Andrew Scherer is an anthropological archaeologist and biological anthropologist with a geographic focus in Mesoamerica (Maya). He co-directs an interdisciplinary archaeological research project that is exploring Classic Maya polities along the Usumacinta River in Mexico and Guatemala. Scherer has conducted bioarchaeological research at Maya sites throughout Mexico and Guatemala, including Lacanja Tzeltal (Sak Tz'i'), Piedras Negras, Tikal, El Zotz, and Yaxha. Scherer's research interests include mortuary archaeology, bioarchaeology, landscape archaeology, ritual practice, warfare and violence, political practice, and diet and subsistence. He is the author of As the Gods Kill: Morality and Social Violence among the Precolonial Maya (University of Texas Press, 2025) and Mortuary Landscapes of the Classic Maya: Rituals of Body and Soul (University of Texas Press, 2015). He is the co-editor of Substance of the Ancient Maya: Kingdoms, Communities, Objects, and Beings (with Thomas Garrison, University of New Mexico Press, 2024), Smoke, Flames, and the Human Body in Mesoamerican Ritual Practice (with Vera Tiesler, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2018) and Embattled Bodies, Embattled Places: War in Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica and the Andes (with John Verano, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2014).
| Dillon, James T., Lash, Sam, Zhao, Jiaju, Smith, Kevin P., van Dommelen, Peter, Scherer, Andrew K., Huang, Yongsong. "Bacterial tetraether lipids in ancient bones record past climate conditions at the time of disposal." Journal of Archaeological Science, vol. 96, 2018, pp. 45-56. |
|
Andrew Scherer.
"El Ser, la Identidad, y la Cabeza entre los Mayas del Clásico de los Reinos del Río Usumacinta." Modificaciones cefálicas culturales en Mesoamérica. Una perspectiva continental, edited by V. Tiesler and C. Serrano, Mexico City, Universidad Autonoma de Mexico, 2018, pp. 531-558.
|
|
Andrew Scherer.
"Head Shaping and Tooth Modification among the Classic Maya of the Usumacinta River Kingdoms." In Social Skins of the Head: Body Beliefs and Ritual in Ancient Mesoamerica and the Andes, edited by V. Tiesler and M.C. Lozada, Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press, 2018, pp. 59-80.
|
|
Andrew K. Scherer.
"Osteology of the El Diablo Complex: Burial 9 and Associated Caches." Temple of the Night Sun: A Royal Tomb at El Diablo, Guatemala, edited by S. Houston, S. Newman, E. Román, and T. Garrison, With contributions by B, Carter, A. de Carteret, A. Scherer, and K. Taube, San francisco, Precolumbia Mesoweb Press, 2018, pp. 180-207.
|
|
Smoke, Flames, and the Human Body in Mesoamerican Ritual Practice. edited by Vera Tiesler and Andrew K. Scherer, Dumbarton Oaks, 2018.
|
| Scherer, Andrew K. "The Ancient Urban Maya: Neighborhoods, Inequality, and Built Form by Scott R. Hutson, Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2016. 260 pp." American Anthropologist, vol. 120, no. 1, 2018, pp. 177-178. |
|
Andrew K. Scherer, Charles Golden, and Stephen Houston.
"True People, Foreigners, and the Framing of Maya Morality." Bioarchaeology of Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica: An Interdisciplinary Approach, edited by C. Willermet and A. Cucina, Tallahassee, University of Florida, 2018, pp. 159-191.
|
| Garrison, Thomas G., Houston, Stephen D., Scherer, Andrew K., del Cid, David, Garrido López, Jose Luis, Czapiewska-Halliday, Ewa, Román, Edwin. "A royal Maya country house: Archaeology at Bejucal, Guatemala." Journal of Field Archaeology, vol. 41, no. 5, 2016, pp. 532-549. |
| Scherer, Andrew K. "Bioarchaeology and the Skeletons of the Pre-Columbian Maya." Journal of Archaeological Research, vol. 25, no. 2, 2016, pp. 133-184. |
| Charles Golden, Timothy Murtha, Bruce Cook, Derek S. Shaffer, Whittaker Schroder, Elijah J. Hermitt, Omar Alcover Firpi, Andrew K. Scherer. "Reanalyzing Environmental Lidar Data for Archaeology: Mesoamerican Applications and Implications." Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, vol. 9, 2016, pp. 293–308. |
|
C. Golden, A.K. Scherer, M. Kingsley, S. Houston, and H. Escobedo.
"The Life and Afterlife of the Classic Period Piedras Negras Kingdom." Ritual, Violence, and the Fall of the Classic Maya Kings, edited by G. Iannone, B. Houk, and S. Schwake, Tallahassee, University Press of Florida, 2016, pp. 108-133.
|
|
A.K. Scherer and L.E. Wright.
"Dental Morphometric and Strontium Isotope Evidence for Population History at Tikal, Guatemala." Archaeology and Bioarchaeology of Population Movement among the Prehispanic Maya, edited by A. Cucina, New York, Springer, 2015, pp. 109-118.
|
| Scherer, Andrew K., de Carteret, Alyce, Newman, Sarah. "Local water resource variability and oxygen isotopic reconstructions of mobility: A case study from the Maya area." Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, vol. 2, 2015, pp. 666-676. |
| Andrew K. Scherer. Mortuary Landscapes of the Classic Maya: Rituals of Body and Soul. University of Texas Press, 2015. |
|
A.K. Scherer, C. Golden, A.L. Arroyave, G. Pérez Robles.
"Danse Macabre: Death, Community, and Kingdom at El Kinel, Guatemala." The Bioarchaeology of Space and Place: Ideology, Power and Meaning in Maya Mortuary Contexts, edited by G. Wrobel, New York, Springer, 2014, pp. 193-224.
|
|
Andrew K. Scherer and John Verano.
Embattled Bodies, Embattled Places: War in Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica and the Andes. Dumbarton Oaks, 2014.
|
|
A.K. Scherer and L.E. Wright.
"Movilidad e Historia de Población en Tikal, Guatemala: Perspectivas desde la Biodistancia y el Análisis de los Isótopos de Estroncio." Afinidades Biológicas, Etnicidad, y Dinámicas Poblacionales en el Área Maya y Territorio Cicun-Vecinos, edited by V. Tiesler and A. Cucina, Universidad Autonoma de Yucatan, 2013, pp. 57-72.
|
| Balzotti, Chris, Golden, Charles, Scherer, Andrew, Terry, Richard E. "Stable carbon isotope signatures of ancient Maize agriculture at El Kinel, Guatemala." Central European Geology, vol. 56, no. 1, 2013, pp. 59-74. |
| Golden, Charles, Scherer, Andrew K. "Territory, Trust, Growth, and Collapse in Classic Period Maya Kingdoms." Current Anthropology, vol. 54, no. 4, 2013, pp. 397-435. |
| Scherer, Andrew K. "The Classic Maya sarcophagus: Rebirth and renewal at Palenque and Tonina." RES: Journal of Anthropology and Aesthetics, vol. 61, 62, 2012, pp. 242-261. |
|
S.D. Houston and A.K. Scherer.
"La Ofrenda Máxima: El Sacrificio Humano en la Parte Central del Área Maya." Nuevas Perspectivas Sobre el Sacrificio Humano entre los Mexicas, edited by Leonardo López Luján and Guilhem Olivier, Mexico City, Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia, 2010, pp. 167-191.
|
| Balzotti, Chris S., Petersen, Steven L., Terry, Richard E., Scherer, Andrew K., Golden, Charles. "Remote Sensing as a Tool for Tropical Ecology." Geography Compass, vol. 4, no. 8, 2010, pp. 993-1012. |
| Scherer, Andrew K., Golden, Charles. "Tecolote, Guatemala: Archaeological Evidence for a Fortified Late Classic Maya Political Border." Journal of Field Archaeology, vol. 34, no. 3, 2009, pp. 285-305. |
| Charles Golden, Andrew K. Scherer, A. René Muñoz and Rosaura Vasquez. "Piedras Negras and Yaxchilan: Divergent Political Trajectories in Adjacent Maya Polities Published by: Society for American Archaeology Article DOI: 10.2307/25478230 Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25478230." Latin American Antiquity, vol. 19, no. 3, 2008, pp. 249-274. |
| Scherer, Andrew K., Wright, Lori E., Yoder, Cassady J. "Bioarchaeological Evidence for Social and Temporal Differences in Diet at Piedras Negras, Guatemala." Latin American Antiquity, vol. 18, no. 1, 2007, pp. 85. |
| Scherer, Andrew K. "Population structure of the classic period Maya." Am. J. Phys. Anthropol., vol. 132, no. 3, 2007, pp. 367-380. |
| Barrett, Jason W., Scherer, Andrew K. "STONES, BONES, AND CROWDED PLAZAS: Evidence for Terminal Classic Maya warfare at Colha, Belize." Ancient Mesoamerica, vol. 16, no. 01, 2005, pp. 101-118. |
|
S.D. Houston, H.L. Escobedo, A.K. Scherer, M. Child, J.L. Fitzsimmons.
"Classic Maya Death at Piedras Negras, Guatemala Antropología de La Eternidad." La Muerte in la Cultura Maya, edited by A. Ciudad Ruiz, M. Humberto Ruz Sosa and M.J. Iglesias Ponce de León, Madrid, Sociedad Española de Estudios Mayas y del Centro de Estudios Mayas. Instituto de Investigaciones Filológicas, 2003, pp. 113-143.
|
Selected research awards:
National Science Foundation Senior Research Grant, Archaeology Program (BCS- 1505483/1505399), $154,212, 2015.
National Science Foundation Senior Research Grant, Archaeology Program (BCS- 1115818), $42,721.00, 2011.
National Geographic Society/Waitt Grant Program, $11,030, 2009.
National Science Foundation Senior Research Grant, Archaeology Program (BCS-0715463), $147,484, 2007.
H. John Heinz III Charitable Trust Grants for Latin American Archeology, $9,970, 2006.
Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc. (#05027), $9,120, 2005.
National Science Foundation Dissertation Improvement Grant, Physical Anthropology Program, (BCS-0234006), $1,920, 2003.
Wenner-Gren Foundation Dissertation Fieldwork Grant (Gr. 7014), $12,383, 2003.
(2018) Smoke, Flames, and the Human Body in Mesoamerican Ritual Practice [V. Tiesler and A.K. Scherer, editors]. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, D.C.
(2018) “Bacterial Tetraether Lipids in Ancient Bones Record Past Climate Conditions at the Time of Disposal” [J.T. Dillon, S.J. Lash, Jiaju Zhao, K.P. Smith, P. Van Dommelen, A.K. Scherer and Y. Huang]. Journal of Archaeological Science 96 (2018): 45-56.
(2018) “El Ser, la Identidad, y la Cabeza entre los Mayas del Clásico de los Reinos del Río Usumacinta.” In Modificaciones cefálicas culturales en Mesoamérica. Una perspectiva continental, edited by V. Tiesler and C. Serrano, pp. 531-558. Universidad Autónoma de México, Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicos; Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, Mexico City.
(2018) “Head Shaping and Tooth Modification among the Classic Maya of the Usumacinta River Kingdoms.” In Social Skins of the Head: Body Beliefs and Ritual in Ancient Mesoamerica and the Andes, edited by V. Tiesler and M.C. Lozada, pp. 59-80. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.
(2018) “True People, Foreigners, and the Framing of Maya Morality” [A.K. Scherer, C. Golden, and S. Houston]. In Bioarchaeology of Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica: An Interdisciplinary Approach, edited by C. Willermet and A. Cucina, pp. 159-191. University of Florida Press, Tallahassee.
(2017) “Bioarchaeology and the Skeletons of the Pre-Columbian Maya.” Journal of Archaeological Research 25 (2): 133-184.
(2016) “A Royal Maya Country House: Archaeology at Bejucal, Guatemala” [T. G. Garrison, S.D. Houston, A.K. Scherer, D. del Cid, E. Czapiewska, and E. Román]. 41(5):532-549.
(2016) “The Life and Afterlife of the Classic Period Piedras Negras Kingdom” [C. Golden, A.K. Scherer, M. Kingsley, S. Houston, and H. Escobedo]. In Ritual, Violence, and the Fall of the Classic Maya Kings, edited by G. Iannone, B. Houk, and S. Schwake, pp. 108-133. University Press of Florida, Tallahassee.
(2016) “Reanalyzing Environmental Lidar Data for Archaeology: Mesoamerican Applications and Implications [C. Golden, T. Murtha, B. Cook, D.S. Shaffer,W. Schroder, E.J. Hermitt, O. Alcover Firpi, A.K. Scherer]. Journal of Archaeological Sciences: Reports 9: 293-308.
(2015) Mortuary Landscapes of the Classic Maya: Rituals of Body and Soul. University of Texas Press, Austin.
(2015) “Local Water Resource Variability and Oxygen Isotopic Reconstructions of Mobility: A Case Study from the Maya Area” [A.K. Scherer, A. de Carteret, and S. Newman] Journal of Archaeological Sciences: Reports 2: 666-676.
(2015) “Dental Morphometric and Strontium Isotope Evidence for Population History at Tikal, Guatemala” [A.K. Scherer and L.E. Wright]. In Archaeology and Bioarchaeology of Population Movement among the Prehispanic Maya, edited by Andrea Cucina, pp. 109-118. Springer, New York.
(2015) “Osteology of the El Diablo Complex: Burial 9 and Associated Caches.” In Temple of the Night Sun: A Royal Tomb at El Diablo, Guatemala [S. Houston, S. Newman, E. Román, and T. Garrison, With contributions by B, Carter, A. de Carteret, A. Scherer, and K. Taube], pp. 180-207. San Francisco: Precolumbia Mesoweb Press.
(2014) Embattled Bodies, Embattled Places: War in Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica and the Andes [A.K. Scherer and J.W. Verano, editors]. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Trustees for Harvard University, Washington D.C.
(2014) “Water in the West: Chronology and Collapse of the Western Maya River Kingdoms” [A.K. Scherer and C. Golden]. In The Great Maya Droughts in Cultural Context, edited by G. Iannone, pp. 207-229. University of Colorado Press, Boulder.
(2014) “Danse Macabre: Death, Community, and Kingdom at El Kinel, Guatemala” [A.K. Scherer, C. Golden, A.L. Arroyave, G. Pérez Robles]. In The Bioarchaeology of Space and Place: Ideology, Power and Meaning in Maya Mortuary Contexts, edited by Gabriel Wrobel, pp. 193-224. Springer, New York.
(2013) "Territory, Trust, Growth and Collapse in Classic Period Maya Kingdoms" [C. Golden and A.K. Scherer]. Current Anthropology 54(4): 397-435.
(2012) Revisiting Maler's Usumacinta: Recent Archaeological Investigation in Chiapas, Mexico [A.K. Scherer and C. Golden]. Monograph 1. Precolumbia Mesoweb Press, San Francisco.
(2012) "The Classic Maya Sarcophagus: Veneration and Renewal at Palenque and Tonina." RES: Journal of Anthropology and Aesthetics 61/62 Spring/Autumn: 242-261.
(2012) "Parallelism in Occupation: Tracking the Pre- and Post-Dynastic Evolution of Piedras Negras, Guatemala through its Secondary Site, El Porvenir" [M.J. Kingsley, C.W. Golden, A.K. Scherer, L. M. Marroquin de Franco]. Mexicon XXXIV (5): 109-117.
(2012) "Polities, Boundaries, and Trade in the Classic Period Usumacinta River Basin" [C. Golden, A.K. Scherer, A.R. Muñoz, and Z. Hruby]. Mexicon XXXIV (1): 11-19.
(2010) "La Ofrenda Máxima: El Sacrificio Humano en la Parte Central del Área Maya" [S.D. Houston and A.K. Scherer]. In Nuevas Perspectivas Sobre el Sacrificio Humano entre los Mexicas, edited by López Luján Leonardo and Olivier Guilhem. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico.
(2010) "Remote Sensing as a Tool for Tropical Ecology" [C.B. Balzotti, S.L. Petersen, R.E. Terry, A.K. Scherer, and C. Golden]. Geography Compass 4/8 (2010): 993-1012.
(2009) "Tecolote, Guatemala: Archaeological Evidence for a Fortified Late Classic Maya Political Border" [A.K. Scherer and C. Golden]. Journal of Field Archaeology 34(3): 285-304.
(2008) "Piedras Negras and Yaxchilan: Divergent Political Trajectories in Adjacent Maya Polities" [C.W. Golden, A.K. Scherer, A.R. Muñoz, R. Vásquez]. Latin American Antiquity 19(3): 249-274.
(2007) "Bioarchaeological Evidence for Social and Temporal Differences in Subsistence at Piedras Negras, Guatemala" [A.K. Scherer, L.E. Wright, and C.J Yoder]. Latin American Antiquity 18(1): 85-104.
(2007) "Population Structure of the Classic Period Maya." American Journal of Physical Anthropology 132 (3): 367-380.
(2006) "Border Problems: Recent Archaeological Research along the Usumacinta River" [C. Golden and A.K. Scherer]. The PARI Journal VII (2): 1-16.
(2006) "La Técnica and El Kinel: Mounds and Monuments Upriver from Yaxchilan" [S. Houston, H. Escobedo, C. Golden, A. Scherer, R. Vásquez, A.L. Arroyave, F. Quiroa, J.C. Melendez]. Mexicon 28 (5): 87-93.
(2005) "Exploring the Piedras Negras-Yaxchilan Border Zone: Archaeological investigations in the Sierra del Lacandón, 2004" [C. Golden, A. Scherer, R. Muñoz]. Mexicon 27(1): 11-16.
(2005) "Stones, Bones, and Crowded Plazas: Evidence for Terminal Classic Maya Warfare at Colha, Belize" [J.W. Barrett and A.K. Scherer]. Ancient Mesoamerica 16(1): 101-118.
(2003) "Guardian of the Acropolis: The Sacred Space of a Royal Burial at Piedras Negras, Guatemala [J.L. Fitzsimmons, A.K. Scherer, S.D. Houston, H.L. Escobedo]. Latin American Antiquity 14(4): 449-468.
(2003) "Classic Maya Death at Piedras Negras, Guatemala" [S.D. Houston, H.L. Escobedo, A.K. Scherer, M. Child, J.L. Fitzsimmons]. In Antropología de La Eternidad. La Muerte in la Cultura Maya, edited by A. Ciudad Ruiz, M. Humberto Ruz Sosa and M.J. Iglesias Ponce de León, pp 113-143. Sociedad Española de Estudios Mayas y del Centro de Estudios Mayas. Instituto de Investigaciones Filológicas. UNAM, Madrid, Spain.
| Year | Degree | Institution |
|---|---|---|
| 2004 | PhD | Texas A & M University |
| 1998 | BA | Hamline University |
| Name | Title |
|---|---|
| Houston, Stephen | Dupee Family Professor of Social Science, Professor of Anthropology, Professor of History of Art and Architecture |
| Huang, Yongsong | Professor of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences |
| Van Dommelen, Peter | Joukowsky Family Professor of Archaeology and Professor of Anthropology |
| ANTH 0310 - Human Evolution |
| ANTH 0680 - Anthropology of Food |
| ANTH 1720 - The Human Skeleton |
| ANTH 1730 - Violence of the Past |
| ANTH 1990 - Senior Seminar: (Re)Making Anthropology |
| ANTH 2501 - Principles of Archaeology |
| ANTH 2560 - Lived Bodies, Dead Bodies: The Archaeology of Human Remains |
