Dr. Marion Forest received her PhD in archaeology from the University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne and is currently a postdoctoral research associate at the Department of Anthropology of Brigham Young University. Since 2008, she has specialized in ancient urbanism and urbanization processes in western and central Mexico. She has participated in multiple projects focusing on spatial organization, mapping and remote sensing in West (Zacapu and Patzcuaro Basins), Central (Teotihuacan) and Northern Mexico (Casas Grandes) as well as in the Southwest of the United States (Coal Bed Village, Utah). She also served as a Fyssen Foundation Fellow (2016-2018) at Arizona State University, in which capacity she worked with Dr. Michael Smith to assist with revising our understanding of the residential patterns and demographics at Teotihuacan (Smith et al., 2019). Her last publication in Advances in Archaeological Practices discusses the integration of lidar data in archaeological research, using the case of the Zacapu Malpaís urban settlements (Forest et al. 2020).
Classes taught at BYU
ANTHR 110 - Introduction to Archaeology
ANTHR 215 - Methods and Theory in Archaeology
ANTHR 355 - Archaeology of Mesoamerica
ANTHR 490R/590R - Archaeology of Health, Healthcare and Disease (team-taught with Dr. J. Allison).
Current Research
As co-PI: with Dr. Andrew Somerville (Iowa State University): “Return to Hacienda Metepec: Exploring continuity and change at Teotihuacan”. International field project in Mexico (collaborators and students from France, USA, Mexico).
As PI: with Chloe Burkey (Mentored senior thesis project, BYU): “Characterization and authenticating of greenstone artifacts from the BYU Museum of Peoples and Cultures based on the examination of iconography, trace-elements, and microware analyses using PXRF/ESEM microscopy”.
With Dr. James Allison (BYU):
- Cartography and architecture analysis at Coal Bed Village, Montezuma Canyon, Southeast Utah.
- Inter/intrasite spatial analysis of the BYU Shivwits Plateau survey project (2006-07), Northwest Arizona.
- Final report on the Archaeology at Alkali Ridge (42SA13): 2012-2013 excavations, Southeast Utah.
With Dr. Michael Searcy (BYU): Fieldwork, lab analyses and final report for the project: “Descubriendo las Raíces del Período Viejo en Chihuahua, México, Temporada 2019: Excavación del Sitio de San Diego”. Field Project in Mexico.
Recent publications
FOREST M., JADOT E., and J. TESTARD
2020 "Mazapan Style Figurines at El Palacio and their Significance for the Early Postclassic Interregional Interactions in Northern Michoacán". Ancient Mesoamerica, First View: 1-20. doi:10.1017/S0956536119000026
FOREST M., COSTA L., COMBEY A., DORISON A., and G. PEREIRA
2020 “Testing Web Mapping and Active Learning to Approach Lidar Data”. Advances in Archaeological Practice 8 (1): 24-39. doi:10.1017/aap.2019.42
SMITH M. E., CHATTERJEE A., H. Angela, S. Sierra, and M. FOREST
2019 "Apartment Compounds, Households, and Population in the Ancient City of Teotihuacan, Mexico". Ancient Mesoamerica, Vol. 30 (3): 399-418. doi:10.1017/S0956536118000573
FISHER, C. T., COHEN A. S., SOLINIS-CASPARIUS R., PEZZUTTI F. L., BUSH J., FOREST M., and A. TORVINEN
2019 “A Typology of Ancient Purépecha (Tarascan) Architecture from Angamuco, Michoacán, Mexico.” Latin American Antiquity 30 (3): 510–28. doi:10.1017/laq.2019.50
HUSTER, A. C., CABRERA O., FOREST M., MCMANAMON F. P., ROBERTSON I. G. and M. E. SMITH
2018 "Project Gallery: Documenting, Disseminating, and Archiving Data from the Teotihuacan Mapping Project", Antiquity, 92(363), E9. doi:10.15184/aqy.2018.102
FOREST M.
2018 "Malpaís Prieto. Una ciudad prehispánica", in La Ciudad Perdida. Hacia los orígenes del Estado tarasco (Pereira G. ed.), INAH-French Embassy in Mexico, Mexico D.F.