The Chases featured in Inside Higher Ed

Drs. Arlen and Diane Chase were recently featured in an article in Inside Higher Ed.

When Arlen and Diane Chase first came to Caracol in 1983, the city was completely covered by Belizean jungle. Very little of what we now know about Caracol was known then – that it had defeated the mighty Tikal in battle, that at its peak its population had exceeded 100,000, or that its collapse may be partly attributable to the concentration of wealth and a growing divide between haves and have-nots.

In more than 25 years of research, the Chases, husband-and-wife anthropologists at the University of Central Florida, have pieced together what Diane describes as “a much more complete story about Caracol,” one of the largest Maya cities. Through stable isotope analysis they can tell you what Caracol’s residents ate — which residents had a high-maize, high-protein diet, and which didn’t — and they can also tell you how the relatively uniform distribution of pottery suggests a strong sense of shared identity across social classes.

Read more of the article here.