Mike Searcy is currently researching the Casas Grandes tradition (AD 700-1450), which flourished in the northwestern portion of Chihuahua, Mexico, and the international four corners region. He is also conducting research on the Fremont, who lived in the eastern Great Basin/northwestern Colorado Plateau from approximately AD 400-1300. Other research interests and activities include the use of UAVs (drones), ancient DNA analysis, social theory, developing new technologies for archaeological applications, ethnoarchaeology, paleoethnobotany, ceramic and iconographical analysis.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Books
Pailes, Matthew, and Michael T. Searcy
2022 Hinterlands to Cities: The Archaeology of Northwest Mexico and its Vecinos. Society for American Archaeology Press, Washington, DC.
Searcy, Michael T.
2011 The Life-Giving Stone: Ethnoarchaeology of Maya Metates. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
Articles/Chapters
Searcy, Michael T., Kimball Banks, and Sam Jensen
2024 Improve Your Employability: Insider Tips on Cultural Resource Management (CRM) Sector Jobs. SAA Archaeological Record 24(1):28-35.
Searcy, Michael T., Todd Pitezel, and Steve Swanson
In press Envisioning Natural and Built Environments as Sacred Landscapes in Prehistoric Casas Grandes, Mexico. In Sacred Southwestern Landscapes: Archaeologies of Religious Ecology, edited by Aaron Wright. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.
Ortiz-Cano, Hector, Robert Hadfield, Teresa Gomez, Kevin Hultine, Ricardo Mata-Gonzalez, Steven Petersen, Neil Hansen, Michael T. Searcy, Jason Stetler, Teodoro Cervantes Mendivil, David Burchfield, Pilman Park, J. Ryan Stewart
2023 Ecological-niche Modeling Reveals Current Opportunities for Agave Dryland Farming in Sonora, Mexico and Arizona, USA. PLOS ONE 18(1)
Searcy, Michael T., Hannah Steffensen, and Scott Ure
2022 Fremont Smoke Mixtures: Botanical Analyses of Pipes from Wolf Village, Goshen, Utah. KIVA 88(4):429-452.
Ortiz-Cano, Hector, Jose Antonio Hernandez-Herrera, Neil Hansen, Steven Peterson, Michael T. Searcy, Ricardo Mata-Gonzalez, Teodoro Cervantes-Mendívil, Antonio Villanueva-Morales, Pilman Park, J. Ryan Stewart
2020 Pre-Columbian Rock Mulching as a Strategy for Modern Agave Cultivation in Arid Marginal Lands. Frontiers in Agronomy 2:10.
Kelley, Jane H., and Michael T. Searcy
2018 Cultura Chihuahua al Sur del Área de Casas Grandes. In La Cultura Casas Grandes, edited by Rafael Cruz Antillón and Timothy D. Maxwell, pp. 167-175. Secretaría de Cultura de Chihuahua y Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia Delegación Chihuahua, Ciudad de Chihuahua.
Searcy, Michael T., and Todd Pitezel
2018 An Ethnoarchaeological Perspective on Ground Stone Production at the Santiago Quarry in the Casas Grandes Region of Chihuahua, Mexico. Latin American Antiquity 29(1):169-184.
Searcy, Michael T.
2018 Drones. In SAS Encyclopedia of Archaeological Sciences, edited by Sandra L. López Varela. Wiley-Blackwell, Hoboken, New Jersey.
King, Daniel J., Michael T. Searcy, Chad L. Yost, and Kyle Waller
2017 Corn, Beer, and Marine Resources at Casas Grandes, Mexico: An Analysis of Prehistoric Diets Using Microfossils Recovered from Dental Calculus. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 16:365-379.
Gutierrez, Gerardo, and Michel T. Searcy
2016 Introduction to the UAV Special Edition. SAA Archaeological Record 16(2):6-9.
PRODUCTIONS
Searcy, Michael T. (Director/Writer)
2012 Mining on the Swell. Short documentary highlighting the lives of uranium miners on the San Rafael Swell. Bureau of Land Management and Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining.
Searcy, Michael T. and Zac Davis (Directors)
2009 Starvation Doctrine: The Plight of Illegal Immigrants in America. Full-length documentary about state-level immigration reform in the U.S. Burning Buffalo Films, Norman, Oklahoma.
Visit Searcy's Academia.edu page for access to these and other publications.