Takeshi Inomata

Regents Professor, Anthropology

Takeshi Inomata is an archaeologist who studies Maya civilization, social change, warfare, architecture, and ceramics. He has worked at the Maya sites of Aguateca and Ceibal, Guatemala, and in the Middle Usumacinta region, Tabasco, Mexico.

Selected Publications

Inomata, Takeshi, Daniela Triadan, Verónica A. Vázquez López, Juan Carlos Fernandez-Diaz, Takayuki Omori, María Belén Méndez Bauer, Melina García Hernández, Timothy Beach, Clarissa Cagnato, Kazuo Aoyama, Hiroo Nasu

2020 Monumental architecture at Aguada Fénix and the rise of Maya civilization. Nature 582:530-533.

 

Inomata, Takeshi, Daniela Triadan, Flory Pinzón, Kazuo Aoyama

2019 Artificial Plateau Construction during the Preclassic Period at the Maya Site of Ceibal, Guatemala. PLoS ONE 14(8): e0221943. 

 

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. 

 

Inomata, Takeshi, Daniela Triadan, Jessica MacLellan, Melissa Burham, Kazuo Aoyama, Juan Manuel Palomo, Hitoshi Yonenobu, Flory Pinzón, 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(7):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):519-471.

 

Inomata, Takeshi, Jessica MacLellan, Daniela Triadan, Jessica Munson, Melissa Burham, Kazuo Aoyama, Hiroo Nasu, Flory Pinzón, and Hitoshi Yonenobu

2015 The Development of Sedentary Communities in the Maya Lowlands: Co-Existing Mobile Groups and Public Ceremonies at Ceibal, Guatemala. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 112(14): 4268–4273. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1501212112.

 

Inomata, Takeshi, and Daniela Triadan (editors)

2014  Life and Politics at the Royal Court of Aguateca: Artifacts, Analytical Data, and Synthesis. Aguateca Archaeological Project First Phase Monograph Series, Volume 3. Takeshi Inomata and Daniela Triadan, series editors. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.

 

Tsukamoto, Kenichiro, and Takeshi Inomata (editors)

2014  Mesoamerican Plazas: Practices, Meanings, and Memories. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.

 

Inomata, Takeshi, Daniela Triadan, Kazuo Aoyama, Victor Castillo, and Hitoshi Yonenobu

2013   Early Ceremonial Constructions at Ceibal, Guatemala, and the Origins of Lowland Maya Civilization. Science 340(6131):467-471. DOI: 10.1126/science.1234493.

 

Inomata, Takeshi, and Daniela Triadan

2011   Excavating the Origins of Maya Civilization. A series of columns posted on the New York Times on-line version. http://scientistatwork.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/17/excavating-the-origi...

 

Inomata, Takeshi, and Daniela Triadan (editors)

2010  Burned Palaces and Elite Residences of Aguateca: Excavations and Ceramics. Aguateca Archaeological Project First Phase Monograph Series, Volume 1. Takeshi Inomata and Daniela Triadan, series editors. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.

 

Houston, Stephen, and Takeshi Inomata

2009   The Classic Maya. Cambridge World Archaeology series. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 

 

Inomata, Takeshi

2007   Warfare and the Fall of a Fortified Center: Archaeological Investigations at Aguateca. Vanderbilt Institute of Mesoamerican Archaeology Series, Vol. 3, Arthur Demarest, series editor. Vanderbilt University Press, Nashville. 

 

Inomata, Takeshi, and Lawrence Coben (editors)

2006  Archaeology of Performance: Theaters of Power, Community, and Politics. Altamira Press, Lanham.

 

Inomata, Takeshi

2006  Plazas, Performers, and Spectators: Political Theaters of the Classic Maya. Current Anthropology 47(5):805-842.

 

Inomata, Takeshi

2003  Aguateca: New Revelations of Maya Elite. National Geographic 2003, May: 110-119. 

 

Inomata, Takeshi and Ronald Webb (editors)

2003  The Archaeology of Settlement Abandonment in Middle America. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City. 

 

Inomata, Takeshi, and Stephen Houston (editors)

2001  Royal Courts of the Ancient Maya. 2 vols. Westview Press, Boulder.

Areas of Study

Mesoamerica

Projects

Ceibal-Petexbatun Archaeological Project

Research Interests

Archaeology, complex societies, Mesoamerica. Households and political organization in prehispanic Maya society; field and lab research at Aguateca and Ceibal, Guatemala.