Dr. David M. Carballo is a Professor of Archaeology, Anthropology, and Latin American Studies and is currently Assistant Provost for General Education. He specializes in Mesoamerican archaeology, focusing particularly on the prehispanic civilizations of central Mexico. Currently ongoing projects at the ancient city of Teotihuacan include the Proyecto Arqueológico Tlajinga, Teotihuacan (PATT), and the Proyecto Plaza de las Columnas. He first seeks to understand urbanization, neighborhood organization, and the daily life of commoners through excavations and geophysical prospection within a southern district of the city. Second he is focused on palace compounds and is aimed at understanding the city’s political economy.
What made you decide to be a social scientist/ why does social science matter to you?
I’m fundamentally interested in people and questions like where we came from, our cultural similarities and differences geographically and through time, and what comparative analyses of human societies might tell us about how to create better futures. I started in college straddling the social sciences and humanities by majoring in political science and Spanish, but also really enjoying classes in philosophy, art, music, and discovering archaeology through a course on cultural astronomy. I’d say my approach to archaeology mixes social science and some natural science methods to address humanistic questions and like that interdisciplinary lens on the human past.
Can you tell us about a recent research project that you’re excited about?
I’ve been collaborating on research at Teotihuacan, Mexico, for the last 25 years. It was the largest city in the western hemisphere for the first half of the first millennium CE, a precursor to the later Aztecs, and unlike other premodern cities almost all its inhabitants lived in multi-family apartments. It was multiethnic and received sustained migration from different parts of Mesoamerica. We’ve been working in the southern periphery of the city since 2012, which could be thought of as an “outer borough” of non-elite residents who lived in humbler apartments but had nice public spaces at the neighborhood level that urban scholars would call “social infrastructure.” They seem to be part of the city’s appeal and success. We are now eyeing a new project in a central part of the city of debated function, with some arguing it served as the central marketplace and others arguing it had more administrative functions. It needs new research to resolve the debate, and we hope to start with geophysical prospection and then excavate.
What is the best piece of professional advice you ever received?
Have multiple interests and pursue them simultaneously. That way, when you encounter obstacles in one or some there are open doors in others.
What is your favorite course you’ve taught at BU?
There are several, but I have to choose AN/AR 365: Deep Histories of Conquest: Aztec Mexico and New Spain, which I have taught two summers as part of the BU Madrid program. I had wanted to create an abroad experience that brings students to both Spain and Mexico, but it proved to be costly and complicated, so was easier to plug into the existing program in Madrid. It is great to have the city as a classroom for field trips that deal with archaeology, comparative history, and the lasting impacts of European colonialism in the Americas.
Tell us a surprising fact about yourself.
As an undergrad, I studied abroad out of the same institute in Madrid (the Instituto Internacional, founded by women from Boston) that I now enjoy teaching in.
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