Melissa Burham
About Melissa Burham
I am an anthropological archaeologist interested in the emergence of social complexity, urbanization, and community development in ancient Maya society, particularly during the Preclassic period (ca. 1000 BC-AD 300). I was a member of the Ceibal-Petexbatún Archaeological Project, directed by Takeshi Inomata and Daniela Triadan, from 2010 to 2018, and I received my Ph.D. from the University of Arizona in 2019. My dissertation research focused on the incipient development of neighborhoods and urbanism at the lowland Maya site of Ceibal, Guatemala, and how these groups influenced the larger sociopolitical order. I have also conducted research on water management and aguadas (reservoirs) as adaptations to urban environments. As a postdoctoral researcher, I am currently undertaking a project that focuses on the transition from the Preceramic to Preclassic periods (ca. 1000 BCE) in the Ceibal area, which will aid in understanding the adoption of a sedentism in the Maya lowlands and Mesoamerica more broadly.
Publications
Burham, Melissa
2023 Becoming an Intermediate Elite: Ritual Cooperation and Urbanization at Late Preclassic Ceibal. The Mayanist 4(2): 1-20.
Burham, Melissa
2022 Sacred Sites for Suburbanites: Organic Urban Growth and Neighborhood Formation at Preclassic Ceibal, Guatemala. Journal of Field Archaeology 47(4):262-283. DOI: 10.1080/00934690.2022.2052583
Burham, Melissa, Takeshi Inomata, Daniela Triadan, and Jessica MacLellan
2020 Ritual Practice, Urbanism, and Sociopolitical Organization at Preclassic Ceibal, Guatemala. In Approaches to Monumental Landscape of the Ancient Maya, edited by Brett A. Houk, Barbara Arroyo, and Terry G. Powis, pp 61-84. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.
MacLellan, Jessica, Melissa Burham, and María Belén Mendez Bauer
2020 Community Engagement around the Maya Archaeological Site of Ceibal, Guatemala. Heritage 3(3):637-648.
Ashley E. Sharpe, Takeshi Inomata, Daniela Triadan, Melissa Burham, Jessica MacLellan, Jessica Munson, and Flory Pinzón
2020 The Maya Preclassic to Classic Transition Observed through Faunal Trends from Ceibal, Guatemala. PLoS ONE 15(5): e0233193. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0233193
Inomata, Takeshi, Daniela Triadan, Flory Pinzón, Melissa Burham, José Luis Ranchos, Kazuo Aoyama and Tsuyoshi Haraguchi
2018 Archaeological Application of Airborne LiDAR to Examine Social Changes in the Ceibal Region of the Maya lowlands. PLoS ONE 13(2): e0191619.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0191619
Triadan, Daniela, Victor Castillo, Takehsi Inomata, Juan Manuel Palomo, María Belén Méndez, Mónica
Cortave, Jessica MacLellan, Melissa Burham, and Erick Ponciano
2017 Power and Social Relations in a Middle Preclassic Community: Elite Residential Complexes at Ceibal. Ancient Mesoamerica 28(1): 233-264.
Inomata, Takeshi, Daniela Triadan, Jessica MacLellan, Melissa Burham, Kazuo Aoyama,
Juan Manuel Palomo, Hitoshi Yonenobu, Flory Pinzónd, and Hiroo Nasu
2017 High-Precision Radiocarbon Dating of Political Collapse and Dynastic Origins at the Maya Site of Ceibal, Guatemala. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 114(6): 1293–1298.
Inomata, Takeshi, Jessica MacLellan and Melissa Burham
2015 The Construction of Public and Domestic Spheres in the Preclassic Maya Lowlands. American Anthropologist 117(3): 519-534.
Burham, Melissa and Jessica MacLellan
2014 Thinking Outside the Plaza: Ritual Practices in Preclassic Maya Residential Groups at Ceibal,
Guatemala. Antiquity Project Gallery. https://www.antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/burham340
Areas of Study
Maya, Mesoamerica
Projects
Ceibal-Petexbatun Archaeological Project, Ceibal-Petexbatun Archaeological Project, Phase 2
Research Interests
the Preclassic and Classic Maya, urbanization, transition to sedentism, social complexity, pottery, GIS