lindosa Painted on Its Walls, Mapping a New Museum Politics and Practice of Latin American Research with the British Museum, Routledge, 53-63.
• Robinson M, Morcote-Rios G, Aceituno FJ, Roberts P, Berrío JC, Iriarte J. (2021) ‘Moving South’: Late Pleistocene Plant Exploitation and the Importance of Palm in the Colombian Amazon, Quaternary, volume 4, no. 3, pages 26-26, DOI:10.3390/quat4030026. [PDF]
• Hamilton R, Wolfhagen J, Amano N, Boivin N, Findley DM, Iriarte J, Kaplan JO, Stevenson J, Roberts P. (2021) Non-uniform tropical forest responses to the ‘Columbian Exchange’ in the Neotropics and Asia-Pacific, Nature Ecology and Evolution, volume 5, no. 8, pages 1174-1184, DOI:10.1038/s41559-021-01474-4.
• Iriarte J, Elliott S, Maezumi SY, Alves D, Gonda R, Robinson M, Gregorio de Souza J, Watling J, Handley J. (2021) Corrigendum to “The origins of Amazonian landscapes: Plant cultivation, domestication and the spread of food production in tropical South America” [Quat. Sci. Rev. 248 (2020) 106582] (Quaternary Science Reviews (2020) 248, (S0277379120305448), (10.1016/j.quascirev.2020.106582)), Quaternary Science Reviews, volume 252, DOI:10.1016/j.quascirev.2020.106761.
• Morcote-Ríos G, Aceituno FJ, Iriarte J, Robinson M, Chaparro-Cárdenas JL. (2021) Colonisation and early peopling of the Colombian Amazon during the Late Pleistocene and the Early Holocene: New evidence from La Serranía La Lindosa, Quaternary International, volume 578, pages 5-19, DOI:10.1016/j.quaint.2020.04.026. [PDF]

2020

• Robinson M, Jaimes‐Betancourt C, Elliott S, Maezumi SY, Hilbert L, Alves D, de Souza JG, Iriarte J. (2020) Anthropogenic soil and settlement organisation in the Bolivian Amazon, Geoarchaeology, volume 36, no. 3, pages 388-403, DOI:10.1002/gea.21839. [PDF]
• Iriarte J, Elliott S, Maezumi SY, Alves D, Gonda R, Robinson M, Gregorio de Souza J, Watling J, Handley J. (2020) The origins of Amazonian landscapes: Plant cultivation, domestication and the spread of food production in tropical South America, Quaternary Science Reviews, volume 248, pages n/a-n/a, article no. 106582, DOI:10.1016/j.quascirev.2020.106582.
• de Oliveira EA, Marimon‐Junior BH, Marimon BS, Iriarte J, Morandi PS, Maezumi SY, Nogueira DS, Aragão LEOC, da Silva IB, Feldpausch TR. (2020) Legacy of Amazonian Dark Earth soils on forest structure and species composition, Global Ecology and Biogeography, volume 29, no. 9, pages 1458-1473, DOI:10.1111/geb.13116. [PDF]
• Iriarte J, Robinson M, de Souza J, Damasceno A, da Silva F, Nakahara F, Ranzi A, Aragao L. (2020) Geometry by Design: Contribution of Lidar to the Understanding of Settlement Patterns of the Mound Villages in SW Amazonia, Journal of Computer Applications in Archaeology, volume 3, no. 1, pages 151-169, DOI:10.5334/jcaa.45. [PDF]
• Lombardo U, Iriarte J, Hilbert L, Ruiz-Pérez J, Capriles JM, Veit H. (2020) Early Holocene crop cultivation and landscape modification in Amazonia, Nature, volume 581, no. 7807, pages 190-193, DOI:10.1038/s41586-020-2162-7.

2019

• Azevedo V, Stríkis NM, Santos RA, de Souza JG, Ampuero A, Cruz FW, de Oliveira P, Iriarte J, Stumpf CF, Vuille M. (2019) Medieval Climate Variability in the eastern Amazon-Cerrado regions and its archeological implications, Sci Rep, volume 9, no. 1, DOI:10.1038/s41598-019-56852-7. [PDF]
• Milheira RG, De Souza JG, Iriarte J. (2019) Water, movement and landscape ordering: A GIS-based analysis for understanding the mobility system of late Holocene mound-builders in southern Brazil, Journal of Archaeological Science, volume 111, DOI:10.1016/j.jas.2019.105014.
• Arienzo MM, Maezumi SY, Chellman NJ, Iriarte J. (2019) Pre-Columbian Fire Management Linked to Refractory Black Carbon Emissions in the Amazon, Fire, volume 2, no. 2, pages 31-31, DOI:10.3390/fire2020031. [PDF]
• Gonda R. (2019) Pre-Columbian land use and its modern legacy in the Purus-Madeira Interfluve, Central Amazonia.
• Ferreira MJ, Levis C, Iriarte J, Clement CR. (2019) Legacies of intensive management in forests around pre-columbian and modern settlements in the Madeira-Tap ajos interfl uve, Amazonia, ACTA BOTANICA BRASILICA, volume 33, no. 2, pages 212-220, DOI:10.1590/0102-33062018abb0339. [PDF]
• de Souza JG, Robinson M, Maezumi SY, Capriles J, Hoggarth JA, Lombardo U, Novello VF, Apaéstegui J, Whitney B, Urrego D. (2019) Climate change and cultural resilience in late pre-Columbian Amazonia, Nat Ecol Evol, volume 3, no. 7, pages 1007-1017, DOI:10.1038/s41559-019-0924-0. [PDF]
• Cárdenas ML, Wilson OJ, Schorn LA, Mayle FE, Iriarte J. (2019) A quantitative study of modern pollen–vegetation relationships in southern Brazil's Araucaria forest, Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, volume 265, pages 27-40, DOI:10.1016/j.revpalbo.2019.03.003.
• Hilbert L, Neves EG, Pugliese F, Whitney BS, Shock M, Veasey E, Zimpel CA, Iriarte J. (2019) Publisher Correction: Evidence for mid-Holocene rice domestication in the Americas, Nat Ecol Evol, volume 3, no. 1, DOI:10.1038/s41559-018-0774-1. [PDF]

2018

• Corteletti R, Iriarte J. (2018) Recent Advances in the Archaeology of the Southern Proto-Jê People, Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology, Springer International Publishing, 1-11, DOI:10.1007/978-3-319-51726-1_3037-1. [PDF]
• Maezumi Y, Robinson ME, de Souza J, Urrego DH, Shaan D, Iriarte J, Alves D. (2018) New Insights From Pre-Columbian Land Use and Fire Management in Amazonian Dark Earth Forests, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, volume 6, no. 111, DOI:10.3389/fevo.2018.00111.
• Maezumi SY, Alves D, Robinson M, de Souza JG, Levis C, Barnett RL, Almeida de Oliveira E, Urrego D, Schaan D, Iriarte J. (2018) The legacy of 4,500 years of polyculture agroforestry in the eastern Amazon, Nat Plants, volume 4, no. 8, pages 540-547, DOI:10.1038/s41477-018-0205-y. [PDF]
• Robinson M, De Souza JG, Maezumi SY, Cárdenas M, Pessenda L, Prufer K, Corteletti R, Scunderlick D, Mayle FE, De Blasis P. (2018) Uncoupling human and climate drivers of late Holocene vegetation change in southern Brazil, Scientific Reports, volume 8, no. 1, DOI:10.1038/s41598-018-24429-5.
• Blatrix R, Roux B, Béarez P, Prestes-Carneiro G, Amaya M, Aramayo JL, Rodrigues L, Lombardo U, Iriarte J, de Souza JG. (2018) The unique functioning of a pre-Columbian Amazonian floodplain fishery, Sci Rep, volume 8, no. 1, DOI:10.1038/s41598-018-24454-4. [PDF]
• Iriarte J, De Souza J, Schaan D, Robinson M, Damasceno Barbosa A, Aragao L, Marimon BH, Marimon B, Brasil da Silva I, Khan S. (2018) Pre-Columbian earth-builders settled along the entire southern rim of the Amazon, Nature Communications, DOI:10.1038/s41467-018-03510-7.

2017

• Watling J, Iriarte J, Mayle FE, Schaan D, Pessenda LCR, Loader NJ, Street-Perrott FA, Dickau RE, Damasceno A, Ranzi A. (2017) Reply to Piperno et al.: It is too soon to argue for localized, short-term human impacts in interfluvial Amazonia, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, volume 114, no. 21, pages E4120-E4121, DOI:10.1073/pnas.1705697114.
• Maezumi Y, Whitney B, Mayle F, Gregorio de Souza J, Iriarte J. (2017) Reassessing climate and pre-Columbian drivers of paleofire activity in the Bolivian Amazon, Quaternary International, volume 3, pages 1-14, DOI:10.1016/j.quaint.2017.11.053.
• Hilbert L, Neves EG, Pugliese F, Whitney BS, Shock M, Veasey E, Zimpel CA, Iriarte J. (2017) Evidence for mid-Holocene rice domestication in the Americas, Nature Ecology & Evolution, volume 1, no. 11, pages 1693-1698, DOI:10.1038/s41559-017-0322-4. [PDF]
• Robinson M, Iriarte J, De Souza JG, Corteletti R, Ulguim P, Fradley M, Cárdenas M, De Blasis P, Mayle F, Scunderlick D. (2017) Moieties and mortuary mounds: Dualism at a mound and enclosure complex in the southern brazilian highlands, Latin American Antiquity, volume 28, no. 2, pages 232-251, DOI:10.1017/laq.2017.11.
• Watling J, Iriarte J, Mayle FE, Schaan D, Pessenda LCR, Loader NJ, Street-Perrott FA, Dickau RE, Damasceno A, Ranzi A. (2017) Impact of pre-Columbian “geoglyph” builders on Amazonian forests, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, volume 114, no. 8, pages 1868-1873, DOI:10.1073/pnas.1614359114. [PDF]
• Robinson M, Iriarte J, De Souza JG, Marozzi O, Scheel-Ybert R. (2017) Moiety specific wood selection in funerary ritual for the southern proto-Jê, Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, volume 11, pages 237-244, DOI:10.1016/j.jasrep.2016.11.047.

2016

• Iriarte J, DeBlasis P, De Souza JG, Corteletti R. (2016) Emergent Complexity, Changing Landscapes, and Spheres of Interaction in Southeastern South America During the Middle and Late Holocene, Journal of Archaeological Research, volume 25, no. 3, pages 251-313, DOI:10.1007/s10814-016-9100-0.
• Zangerlé A, Renard D, Iriarte J, Suarez Jimenez LE, Adame Montoya KL, Juilleret J, McKey D. (2016) The Surales, self-organized earth-mound landscapes made by earthworms in a seasonal tropical wetland, PLoS ONE, volume 11, no. 5, DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0154269.
• Carson JF, Mayle FE, Whitney BS, Iriarte J, Soto JD. (2016) Pre‐Columbian ring ditch construction and land use on a ‘chocolate forest island’ in the Bolivian Amazon, Journal of Quaternary Science, volume 31, no. 4, pages 337-347, DOI:10.1002/jqs.2835. [PDF]
• De Souza JG, Robinson M, Corteletti R, Cárdenas ML, Wolf S, Iriarte J, Mayle F, DeBlasis P. (2016) Understanding the chronology and occupation dynamics of oversized pit houses in the southern Brazilian highlands, PLoS ONE, volume 11, no. 7, DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0158127.
• Iriarte J, Richard Smith RS, Jonas Gregorio de Souza JS, Francis Mayle FM, Bronwen Whitney BW, Macarena Cardenas MC, Joy Singarayer JS, John Carson JC, Shovonlal Roy SR, Paul Valdes PV. (2016) Out of Amazonia: Late Holocene Climate Change and the Tupi-Guarani Trans-Continental Expansion, The Holocene, volume 27, no. 7, pages 967-975, DOI:10.1177/0959683616678461.
• Ball T, Chandler-Ezell K, Dickau R, Duncan N, Hart TC, Iriarte J, Lentfer C, Logan A, Lu H, Madella M. (2016) Phytoliths as a tool for investigations of agricultural origins and dispersals around the world, Journal of Archaeological Science, volume 68, pages 32-45, DOI:10.1016/j.jas.2015.08.010. [PDF]
• De Souza JG, Corteletti R, Robinson M, Iriarte J. (2016) The genesis of monuments: Resisting outsiders in the contested landscapes of southern Brazil, Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, volume 41, pages 196-212, DOI:10.1016/j.jaa.2016.01.003.
• Watling J, Iriarte J, Whitney BS, Consuelo E, Mayle F, Castro W, Schaan D, Feldpausch TR. (2016) Differentiation of neotropical ecosystems by modern soil phytolith assemblages and its implications for palaeoenvironmental and archaeological reconstructions II: Southwestern Amazonian forests, Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, volume 226, pages 30-43, DOI:10.1016/j.revpalbo.2015.12.002.

2015

• Corteletti R, Dickau R, DeBlasis P, Iriarte J. (2015) Revisiting the economy and mobility of southern proto-Jê (Taquara-Itararé) groups in the southern Brazilian highlands: starch grain and phytoliths analyses from the Bonin site, Urubici, Brazil, Journal of Archaoelogical Science, volume 58, pages 46-61, DOI:10.1016/j.jas.2015.03.017.

2014

• Iriarte J. (2014) Appendix 4: Phytolith Analysis of Sites LU-69 and PU-165, The Teleoscopic Polity, Springer International Publishing, 351-359, DOI:10.1007/978-3-319-03128-6_15. [PDF]
• Iriarte J. (2014) Prof. Jose Iriarte webpage.
• Iriarte J. (2014) Je Landscapes of Southern Brazil - University of Exeter webpage.
• Iriarte J. (2014) Je Landscapes of Southern Brazil Facebook page.
• Iriarte J. (2014) Urubici: 700 anos de história. 2014. Semana de Ecoturismo da Serra Catarinense.
• Carson JF, Whitney BS, Mayle FE, Iriarte J, Prümers H, Soto JD, Watling J. (2014) Reply to Silva: Dynamic human–vegetation–climate interactions at forest ecotones during the late-Holocene in lowland South America, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, volume 111, no. 37, DOI:10.1073/pnas.1413867111. [PDF]
• Mayle FE, Iriarte J. (2014) Integrated palaeoecology and archaeology – a powerful approach for understanding pre-Columbian Amazonia, Journal of Archaeological Science, volume 51, pages 54-64, DOI:10.1016/j.jas.2012.08.038. [PDF]
• Carson JF, Whitney B, Mayle RE, Iriarte J, Prumers H, Watling J. (2014) Environmental impact of geometric earthwork construction in pre-Columbian Amazonia, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences India Section B - Biological Sciences, volume 111, pages 10947-10502, DOI:10.1073/pnas.1321770111.

2013

• Dickau R, Whitney BS, Iriarte J, Mayle FE, Soto JD, Metcalfe P, Street-Perrott FA, Loader NJ, Ficken KJ, Killeen TJ. (2013) Differentiation of neotropical ecosystems by modern soil phytolith assemblages and its implications for palaeoenvironmental and archaeological reconstructions, Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, volume 193, pages 15-37, DOI:10.1016/j.revpalbo.2013.01.004. [PDF]
• Watling J, Iriarte J. (2013) Phytoliths from the coastal savannas of French Guiana, Quaternary International, volume 287, pages 162-180, DOI:10.1016/j.quaint.2012.10.030.

2012

• Iriarte J, Dickau R. (2012) AS CULTURAS DO MILHO? ARQUEOBOTÂNICA DAS SOCIEDADES HIDRÁULICAS DAS TERRAS BAIXAS SUL-AMERICANAS, Amazônica - Revista de Antropologia, volume 4, no. 1, pages 30-30, DOI:10.18542/amazonica.v4i1.879. [PDF]
• Dillehay TD, Bonavia D, Goodbred S, Pino M, Vasquez V, Tham TR, Conklin W, Splitstoser J, Piperno D, Iriarte J. (2012) Chronology, mound-building and environment at Huaca Prieta, Coastal Peru, from 13 700 to 4000 years ago, Antiquity, volume 86, no. 331, pages 48-70, DOI:10.1017/S0003598X00062451.
• Whitney BS, Rushton EC, Carson JF, Iriarte J, Mayle FE. (2012) An improved methodology for the recovery of Zea mays and other large crop pollen, with implications for environmental archaeology in the Neotropics, The Holocene: a major interdisciplinary journal focusing on recent environmental change, volume 22, pages 1087-1096, DOI:10.1177/0959683612441842.
• Iriarte J, Power MJ, Rostain S, Mayle FE, Jones H, Watling J, Whitney BS, McKey DB. (2012) Fire-free land use in pre-1492 Amazonian savannas, Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, volume 109, no. 17, pages 6473-6478, DOI:10.1073/pnas.1201461109. [PDF]

2010

• Iriarte J, Glaser B, Watling J, Wainwright A, Birk JJ, Renard D, Rostain S, Mckey D. (2010) Late Holocene Neotropical agricultural landscapes: phytolith and stable carbon isotope analysis of raised fields from French Guianan coastal savannahs, JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SCIENCE, volume 37, no. 12, pages 2984-2994, DOI:10.1016/j.jas.2010.06.016. [PDF]
• McKey D, Rostain S, Iriarte J, Glaser B, Birk JJ, Holst I, Renard D. (2010) Pre-Columbian agricultural landscapes, ecosystem engineers, and self-organized patchiness in Amazonia, Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, volume 107, no. 17, pages 7823-7828, DOI:10.1073/pnas.0908925107. [PDF]

2009

• Piperno DR. (2009) Rethinking Agriculture: Archaeological and Ethnoarchaeological Perspectives. Tim Denham , José Iriarte , Luc Vrydaghs, Journal of Anthropological Research, volume 65, no. 2, pages 348-350, DOI:10.1086/jar.65.2.25608218. [PDF]
• Iriarte J. (2009) Narrowing the gap: Exploring the diversity of early food producing economies in the Americas, Current Anthropology, volume 50, no. 5, pages 677-680, DOI:10.1086/605493.
• Piperno DR, Ranere AJ, Holst I, Iriarte J, Dickau R. (2009) Starch grain and phytolith evidence for early ninth millennium B.P. maize from the Central Balsas River Valley, Mexico, Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, volume 106, no. 13, pages 5019-5024, DOI:10.1073/pnas.0812525106. [PDF]
• Iriarte J, Alonso E. (2009) Phytolith Analysis of selected native plants and modern soils from southeastern Uruugay and its implications for paleoenvironmental and archaeological reconstruction, Quaternary International, volume 193, pages 99-123, DOI:10.1016/j.quaint.2007.10.008.

2008

• Iriarte J, Holst I, Marozzi O, Listotad C, Alonso E, Rinderknecht A, Montaña J. (2008) Commentary on "Mounds from the Merin lagoon basin: Time, space and society", Latin American Antiquity, volume 19, no. 3, pages 317-324, DOI:10.1017/s1045663500007975.
• Iriarte J, Gillam C, Marozzi O. (2008) Monumental burials and memorial feasting: An example from the southern Brazilian highlands, Antiquity, volume 82, pages 947-961.

2007

• Denham, T., Iriarte J, Vrydaghs, L.. (2007) Rethinking Agriculture: Archaeological and Ethnoarchaeological Perspectives, Left Coast Press.
• Iriarte, J.. (2007) New perspectives on early plant domestication and the development of agriculture in the Americas, Rethinking Agriculture: Archaeological and Ethnoarchaeological Perspectives, Left Coast Press, 167-188.
• Piperno DR, Moreno E, Iriarte J, Holst I, Lachinett M, Jones JG, Ranere A, Castanzo R. (2007) Late Pleistocene and Holocene environmental history of the Iguala Valley, Central Balsas Watershed of Mexico, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, volume 104, no. 29, pages 874-11881, DOI:10.1073/pnas.0703442104.
• Iriarte, J.. (2007) Emerging food-production systems in the La Plata Basin: The Los Ajos site, Rethinking Agriculture: Archaeological and Ethnoarchaeological Perspectives, Left Coast Press.
• Iriarte J, Behling H. (2007) The expansion of Araucaria forest in the southern Brazilian highlands during the last 4000 years and its implications for the development of the Taquara / Itarare Tradition, Environmental Archaeology, volume 12, no. 2, pages 115-127, DOI:10.1179/174963107x226390.

2006

• Iriarte J. (2006) Landscape transformation, mounded villages, and adopted cultigens: the rise of early Formative communities in south-eastern Uruguay, World Archaeology, volume 38, no. 4, pages 644-663, DOI:10.1080/00438240600963262.
• Iriarte, J.. (2006) Vegetation and climatic change since 14,810 14 C yr BP in southeastern Uruguay and its implications for the rise of early Formative societies, Quaternary Research, volume 65, no. 1, pages 20-32, DOI:10.1016/j.yqres.2005.05.005.

2004

• Iriarte J, Holst I, Listopad C, Marozzi O. (2004) Evidence for cultivar adoption and emerging complexity during the Mid-Holocene in the La Plata Basin, Nature, volume 432, no. 7017, pages 614-617, DOI:10.1038/nature02983.

2003

• Iriarte J. (2003) Assessing the feasibility of identifying maize through the analysis of cross-shape size and three-dimensional morphology in the grasslands of Southeastern South America, Journal of Archaeological Science, volume 30, pages 1085-1094, DOI:10.1016/S0305-4403(02)00164-4.

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Teaching

Modules taught

• ARC2123 - Sustainability and Collapse in Past Societies
• ARC2512 - Palaeobotany
• ARC3512 - Palaeobotany

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Biography

Prof.  Iriarte did his Licenciatura Degree in Archaeology at the Universidad de la Republica, Montevideo, Uruguay. After that, he pursued his Ph.D. sponsored by Fulbright Comission at University of Kentucky (USA) under the advisory of Dr. Tom Dillehay.

His dissertation, entitled "The Transforming Landscape of the Mid-Holocene and the Social Construction of Early Formative Communities in Southeastern Uruguay, La Plata Basin", was framed as a multidisciplinary study integrating both archaeological and paleoenvironmental data including phytolith, pollen, starch grain, and faunal analyses to investigate human-environment interactions and the emergence of cultural complexity.

Before joining the Department of Archaeology at Exeter, Dr Iriarte carried out a post-Doctoral Fellowship at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute where he participated as phytolith analyst for the project "Environmental and agricultural history in the central Balsas watershed" directed by Dolores Piperno.

Honorary Positions:
Honorary Research Associate, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama

Memberships of Societies and Professional Bodies:
Member of the Society for American Archaeology
Member of the World Archaeological Congress
Member of the Society for Phytolith Research
Member of Grupo de Estudios Fitolíticos Aplicados del Cono Sur
Member of the Sociedad de Arqueología Uruguaya
Serve on the NERC Peer Review College

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