Publications
Find the books, dissertations, MA theses, articles, and book chapters covering the Aventura Archaeology Project.
Books
Households Resilience at Aventura: Life in an Ancestral Maya City
edited by Cynthia Robin
currently under review at University of Colorado Press
Household Resilience at Aventura builds upon a decade of archaeological research at the ancestral Maya City of Aventura in Belize to understand life in the city. The book showcases the importance of community collaboration in archaeology. The contributors examine how Aventura’s residents were resilient and navigated periods of drought and political crisis. In its breadth, the volume uses archaeology to illuminate how people can create resilient households and communities.
Dissertations
Grauer, Kacey C. 2021. "Ontologies, Ecologies, and Inequalities: Human-Environment Relationships at the Ancient Maya City of Aventura, Belize." PhD dissertation, Northwestern University.
Nissen, Zachary A. 2022. "Urban Commoners, Inequality, and the Longevity of an Ancient Maya City, Aventura, Belize." PhD dissertation, Northwestern University.
MA THESES
Kinney, Emily G. 2024. “Environment, Equality, and Economy: Zooarchaeological Perspectives from the Ancient Maya Community of Aventura, Belize.” MA thesis, Washington State University.
Articles and book chapters
Beardall, Antonio, Cynthia Robin, and Anabel Ford. In press. “Community Archaeology in Belize,” In “The Center and the Edge": How the Archaeology of Belize is Foundational for Understanding the Ancient Maya, ed. J. J. Awe and A. F. Chase. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, Gainesville.
Gauer, Kacey C. 2023. “Challenges with and Possibilities of an Archaeology of and for Environmental Justice: Reflections from Aventura, Belize. SAA Archaeology Record 23(2).
Grauer, Kacey C. 2021. "Heterarchical Political Ecology: Commoner and Elite (Meta) Physical Access to Water at the Ancient Maya City of Aventura, Belize." Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 62: 101301.
Grauer, Kacey C. 2020. "Active Environments: Relational Ontologies of Landscape at the Ancient Maya City of Aventura, Belize." Journal of Social Archaeology 20(1): 74-94.
Grauer, Kacey C., Zachary A. Nissen, Gabriela Dziki, Martin Menz, Laura Kosakowsky, and Cynthia Robin. 2020. “Household Excavations at Aventura, A Northern Belize Civic Center.” Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology 17: 81-91.
Hauser, Mark W., and Kacey C. Grauer. 2026. "Don’t Forget to Ask Your Local Archaeologist: Water Security’s Material Record." PLOS Water 5(6): e0000558.
Nissen, Zachary A., Kacey C. Grauer, Gabriela Dziki, Hannah Hoover, Erin Niles, Debra Walker, Anna Moles, and Cynthia Robin. 2023. “Situating Households within an Urban Community: Recent Research at Aventura, An Ancient Maya City.” Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology 18: 257-264.
Robin, Cynthia. 2023. “Settlement, Agriculture, and Environment at Aventura, Belize: Results of New LiDAR Research.” Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology 18: 245-255.
Robin, Cynthia. 2020. “The Role of Northern Belize in Shaping Maya Archaeology.” Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology 17: 3-16.
Robin, Cynthia, Laura Kosakowsky, and Kacey C. Grauer. 2016. “Introducing the Aventura Site” Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology 13: 287-294.
Robin, Cynthia, Kacey Grauer, and Zachary Nissen. 2025. “Household Resilience: Results of the 2022 and 2023 Research at Aventura.” Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology 19: 83-95.
Robin, Cynthia, Laura Kosakowsky, Kacey C. Grauer, and Zachary A. Nissen. 2018. “Community Archaeology at Aventura: Archaeology about Communities and Archaeology for Communities, Results of the 2016 Field Season” Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology 15: 319-328.
Robin, Cynthia, Laura Kosakowsky, Kacey C. Grauer, Zachary A. Nissen, and Kat Fitzgerald. 2019. “Aventura in a Northern Belize Context: Challenging Traditional Narratives of Ancient Maya Civilization.” Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology 16: 227-236.
Robin, Cynthia, Laura Kosakowsky, Kacey C. Grauer, Zachary A. Nissen, and Melissa Jones. 2017. “Urban Design, Its Anteceedents and Successors, at Aventura: Results of the 2015 Field Season.” Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology 14: 167-176.
Sarmiento, Abigail, Yahaira Montejo, Zachary A. Nissen, Betty Novelo, Beresford Awardo, Andres Novelo, Antonio Beardall, Kacey C. Grauer, Zachary Nissen, and Cynthia Robin. In prep. “Community Archaeology at Aventura: Education, Outreach, and Relationship Building in the Corozal District of Belize” for special issue on Community Archaeology in Belize in The Mayanist.