People > Dr. Rodrigo Solinís-Casparius
Dr. Rodrigo Solinís-Casparius (alumni)
Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology
University of Illinois, Chicago
Dr. Solinis-Casparius practices landscape archaeology and focuses on the social implications in the development of urban layout of ancient cities. His research provides insight into how cities emerge, develop, were inhabited, and experienced by their residents, and the roles that movement through roads played during these processes. He incorporates digital technologies and remote sensing methods to identify, analyze, and simulate movement through ancient cities. For example, he studies the road network of the prehispanic city of Angamuco (250-1530 CE), located in the core-area of the Purépecha Empire (Lake Pátzcuaro Basin), Michoacán in Mexico. His other areas of research include urban development and micro-ecosystems, ethics of archaeological practice, cultural heritage, and community-based participatory research at mestizo and indigenous communities in Mexico. Rodrigo directs another two projects that include the use of digital methods in archaeology: a) virtual reconstructions of built environment (through LiDAR datasets), and b) the representation of indigenous knowledge in videogames.
On digital technologies in archaeology...
Archaeological research is greatly benefited from digital technologies, from making data recovery faster and effective in the field, to a more in-depth analysis in the lab. Dr. Solinis- Casparius is particularly interested in integrating spatial analysis (i.e. GIS and geographic network analysis), image analysis, and remote sensing (LiDAR) with other traditional lines of evidence in archaeology (survey and excavation) to study movement and urbanism in Mesoamerica.