Brent Woodfill, Project Director

A native of Minnesota, Brent Woodfill began doing archaeological work (and ate a lot of Iranian food) in 1990, when he and his uncle, Glenn Skoy began volunteering at the Institute for Minnesota Archaeology. He graduated in 1999 from Macalester College in St. Paul with a B.A. in Anthropology and English and a licence in Teaching English as a Second Language.

Before a class trip with Dr. Skip and Phyllis Messenger of Hamline University through the Yucatan, Brent intended to study archaeology at the city of Trier, Germany, a large Roman outpost on the northern frontier of the Roman Empire. However, he soon became fascinated with the ancient Maya, and began archaeological fieldwork in the Maya area in 1998 with the Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance Project and the Western Belize Regional Cave Project, both directed by Dr. Jaime Awe. He returned for the 2000 season as a staff member.

Brent has been interested in the study of ritual and ideology since he was a child (before he learned those words), and decided to make a career out of it. He founded VUPACS in 2001 to study the relationship between the ancient Maya of the Upper Pasión Kingdom and Northern Alta Verapaz and their sacred geography, working both in caves and associated villages in the region.

Brent has been pursuing his PhD at Vanderbilt University since 2000.

Brent's CV
Brent's Field Notes
Brent's archived field notes

Mirza Monterroso, Co-director

Mirza was born and raised in Guatemala City. She decided to go into archaeology after high school and enrolled in the program at the Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala. Her first field experience was in Guaytan (Guastatoya, El Progreso). She has also worked in the El Mirador laboratory and in El Naranjo, Peten.

After two internships at Cancuen (in both the field and lab), Mirza began to work for VUPACS in 2003, investigating the Late Classic site of La Lima, located at the eastern edge of the Candelaria Cave system.

Her interests include physical anthropology, iconography, archaeology, ritual, caves, good food (especially cheese and seafood), and osteology.

Mirza's Field Notes