Nicholas Poister

PhD Candidate, University of New Mexico, present

MA, California State University, Los Angeles, 2015

BA, California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, 2003

Nicholas is an archaeologist with a broad range of interests including (but not limited to): organic residues, instrumental neutron activation analysis, electron microprobe analysis, ceramic petrography, long-distance exchange, social network analysis, the sociopolitical structure of the Chaco world, Maya hieroglyphic writing, the archaeology of religion, the ritual use of caves and caverns in antiquity, and the precontact cultures of the US Southwest/Mexican Northwest, California, and Mesoamerica. He has participated in excavations in New Mexico’s Rio Grande Valley, the California Channel Islands, the Mojave Desert, and Central America. His master’s research involved a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry study of organic residues in ceramics from the celebrated cave site of Naj Tunich in Guatemala. He sought to demonstrate that the so-called “domestic” or “utility” wares from the site had a ritual function in the cave context, having been used in the ceremonial burning of copal incense. Nicholas was first lured to the Land of Enchantment by the mysteries of the more than 400 lava tube caves of the El Malpais volcanic fields outside of Grants. He spent six seasons documenting archaeological remains in these caves and on the surfaces of El Malpais and El Morro National Monuments as an archaeological technician for the National Park Service. Prior to this adventure, Nicholas worked for many years in the cultural resources consulting field. When he’s not spending time with the Maxwell Museum’s spectacular archaeological collections, Nicholas enjoys gradually but persistently working to complete his doctoral dissertation.