About

Amber VanDerwarker is a professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her research encompasses a variety of methods, regions, and themes that revolve around the relationship between humans and food in the New World. She employs archaeobotany and zooarchaeology, with a lab set up for the analysis of macro plant remains, starch grains, phytoliths, and faunal remains. Her focus areas include Mesoamerica and the Eastern United States, and she also trains students working in California and South America. Her research interests include New World Archaeology in Mexico and the Southeastern United States, Middle Range Societies, Political Economy, Gender Studies, Warfare, Subsistence Strategies, Zooarchaeology, Paleoethnobotany, Prehistoric Foodways, Agriculture, Human Ecology, and Environmental Archaeology. Her work explores themes such as the development of socio-political complexity, agricultural intensification, social identity and feasting, gender, the effects of warfare on food systems, and exploratory data analysis.

Research topics

• Geography
• Archaeology
• Biology
• Ecology
• Computer Science
• Sociology
• Mathematics
• Demography
• Geology
• Environmental planning
• Business
• Environmental resource management
• Botany
• Environmental science
• Geomorphology
• Forestry
• Genetics

Selected publications

• Early evidence of avocado domestication from El Gigante Rockshelter, Honduras

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2025-03-03 · 3 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Molecular research suggests that avocados ( Persea americana Mill.) were domesticated multiple times in the Americas. Seed exchange, hybridization, and cloning have played an essential role across their wild distribution from Mexico to South America to create the modern varieties of today. Archaeological sites with well-preserved and directly radiocarbon-dated botanical assemblages are rare, however, so we know very little about the complexities of the domestication process. Here, we define an early locus of avocado domestication using well-dated desiccated and carbonized avocado remains from El Gigante rockshelter in western Honduras spanning the last 11,000 y. Measurements of avocado seeds and rinds show evidence for long-term management resulting in selection for larger, more robust fruits through time that culminated by 2,250 to 2,080 calendar B.P. (cal. B.P.). However, human-directed selection for larger fruits with thicker rinds is evident as early as 7,565 to 7,265 cal. B.P. Seed morphology is similar to P. americana var. guatemalensis and is congruent with genetic data for the development of this variety in both the highlands of Guatemala and Honduras. Increases in seed size and rind thickness through time are consistent with genetic evidence for the enrichment of putative candidate genes for fruit development and ripening in this variety.

  PublisherDOI

• The Olmec Diet

  Oxford University Press eBooks · 2025-11-19

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract Studies of Olmec diet began in the 1970s, when archaeobiological remains were just beginning to be systematically collected. Our understanding of Olmec diet has grown considerably since the publication of these early studies to include questions concerning the relationship between diet and the environment, economy, and sociopolitics. The Olmec are notable for their use of multiple dietary strategies, (e.g. farming, hunting, foraging) and food preferences. This chapter synthesizes the extant plant and animal data available for the Initial, Early, and Middle Formative periods throughout the Olmec Gulf Coastal region. We conclude by making recommendations for augmenting the dietary database in future studies.

  PublisherDOI

• War, Power, History:

  University of Arizona Press eBooks · 2025-06-17

  book-chapterSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Sexual harassment in archaeology

  2024-11-19 · 2 citations

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  Anthropologists have long noted the presence of sexual violence in field experiences and in their learning and work environments. While sexual violence—sexual harassment or sexual assault—has been a constant, how it has been understood as part of the discipline's methodological engagements in the field, and in professional and teaching environments has changed in significant ways in the past ten years. This chapter traces the ways that anthropologists (from the subfields of sociocultural, archaeology, and biological anthropology) worked to reconceptualize sexual violence away from a too easy interpersonal framework that concealed our shared disciplinary responsibility for sexual violence's persistence. It highlights the tools that anthropologists used to shed light on different forms of structural inequity and persistent institutional tolerance: #MeToo activism, reframing of field methods, and the development of new disciplinary association policies and practices. Recent survey research in American archaeology clearly demonstrates that sexual and gender-based harassment and assault have been experienced at high rates by women, non-binary genders, and underrepresented minorities across multiple professional settings. The suite of harmful behaviors under the umbrella of harassment has led to a loss of diverse participants and perspectives in archaeology, as well as creating major problems related to field safety, especially as it concerns students pursuing opportunities in foreign locales. This chapter synthesizes the results of the published surveys, reviews recent research aimed at improving field safety, and outlines a trajectory for future research related to harassment and field safety in archaeology.

  PublisherDOI

• Archaeobotanical evidence supports indigenous cucurbit long-term use in the Mesoamerican Neotropics

  Scientific Reports · 2024-05-13 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access

  The squash family (Cucurbitaceae) contains some of the most important crops cultivated worldwide and has played an important ecological, economic, and cultural role for millennia. In the American tropics, squashes were among the first cultivated crop species, but little is known about how their domestication unfolded. Here, we employ direct radiocarbon dating and morphological analyses of desiccated cucurbit seeds, rinds, and stems from El Gigante Rockshelter in Honduras to reconstruct human practices of selection and cultivation of Lagenaria siceraria, Cucurbita pepo, and Cucurbita moschata. Direct radiocarbon dating indicates that humans started using Lagenaria and wild Cucurbita starting ~ 10,950 calendar years before present (cal B.P.), primarily as watertight vessels and possibly as cooking and drinking containers. A rind directly dated to 11,150-10,765 cal B.P. represents the oldest known bottle gourd in the Americas. Domesticated C. moschata subsequently appeared ~ 4035 cal B.P., followed by domesticated C. pepo ~ 2190 cal B.P. associated with increasing evidence for their use as food crops. Multivariate statistical analysis of seed size and shape show that the archaeological C. pepo assemblage exhibits significant variability, representing at least three varieties: one similar to present-day zucchini, another like present-day vegetable marrow, and a native cultivar without modern analogs. Our archaeobotanical data supports the hypothesis that Indigenous cucurbit use started in the Early Holocene, and that agricultural complexity during the Late Holocene involved selective breeding that encouraged crop diversification.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Hunting, fishing, and foraging in times of conflict: the implications of choosing safety in the Mississippian Central Illinois River Valley

  Southeastern Archaeology · 2024-11-12

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Trans–Holocene Bayesian chronology for tree and field crop use from El Gigante rockshelter, Honduras

  PLoS ONE · 2023 · 7 citations

  • Archaeology
  • Geography
  • Biology

  El Gigante rockshelter in western Honduras provides a deeply stratified archaeological record of human-environment interaction spanning the entirety of the Holocene. Botanical materials are remarkably well preserved and include important tree (e.g., ciruela (Spondias), avocado (Persea americana)) and field (maize (Zea mays), beans (Phaseolus), and squash (Cucurbita)) crops. Here we provide a major update to the chronology of tree and field crop use evident in the sequence. We report 375 radiocarbon dates, a majority of which are for short-lived botanical macrofossils (e.g., maize cobs, avocado seeds, or rinds). Radiocarbon dates were used in combination with stratigraphic details to establish a Bayesian chronology for ~9,800 identified botanical samples spanning the last 11,000 years. We estimate that at least 16 discrete intervals of use occurred during this time, separated by gaps of ~100-2,000 years. The longest hiatus in rockshelter occupation was between ~6,400 and 4,400 years ago and the deposition of botanical remains peaked at ~2,000 calendar years before present (cal BP). Tree fruits and squash appeared early in the occupational sequence (~11,000 cal BP) with most other field crops appearing later in time (e.g., maize at ~4,400 cal BP; beans at ~2,200 cal BP). The early focus on tree fruits and squash is consistent with early coevolutionary partnering with humans as seed dispersers in the wake of megafaunal extinction in Mesoamerica. Tree crops predominated through much of the Holocene, and there was an overall shift to field crops after 4,000 cal BP that was largely driven by increased reliance on maize farming.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Reconstructing Middle Horizon Camelid Diets and Foddering Practices: Microbotanical and Isotope Analyses of Dental Remains from Quilcapampa, Peru

  Latin American Antiquity · 2023 · 14 citations

  • Ecology
  • Biology
  • Geography

  Abstract This study uses isotope and microbotanical data from the analysis of teeth and dental calculus to investigate camelid diet and foddering practices at Quilcapampa (AD 835–900). By providing taxonomically specific evidence of foods consumed, botanical data from dental calculus complement the more general impressions of photosynthetic pathways obtained through isotopic analysis. Results suggest that the camelid diet incorporated maize ( Zea mays ), algarrobo ( Prosopis sp.), potato chuño ( Solanum sp.), and other resources. The life-history profile of one camelid (Individual 3) reveals dietary change from mainly C 3 plants to more C 4 plant contributions as the animal aged. This pattern is supported by carbonate isotope results indicating that this individual spent its youth in the mid-valley ecozone before becoming more mobile later in life. As this life-history example shows, isotopic and microbotanical analyses are complementary approaches, clarifying a pattern of seasonal transhumance that linked the lives of humans and animals along the Middle Horizon (AD 600–1000) caravan networks that crisscrossed the central Andes.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Deer, drought, and warfare: Managing risk in the central Illinois river valley (CIRV) from the eleventh through fourteenth centuries

  Quaternary International · 2023 · 6 citations

  • Archaeology
  • Geography
  • Ecology

  We investigated how Mississippian residents of the Central Illinois River Valley (CIRV) altered their hunting strategies in response to climate change and warfare in the 13th and 14th centuries. The CIRV, located in west-central Illinois just north of Greater Cahokia, was characterized by optimal climatic conditions in the 11th and 12th centuries, followed by centuries of drought and warfare. We integrated paleoclimatic reconstructions and evidence of violence with bone collagen and apatite isotopic analyses on white-tailed deer remains to investigate how CIRV residents minimized risks associated with white-tailed deer hunting. This is the first study in this region to effectively use δ13Capatite measurements to show the selective consumption of maize by white-tailed deer. Our results indicate that there were varied responses to climate change and conflict that were socially contingent upon community size. Notably, deer hunted by residents of Roskamp, occupied in the 13th century during the period of warfare, had highly elevated δ13Capatite values, demonstrating residents partook in garden hunting.

  PublisherDOI

• Between land and water: Hydraulic engineering in the Tlalixcoyan basin, Veracruz, Mexico

  Journal of Anthropological Archaeology · 2021 · 16 citations

  • Computer Science
  • Geography
  • Archaeology
  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Collaborative Research: A Long Term Perspective on Agricultural Development

  NSF · $39k · 2018–2021

Frequent coauthors

• Gregory D. Wilson

  University of California, Santa Barbara

  9 shared

• Tanya M. Peres

  Florida State University

  7 shared

• Dana N. Bardolph

  Northern Illinois University

  6 shared

• Douglas J. Kennett

  5 shared

• Logan Kistler

  National Museum of Natural History

  5 shared

• Steven R. Kuehn

  Illinois Archaeological Survey

  4 shared

• Heather B. Thakar

  Texas A&M University

  4 shared

• Christopher A. Pool

  4 shared