Gary Feinman

Gary Feinman is the MacArthur Curator of Mesoamerican, Central American, and East Asian Anthropology.

Feinman presently co-directs two international archaeological field projects. His long-time study region is Mesoamerica, where he currently is conducting excavations at Lambityeco. This is the fourth Classic-period (A.D. 250-900) settlement where Feinman and Linda Nicholas (Adjunct Curator, Anthropology) have led excavations (following Ejutla, El Palmillo, and the Mitla Fortress). Review field dispatches from Feinman’s earlier fieldwork in Oaxaca.  Earlier Feinman had leadership roles in the Valley of Oaxaca and Ejutla Valley Archaeological Settlement Pattern Projects. Feinman's settlement pattern experience led him to become a co-director of the Coastal Shandong Archaeological Settlement Pattern Project, which has now surveyed in eastern Shandong Province for 19 field seasons. In 2012-13, the Sino-American team was able to follow the remnants of China's first great wall, which once cut across the study region. See previous field reports from China.

In this long-term regional study, Feinman and Nicholas originally collaborated with Dr. Anne Underhill (Yale University) and colleagues from Shandong University and the Rizhao Museum. Recently, the Field Museum archaeologists are co-directing the project with Professor Fang Hui of Shandong University, the Jiaonan Museum, and the Qingdao Institute of...