John Verano

Professor - Anthropology

School of Liberal Arts
Stone Center Departments
The Stone Center
People Classification
Faculty
Tulane Affiliation
Core Faculty
Region
  • South America
John Verano

Courses

Forensic Anthropology; Principles of Forensic Anthropology; Human Paleopathology; Bones, Bodies and Disease; Bioarchaeology of Mummies; Bioarchaeology of Human Sacrifice

Additional Info

Number of Dissertations or Theses Supervised in the Past 5 Years: 6 

Research

Peru; Biological Anthropology; Bioarchaeology; Paleopathpology; Forensic Anthropology

Degrees

  • Ph.D., University of California-Los Angeles, Anthropology, 1987
  • M.A., University of California-Los Angeles, Anthropology, 1980
  • B.A., Stanford University, Anthropology, 1977

Academic Experience

Academic Experience
  • Professor, Tulane University, 2009-
  • Associate Professor, Tulane University, 2000-2009
  • Visiting Professor, Yale University, 2000
  • Assistant Professor, Tulane University, 1994-2000
  • Assistant Professor, George Washington University, 1992-1994

Distinctions

  • Carol Lavin Bernick Faculty Grant Program for fieldwork in Peru, Summer 2017, 2018, 2019, 2023
  • Visiting Scholar, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collections Fall, 2023
  • School of Liberal Arts Faculty Research Award for fieldwork in Peru, Summer 2020.
  • COR Faculty International Travel Grant / Bernick Faculty Fund of Tulane: travel to 9th World Congress on Mummy Studies, Lima Peru., August 2016
  • Lurcy Grant to help support my field project in Peru, Summer 1012
  • CELT Fund for Faculty-Student Scholarly and Artistic Engagement Grant. Center for Engaged Learning and Teaching, Tulane University, 2011
  • Tulane Research Enhancement Fund Grant, Program 1, Phase II (Fieldwork in Peru), 2007
  • Fellowship in Pre-Columbian Studies, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC, 2006-2007
  • Summer Faculty Research Fellowships, Stone Center for Latin American Studies, Tulane University, 1997, 1998, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2011, 2012
  • National Geographic Society Research Grants, 2000-2001, 2005-2006
  • Fulbright Lecturer, Peru, 1989, 1996
  • Performance Award, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, 1993

Languages

  • Spanish
  • Italian

Overseas Experience

  • Peru
  • Chile
  • Mexico

Related Experience

  • Chair, Senior Fellows Committee (advisory board), Pre-Colombian Studies, Dumbarton Oaks Library and Collections, Washington D.C., 2017-2019
  • Senior Fellows Committee (advisory board), Pre- Colombian Studies, Dumbarton Oaks Library and Collections, Washington D.C., 2014-2017
  • Co-director of Excavation and Lab Director, Platform III, Pyramids of Moche, northern Peru, 2012
  • Conducted osteological analysis of human skeletal remains from site of Marcajirca, Callejón de Conchucos, Department of Ancash, Peru, 2011
  • Research Associate, Department of Anthropology, San Diego Museum of Man, 2009-

Selected Publications

  • 2024. Tschinkel, Khrystyne, Verano, John, and Gabriel Prieto, Two Cases of Smallpox from 1540 Circum-Contact (Early Colonial) Northern Coastal Peru. International Journal of Paleopathology (Published online April 2024)
  • 2023. Prieto, Gabriel and John Verano. "From brave warriors to innocent children: Understanding the foundations of ritual violence in the Moche Valley, north coast of Peru, AD 200-1450" In Human Sacrifice and Value...London, pp. 219-257.
  • 2023. Vivien G. Standen, John Verano et al. Violence in fishing, hunting, and gathering societies of the Atacama Desert coast: A long-term perspective (10,000 BP—AD 1450). PLOS ONE https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0290690
  • 2023. Salazar, Lucy, Richard L. Burger, Janine Forst, Rodrigo Barquera, Jason Nesbitt, Jorge Calero, Eden Washburn, John Verano, et al. Insights into Genetic Histories and Lifeways of Machu Picchu’s Occupants. Science Advances 9, 26 July 2023.
  • 2023. Gabriel Prieto, John Verano, et al. Pampa La Cruz: A New Mass Sacrificial Burial Ground during the Chimú occupation on the Huanchaco Littoral, North Coast of Peru." Ñawpa Pacha: Journal of Andean Archaeology pp. 1–86.
  • 2020. “Looking back, looking forward: Paleopathology in Andean South America.” International Journal of Paleopathology 29: 150-2.