Alexander Geurds

Alex Geurds is an archaeologist specializing in the prehispanic period of Central America, specifically Nicaragua. He has been involved in setting up archaeological field research projects for almost twenty years, including projects in the Lesser Antilles, Mexico, and Nicaragua. He is an associate professor and research fellow in the School of Archaeology at Wolfson College, University of Oxford. He is also an associate archaeology professor at Leiden University, affiliated with the Department of Anthropology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and the founding editor of the series ‘The Early Americas: History and Culture’ at Brill Publishers.

Geurds' work in Nicaragua, supported by several National Geographic grants, has resulted in the full documentation of the largest prehispanic site on record, Aguas Buenas, which features a unique architecture of hundreds of low mounds set up to form wide concentric circles in a landscape close to the Amerrisque foothills. He was also the principal investigator on a project which contextualized monumental stone sculpture in central Nicaragua. In 2010, it was featured in the National Geographic en Español magazine and resulted in the locating and recording of the El Gavilán site.

His work focuses on exploratory archaeological projects and the engagement and participation of local, municipal, and national stakeholders. His Proyecto Arqueológico Centro de Nicaragua aims to strengthen the capacity of local heritage organizations and museums to assist with local needs.