Gregory Zaro

Associate Professor of Anthropology and Climate Change
Anthropology

Professional Interests

Gregory Zaro’s interests broadly relate to the interplay between humans and the environment with an emphasis on urban and agricultural landscape change. As an archaeologist, he has worked in Mesoamerica (Belize), Andean South America (Peru), and the Mediterranean (Croatia). His current work in the Mediterranean seeks to articulate ancient, historic, and modern records as they relate to contemporary issues of urbanization, land use, and resilience in the twenty-first century.

Čelhar, M., and G. Zaro (2025). The birth of a city: Millennial-scale spatial organization in the Iron Age hillfort of Nadin-Gradina, Northern Dalmatia (Croatia). In The Unclassical Balkans: Ancient Societies and Cultures of the Balkan Peninsula beside the Graeco-Roman World, edited by F. Milivojević, V. Sarakinski, and J. Tzvetkova. Živa Antika / Antiquité Vivante, Editiones Singulares XI, Skopje 2025, pp. 167-210.

Countryman, J., G. Zaro, A. Blaće, and M. Čelhar (2024). Feral fields of Northern Dalmatia (Croatia). In Finding Fields: The Archaeology of Agricultural Landscapes, edited by M. McLeester and J. Casana, Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association (AP3A), pp. 94-105. https://doi.org/10/1111/apaa.12190

Zaro, G., A. Blaće, J. Baraka Perica, M. Čelhar, F. Jurković Pešić, and K. Gusar (2023). Fleeting fields of Zadar (Croatia): Characterizing millennial-scale urban landcover change, green space, and resilience into the twenty first century. Front. Ecol. Evol. 11:12221730. https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2023.1221730

Zaro, G., K. Gusar, and M. Čelhar (2020). On the edge of empires: Exploring an Ottoman legacy on the Venetian frontier. Journal of Field Archaeology DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00934690.2019.1706141

Zaro, G. and M. Čelhar (2018). Landscape as legacy in northern Dalmatia. In Landscapes of Southeastern Europe, by L. Mirosevic, G. Zaro, M. Katic, and D. Birt (eds.), pp. 49-67. Lit Verlag, Berlin-London_Munster-Wien-Zurich.

Zaro, Gregory (2014). From terraces to trees: Ancient and historical landscape changes in southern Peru. In Landesque Capital: The Historical Ecology of Enduring Landscape Modifications, edited by N. Thomas Håkansson and Mats Widgren, pp. 232-250. Left Coast Press, Walnut Creek, CA.

Zaro, Gregory, K. Nystrom, and D. Keefer (2013). Environmental catastrophe and the archaeological record: Complexities of volcanism, floods, and farming in south coastal Peru, A.D. 1200-1700. Andean Past 11:233-262.

Zaro, Gregory and B. Houk (2012). The growth and decline of the ancient Maya city of La Milpa, Belize: New data and new perspectives from the southern plazas. Ancient Mesoamerica, 23:143-159.

Houk, Brett A. and Gregory Zaro (2011). Evidence for ritual engineering in the Late/Terminal Classic site plan of La Milpa, Belize. Latin American Antiquity, 22:178-198.

Zaro, Gregory, K.C. Nystrom, A. Umire-Alvarez, A. Bar, and A. Miranda (2010). Tierras Olvidadas: Chiribaya landscape engineering and marginality in southern Peru. Latin American Antiquity 21(4):355-374.

Zaro, Gregory, H. Builth, C. Rivera, J. Roldán, and G. Suvires (2008). Landscape evolution and human agency: Archaeological case studies from drylands in western South America and Australia. Chungará, Revista de Antropología Chilena 40, Número Especial: 261-271.

Zaro, Gregory (2007). Diversity specialists: Coastal resource management and historical contingency in the Osmore Desert of southern Peru. Latin American Antiquity 18(2): 161-179.

Zaro, Gregory and Adán Umire-Alvarez (2005). Late Chiribaya agriculture and risk management along the arid Andean coast of southern Peru, A.D. 1200-1400. Geoarchaeology: An International Journal 20(7): 717-737.

Zaro, Gregory and Jon C. Lohse (2005). Agricultural rhythms and rituals: Ancient Maya solar observation in hinterland Blue Creek, northwestern Belize. Latin American Antiquity 16(1): 81-98

Areas of Expertise

Andean South America
Archaeology
Geography
Mediterannean
Mesoamerica
Urbanization

Education

Ph.D., Anthropology, University of New Mexico, 2005
M.A., Anthropology, University of Chicago, 1998
B.A., Spanish, University of Texas at Austin, 1994
Portrait of Gregory Zaro
Associate Professor of Anthropology and Climate Change