Richard Cooke (archaeologist)
Richard G. Cooke (28 October 1946 – 22 February 2023) was an archaeologist who specialized in the archaeology of Panama and, more generally, the Isthmo-Colombian Area.[1]
Cooke was born in Guildford, Surrey, southern England. He studied at Bristol and got his doctorate from the University of London in 1972.[2]
Among his areas of concentration were zooarchaeology and the "Greater Coclé semiotic tradition" of central Panama. He did extensive research on ancient fishing.[3] He was also interested in Panamanian paleoecology, the original settlement of the tropical-forest region of the Americas, the development of agriculture, and general social development in the area. For some ten years, he led an archaeological project in Cerro Juan Díaz.[1] His contributions to Central American archaeology were celebrated in a conference held in San José, Costa Rica, in 2017: "Tras una Herencia Cultural Milenaria: Contribuciones de Richard Cooke a la Arqueología del Área Istmo- Colombiana". Cooke established a modern reference collection of fauna species of tropical America, for use by archaeologists and others.
A Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute staff scientist for the Smithsonian Institution,[3] he spent most of his career working in Panama.
In 2017, Cooke was designated a Member of the Order of the British Empire.[4][5]
Selected publications
Sugiyama, Nawa, M. F. Martínez-Polanco, C. A. France, & R. G. Cooke. "Domesticated landscapes of the neotropics: Isotope signatures of human-animal relationships in pre-Columbian Panama". Journal of Anthropological Archaeology. 59 (2020): 101195.
Smith-Guzmán, N., & R. Cooke. "Cold-water diving in the tropics? External auditory exotoses among the Pre-Colombian inhabitants of Panama". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. doi:SI-659-2018 (2018).
Cooke, Richard, A. Ranere, G. Pearson, & R. Dickau. "Radiocarbon chronology of early human settlement on the Isthmus of Panama (13,000–7000 BP) with comments on cultural affinities, environments, subsistence, and technological change". Quaternary International. 301 (2013): 3–22.
Cooke, Richard G. "Arqueología en Panamá (1888-2002)". Panama: cien años de República (2004).
Cooke, Richard G. "Rich, poor, shaman, child: Animals, rank, and status in the 'Gran Coclé' culture area of pre-Columbian Panama". Behaviour behind Bones. The Zooarchaeology of Ritual, Religion, Status and Identity (2004): 271–284.
Cooke, Richard G., and Anthony J. Ranere. "Precolumbian fishing on the Pacific coast of Panama". Pacific Latin America in Prehistory: the evolution of archaic and formative cultures (1999).
Cooke, Richard, and Anthony J. Ranere. "Prehistoric human adaptations to the seasonally dry forests of Panama." World Archaeology 24.1 (1992): 114–133.
Piperno, D. R., Clary, K. H., Cooke, R. G., Ranere, A. J., & Weiland, D. "Preceramic maize in central Panama: phytolith and pollen evidence." American Anthropologist. 87.4 (1985): 871–878.
Taxon named in his honor
- Notarius cookei is a species of catfish in the family Ariidae. It inhabits brackish and freshwaters in Colombia, Costa Rica, and Panama.[6]
External links
Extensive bibliography: Richard Cooke
References
- ^ a b "Tras una herencia cultural milenaria: contribuciones de Richard Cooke a la arqueología del Área Istmo-colombiana". Cuadernos de Antropología (in Spanish). 29 (2). 2019 – via revistas.ucr.ac.cr.
- ^ "Muere el renombrado científico Richard Cooke, promotor de la arqueología panameña". metrolibre.com (in Spanish).
- ^ a b Institution, Smithsonian. "Surfer's Ear Points to Ancient Pearl Divers in Panama". Smithsonian Institution.
- ^ "Fallece el condecorado arqueólogo Richard Cooke" (in Spanish).
- ^ "M.B.E. honors legacy of British archaeologist in Panama". GOV.UK. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
- ^ Christopher Scharpf & Kenneth J. Lazara (22 September 2018). "Family ARIIDAE Bleeker 1858 (Sea Catfishes)". The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database. Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara. Retrieved 25 November 2024.