Patrick Mullins

Education

• Ph.D. Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh, 2022
• M.A. Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh, 2015
• B.A. Archaeology & Ancient/Medieval History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2012

Research Spotlight

I am an Anthropological Archaeologist and my work weaves together archaeological data, archival research, and geospatial analyses to bring ancient human histories and landscapes to life for audiences in both academia and the broader public. I have directed projects and written scholarship in a variety of subjects and settings: from reconstructing and analyzing ancient settlement patterns to doing disaster relief and community development work.

The Proyecto Arqueológico sobre la Historia y Prehistoria de los Guacapongos y Llampas (PAGuaL) is a recent research initiative that I have begun in collaboration with Dr. Amedeo Sghinolfi (Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières), Dr. Dana Bardolph (Northern Illinois University), and Lic. Elvis Monzon (Universidad Nacional de Trujillo) to explore the deep pasts of borderlands, imperialism, and conflict in the Carabamba Plateau of the northern Peruvian highlands. We are particularly interested in understanding the political landscape of this region during the florescence of the Kingdom of Chimor (900 – 1500s CE), a period that saw the rise of several large, fortified towns on the Carabamba Plateau. Were these towns the centers of highland kingdoms that were hostile to the Kingdom of Chimor? Did they perhaps play a part in the epic struggles between the Kings of Chimor and the Inka Empire? With generous support from the Brennan Foundation and Washington College, our pilot fieldwork in Summer 2024 targeted several of these fortified towns for an aerial drone mapping program that helped us begin to answer some of these questions.

In addition to PAGuaL, my long-term work on the Moche Valley Settlement Database (MVSD) is my largest ongoing research project. The MVSD is a composite of Prehistoric (~10,000 BCE – 1500s CE) and Viceroyalty Era (1500s – 1800s CE) settlement pattern data that includes site locations, site descriptions, aerial drone maps, early historical maps and census data, and local Indigenous stories and histories of landscape features and places. Over the past decade, I have compiled most of these data into a GIS database covering around 1700 km2 of the Moche Valley and its adjacent highlands. The completed MVSD will provide a uniquely wide spatial and temporal lens through which varied scholars can investigate settlement patterns associated with a host of phenomena and moments in time: the seasonal rounds of earliest settlers of the valley, the rise and fall of local polities like the Moche or Chimor, and the introduction and exploitation of enslaved Africans amongst the early haciendas of the rural landscapes around Spanish Trujillo.

Feel free to visit my website, contact me via email, or drop by my office to learn more about my work and the various summer research opportunities I can offer to students!

Research

• Frontiers, Borders, and Borderlands
• Andean Archaeology
• Politics and Political Landscapes in Ancient South America
• Prehistoric Conflict, Warfare, and Social Violence
• Ancient Settlement Pattern Surveys and Regional Demography
• Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Applications in Archaeology, Anthropology, and History
• Aerial Mapping, Photogrammetry, and 3-D Modeling
• Local Community Engagement and Collaboration

Teaching

• Introduction to Environmental Archaeology
• Culture, Power, and the Human Experience: Anthropological Inquiry
• South American Archaeology
• Fantastic Archaeology
• Borderland Studies
• Human Evolution and Bioanthropology
• Archaeology of Warfare
• Remote Sensing, Spatial Analyses, and 3D Modeling
• Introduction to Cultural Anthropology 

Fun Stuff

In my free time I am an avid miniature painter, hobbyist, and tabletop gaming enthusiast and love to collect/paint a wide variety of different miniature lines (Warhammer 40,000, Kill Team, Battletech, One Page Rules, etc.) in addition to 3D printing some of my own.