Regionally, my focus is on the archaeology of Middle and South America, where I study stone sculpture practices, monumental architecture, and mound building, alongside the potential for interregional networks of contact. Theoretically, I engage with thinking on material culture in, and through, regional archaeological field research, including survey and excavation, as well as in museum settings. I am also concerned with critically examining contemporary heritage dynamics involving both archaeological objects and the archaeological process itself.
Alexander Geurds is Associate Professor and Senior Researcher in the School of Archaeology and Associate Professor in the Faculty of Archaeology at Leiden University. He also holds a position as Assistant Professor Adjunct at the University of Colorado (Boulder) and currently serves as Academic Director of the Netherlands Research School for Archaeology ARCHON. He is the founding editor of the book series ‘The Early Americas: History and Culture’ at Brill Publishers.
Alexander is a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Society and a National Geographic Society Explorer. His research in parts of Central America is consistently supported by external grants, including three National Geographic grants. After obtaining several grant from the Netherlands Organisation of Scientific Research (NWO Rubicon, Veni), his current grants are:
Networked practices of contact: Cultural identity at the Late Prehistoric settlement of Aguas Buenas, Nicaragua, AD 500‐1522 (NWO-2013- 276-60-001
The Linguistic Past of Mesoamerica and the Andes: A search for early migratory relations between North and South America (ERC-2013-AvG 295918-MesoAndLin(g)k)
The Valley of Juigalpa, Mayales River Subbasin Microregion (Chontales, Nicaragua) Date List II
Donner, NR, GEURDS, A
October 2020
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Journal article
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Radiocarbon: an international journal of cosmogenic isotope research
Brown, M. Kathryn & George J.Bey III (eds). Pathways to complexity: a view from the Maya Lowlands. xiv, 511 pp., maps, figs, tables, illus., bibliogr. Gainesville: Univ. Press of Florida, 2018. £95.50 (cloth)
Geurds, A
June 2020
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Journal article
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Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
Geochemical and petrographic assessment of clay outcrops and archaeological ceramics from the pre-Hispanic site of Aguas Buenas (cal 400–1250 CE), central Nicaragua
Casale, S, Donner, NR, Braekmans, D, GEURDS, A
April 2020
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Journal article
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Microchemical Journal
Uses of pre-Hispanic kitchenware from Central Nicaragua: implications for understanding botanical foodways
GEURDS, A, Ciofalo, A, Donner, NR, Hofman, CL
January 2020
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Journal article
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Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences
Review of Harrison-Buck, Eleanor & Julia A. Hendon (eds). Relational identities and other-than-human agency in archaeology