![Belize caracol](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/Belize_caracol.jpg)
Arlen F. Chase (born 1953) is a
Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area in southern North America and most of Central America. It extends from approximately central Mexico through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica ...
n
archaeologist and a faculty member in the anthropology department at Pomona College, Claremont CA. Previously, he was a professor at the
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is a public land-grant research university in Paradise, Nevada. The campus is about east of the Las Vegas Strip. It was formerly part of the University of Nevada from 1957 to 1969. It includes th ...
and served a variety of administrative roles (Departmental Chair for Anthropology; Associate Dean for the College of Sciences) at the
University of Central Florida
The University of Central Florida (UCF) is a public research university whose main campus is in unincorporated Orange County, Florida. UCF also has nine smaller regional campuses throughout central Florida. It is part of the State University ...
over the course of his 32 year stay at that institution. He is noted for his long-term research at the ancient Maya city of
Caracol
Caracol is a large ancient Maya archaeological site, located in what is now the Cayo District, of Belize. It is situated approximately south of Xunantunich, and the town of San Ignacio, and from the Macal River. It rests on the Vaca Plateau ...
, Belize and for exploring landscape traces of
Maya
Maya may refer to:
Civilizations
* Maya peoples, of southern Mexico and northern Central America
** Maya civilization, the historical civilization of the Maya peoples
** Maya language, the languages of the Maya peoples
* Maya (Ethiopia), a popul ...
civilization using
lidar.
Biography
Chase took his BA and PhD in Anthropology at the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
, and then worked in the University of Pennsylvania's advising office and anthropology department. After excavating at Grasshopper Pueblo in the American Southwest, his Mesoamerican fieldwork began with research stays at the site of Tancah in Mexico and at
Ixtutz,
Yaxha
Yaxha (or Yaxhá in Spanish orthography) is a Mesoamerican archaeological site in the northeast of the Petén Basin region, and a former ceremonial centre and city of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization. Yaxha was the third largest city in the reg ...
, and
Tayasal in Guatemala. He carried out early excavations in the Motagua Valley and at
Quirigua in Guatemala before moving to Belize to carry out investigations at Nolmul and in the
Orange Walk
Orange marches are a series of parades by members of the Orange Order and other Protestant fraternal societies, held during the summer months in various Commonwealth nations, most notably Ulster. The parades typically build up to 12 July ce ...
. From 1979 through 1985, he co-directed archaeological excavations at
Santa Rita, Corozal
Santa Rita is a Maya ruin and an archaeological reserve on the outskirts of Corozal, Belize. Historical evidence suggests that it was probably the ancient and important Maya city known as Chetumal.
Early history
Evidence excavated at Santa Ri ...
with his wife
Diane Z. Chase. In 1985, with his wife, he started the
Caracol
Caracol is a large ancient Maya archaeological site, located in what is now the Cayo District, of Belize. It is situated approximately south of Xunantunich, and the town of San Ignacio, and from the Macal River. It rests on the Vaca Plateau ...
Archaeological Project in western Belize, which is still on-going. The Chases have undertaken extensive excavations at this large Maya city, defining a sequence from the Preclassic through the Terminal Classic for Caracol and from the Preclassic through the Historic Periods for Santa Rita, Corozal. At Caracol, they have also worked to preserve the built structures in the urban complex as part of Belize's cultural heritage.
Chase moved to the University of Central Florida in 1984 and was there through 2016. He helped to transform that institution into one of the top American universities in the study of the Southern Lowland Maya. He and his wife have together published many peer reviewed articles and books on the subjects of
hieroglyphics
Egyptian hieroglyphs (, ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt, used for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with some 1,000 distinct characters.There were about 1,00 ...
, settlement patterns, ancient cities and urbanism, and ceramic studies of the
Maya
Maya may refer to:
Civilizations
* Maya peoples, of southern Mexico and northern Central America
** Maya civilization, the historical civilization of the Maya peoples
** Maya language, the languages of the Maya peoples
* Maya (Ethiopia), a popul ...
.
In 2016, he joined the anthropology department at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV).
In 2019, he began teaching at Pomona College.
Current research
Chase teamed with
University of Central Florida
The University of Central Florida (UCF) is a public research university whose main campus is in unincorporated Orange County, Florida. UCF also has nine smaller regional campuses throughout central Florida. It is part of the State University ...
biologist Dr John Weishampel to obtain a NASA Space Archaeology Program & UCF-UF Space Research Initiative grant to use
lidar (light radar) sensors to detect changes in the
rainforest canopy, reforestation patterns and modifications to archaeological sites. The lidar system was installed in an aircraft flown over
Caracol
Caracol is a large ancient Maya archaeological site, located in what is now the Cayo District, of Belize. It is situated approximately south of Xunantunich, and the town of San Ignacio, and from the Macal River. It rests on the Vaca Plateau ...
.
The system used laser beams that were projected to the ground, bounced back and were recorded. These recordings produced a detailed three dimension map of both the Forest canopy and the ruins of Caracol. The speed and precision of the system was far superior to traditional ground surveys. In a 2013 talk at the University of Minnesota, Arlen and Diane Chase talked about their most recent work at Caracol, including data generated by lidar.
Honors
* 2017 Presenters Excellence Award: 15 Years (2003-2017). Belize Archaeology Symposium.
*2013-2015 Distinguished Lecturer for Sigma Xi.
*2012 Named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
*2006-2008 Member, Board of Governors, State University System of Florida (Chair, Advisory Council of Faculty Senates).
* 2008 The Ben and Trudy Termini Distinguished Anthropologist Lecture, University of Texas, Arlington.
* 2007 Awarded the status of Pegasus Professor, UCF‟s highest faculty honor, for continued excellence inresearch, teaching, and service.
* 2007 Inducted into
Phi Kappa Phi
The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi (or simply Phi Kappa Phi or ) is an honor society established in 1897 to recognize and encourage superior scholarship without restriction as to area of study, and to promote the "unity and democracy of education ...
honor society.
* 1995–present Co-Beneficiary (with Diane Z. Chase) of the Trevor Colbourn Endowment (University of Central Florida).
* 1991 Samuel Kahn Distinguished Alumnus Award, Robert Louis Stevenson School, Pebble Beach, CA.
Bibliography
* 1985 Arlen F. Chase and Prudence M. Rice, Editors., ''The Lowland Maya Postclassic'', University of Texas Press, Austin, 352pp.+viii
* 2010 Arlen F. Chase, Diane Z. Chase, and John F. Weishampel, ''"Lasers in the Jungle: Airborne sensors reveal a vast Maya landscape."'' ''Archaeology'' 63(4):27-29.
Articles
* 2010 Weishampel, John F., Arlen F. Chase, Diane Z. Chase, Jason B. Drake, Ramesh L. Shrestha, K. Clint Slatton,Jaime J. Awe,Jessica Hightower, and James Angelo, ''"Remote Sensing of Ancient Maya Land Use Features at Caracol, Belize related to Tropical Rainforest Structure,"'' in S. Campna, M. Forte, and C. Liuzza, Eds., ''Space,Time, Place: Third International Conference on Remote Sensing in Archaeology'', pp. 45–52, British Archaeological Reports S2118, Archaeopress, Oxford, England.
* 2010 ''"A City Revealed."'', Prism, American Society for Engineering Education, September 2010, pg. 21.
* 2010 ''"Ils l'ont fait Une Cité Maya Cartographiée en Relief"'', Science & Vie, Juillet 2010, pg. 13.
* 2008 Arlen F. Chase and Diane Z. Chase, ''"Methodological Issues in the Archaeological Identification of the Terminal Classic and Postclassic Transition in the Maya Area,"'' Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology 5:23-36.
* 1985 Arlen F. Chase and Diane Z. Chase, ''"Postclassic Temporal and Spatial Frames for the Lowland Maya: A Background,"'' in A. Chase and P. Rice, Eds., The Lowland Maya Postclassic, pp. 9–22, University of Texas Press, Austin.
* 1993 John Nobel Wilford, ''"Mayans had a Middle Class, Too, Emerging Burial Artifacts Indicate."'', New York Times, Jan 5. 1993.
* 1989 Epstein, Nadine, ''"From a Remote Jungle Site, a Trail of Striking Clues."'', The Smithsonian, Vol 20(9): pp 99–113.
Referenced articles
* 2001 Arlen F. Chase and Diane Z. Chase, ''"Caracol,"'' in W. Fash, Ed., ''The Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures'', Vol. 1, pp. 143–145, Oxford University Press.
Peer reviewed articles
* 2012 Arlen F. Chase, Diane Z. Chase, Christopher T. Fisher, Stephen J. Leisz, and John F. Weishampel, ''“Geospatial Revolution and Remote Sensing LiDAR in Mesoamerican Archaeology,”'' Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109(32): 12916-2921.
* 2010 ''"Status and Power: Fiction and Reality in the Classic Maya World,"'' 8th Annual Belize Archaeology Symposium, San Ignacio Cayo, Belize (with D.Z. Chase – July).
* 2010 ''"Airborne LiDAR and Maya Landscape Archaeology: Viewing Status and Power from a Distance,"'' 8th Annual Belize Archaeology Symposium, San Ignacio Cayo, Belize (D.Z. Chase, A.F. Chase, J. Awe, and J.F. Weishampel – July).
* 2010 ''"Relationships between LiDAR-Derived Rainforest Canopy Structure and Ancient Maya Land Use Legacies around Caracol, Belize,"'' 25th Annual Meeting of the U.S. International Association of Landscape Ecology, Athens, Georgia (J.F. Weishampel, J.N. Hightower, J.J. Angelo, A. Matos, A.F. Chase, and D.Z. Chase - April).
* 2009 ''"Remote Sensing of Ancient Maya Land Use Features at Caracol, Belize Related to Tropical Rainforest Structure,"'' 3rd International Conference on Remote Sensing, Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu, India (J.F.Weishampel, A.F. Chase, D.Z. Chase, J.B. Drake, R.L. Shrestha, K.C. Slatton, J.J. Awe, J. Hightower,J. Angelo – August).
* 2008 ''"Elites, Symbolic Production, and Economic Distribution at Caracol, Belize,"'' 73rd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Vancouver, Canada (with D.Z. Chase – March).
References
*
*
External links
* http://www.caracol.org/
* https://web.archive.org/web/20160219045753/http://lidar.cr.usgs.gov/
* http://faculty.sfasu.edu/cecillg/Sites.html
* http://www.nichbelize.org/ia-general/archaeology-of-santa-rita.html
* http://www.bu.edu/holmul/
* https://web.archive.org/web/20120403172109/http://anthropology.cos.ucf.edu/content/people/viewPerson.html%26id%3D47%26group%3DFaculty
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chase, Arlen F.
American archaeologists
1953 births
Living people
American expatriates in Mexico
University of Pennsylvania alumni
Remote sensing archaeologists