Jago Cooper

Jago Cooper
Born	Jago Elliott Cooper 1 June 1977 St. Pancras, London, England, UK
Nationality	British
Occupation	Archaeologist

Jago Cooper (born 1 June 1977) is a British archaeologist and the Curator of the Americas at the British Museum whose career has focused on the archaeology of South America and the Caribbean, in particular the historic effects of climate change on island communities. In recent years he has written and presented a series of programmes for BBC Four, including Lost Kingdoms of South America, Lost Kingdoms of Central America, Easter Island: Mysteries of a Lost World and The Inca: Masters of the Clouds.

Biography

Cooper attended Bryanston School in Dorset,^[1] and University College London (UCL) where he was awarded BA, MA and PhD qualifications in archaeology. After periods on the teaching staff at the University of Leicester^[2] and UCL, Cooper joined the British Museum's Department of Africa, Oceania and the Americas in 2012.

Cooper's archaeological work has focused on the pre-Columbian archaeology of the Americas, including major projects at El Chorro de Maíta and Los Buchillones in Cuba.^[3] He specialises in studying the historic effects of climate change in Caribbean island societies, most recently through examination of the cavescapes of Isla de Mona off Puerto Rico.^[4] In 2012 he released the book Surviving Sudden Environmental Change: Answers from Archaeology with Payson D. Sheets which was described as being one of the "outstanding examples of 'thinking big'. . . carefully researched, interdisciplinary, focused and informative" by Erika Guttmann-Bond in the Antiquity Journal.^[5]

In 2009 Cooper co-presented the Channel 4 series Man on Earth with Tony Robinson and Joy Singarayer,^[6] and in 2011 wrote and presented the series Lost Kingdoms of South America for BBC Four, including four episodes exploring the Chachapoya people, the city of Tiwanaku, the legend of El Dorado and the Kingdom of Chimor.^[7] A second series aired in September 2014 entitled Lost Kingdoms of Central America focusing on the Olmec, Chiriquí and Taíno people and the ancient Mexican city of Teotihuacan.^[8] In 2013 he filmed a one off-special for BBC 4 entitled Easter Island: Mysteries of a Lost World which re-examined the historic collapse in Rapa Nui society.^[9] January 2015 saw the broadcast of the two part series The Inca: Masters of the Clouds, also on BBC 4.^[10]

Publications

Books

• Cooper, J. & Sheets, P. (eds). 2012 Surviving Sudden Environmental Change: Answers from Archaeology. University of Colorado Press, Boulder.

Articles

• Cooper, J. 2013. "Building Resilience in Island Communities: a paleotempestological perspective". In (eds L. Giosan et al.) Climates, Landscapes and Civilizations. American Geophysical Union Special Monographs AGU, Washington D.C.
• Cooper, J. 2013. "The Climatic Context for Caribbean Archaeology". In (eds.) Hofman, C., Keegan, W.F. & Rodriguez Ramos, R.) Oxford Handbook for Caribbean Archaeology. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
• Cooper, J. 2012. "Weathering climate change. The value of social memory and ecological knowledge". Archaeological Dialogues, 19: 46–51
• Cooper, J. & Sheets, P. (eds). 2012 Surviving Sudden Environmental Change: Answers from Archaeology. University of Colorado Press, Boulder.
  • Cooper, J. 2012. Fail to Prepare then Prepare to Fail: re-thinking threat, vulnerability and mitigation in the Precolumbian Caribbean. In (eds Cooper, J. & Sheets, P.) Surviving Sudden Environmental Change: Answers from Archaeology. University Press of Colorado, Boulder. 91–115.
• Cooper J, and Thomas K. 2012. Constructing Caribbean Chronologies: comparative radiocarbon dating of shell and wood artefacts from precolumbian sites in Cuba. Archaeometry. 54:401–425.
• Cooper, J. & Boothroyd, R. 2011. "Living Islands of the Caribbean: A view of relative sea level change from the waters edge". In (eds Hofman, C. & van Duijvenbode, A.) Communities in Contact: Essays in archaeology, ethnohistory and ethnography of the Amerindian circum-Caribbean. Sidestone Press, Leiden. 393–406.
• Cooper, J. 2011. Cultural Revival for Survival: pre-Columbian lessons for living through the impacts of climate change, in The Proceedings of the XXIII Congress of The International Association for Caribbean Archaeology. 24:127-37.
• Cooper, J. & Peros, M. 2010. The Archaeology of Climate Change in the Caribbean. Journal of Archaeological Science. 37:1226–1232.
• Cooper, J. 2010 Pre-Columbian Archaeology of Cuba: a study of national site distribution patterns and radiocarbon chronologies. In Island Shores, Distant Pasts: Archaeological and Biological Approaches to the Pre-Columbian Settlement of the Caribbean, edited by S. M. Fitzpatrick and A. H. Ross. University of Florida Press, Gainesville. Chapter 4. 81–107.
• Cooper, J. 2010. Modelling Mobility and Exchange in Pre-Columbian Cuba: GIS led approaches to identifying pathways and reconstructing journeys from the archaeological record. In (eds. Hofman, C. & Bright, A.). A special edition for the Journal of Caribbean Archaeology. 122–137.
• Valcárcel Rojas, R., Martinón-Torres, M., Cooper, J & Rehren, T. 2010. "Turey Treasure in the Caribbean". In Beyond the Blockade: New Currents in Cuban Archaeology. (eds. Kepecs, S., Curet, A. & de la Rosa, G.). University of Alabama Press, Alabama. 106–125.
• Cooper, J., Valcárcel Rojas, R. and Calvera Rosés, J. 2010. Recent Archaeological Fieldwork from the Region around Los Buchillones, an Indigenous Site on the north-central Cuban Coast. In Beyond the Blockade: New Currents in Cuban Archaeology. (eds. Kepecs, S., Curet, A. & de la Rosa, G.). University of Alabama Press, Alabama. 89–105.
• Cooper, J. 2008. Creating Connections between Caribbean Islands: a case study from northern Cuba. In Comparative Island Archaeologies. (eds. Conolly, J. & Campbell, M.). British Archaeological Reports 1829. Chapter 9. 179–190.
• Cooper, J., Martinón-Torres, M. & Valcárcel Rojas, R. 2008. American gold and European brass: metal objects and indigenous values in the cemetery of El Chorro de Maíta, Cuba. In (Eds Hofman, C., Hoogland, M. & Van Gijn, A.) Crossing the Borders: New Methods and Techniques in the Study of Archaeological Materials from the Caribbean. University of Alabama Press, Alabama. 34–42.
• Martinón-Torres, M., Cooper, J., Valcarcel Rojas, R. and Rehren, T. 2008. Diversifying the Picture. Archaeology International. 10:37–40.
• Cooper, J., Dawson, H. & Rennell, R. 2008. Forum for Island Research and Experience. The European Archaeologist. 30:6.
• Cooper, J. 2007. Registro Nacional de Arqueología Aborigen de Cuba: una discusión de métodos y prácticas. El Caribe Arqueólogico 10:132–150.
• Valcárcel Rojas, R., Martinón-Torres, M. Cooper, J. And Rehren, T. 2007. Oro, guanines y latón. Metales en contextos aborígenes de Cuba. El Caribe Arqueólogico 116–131.
• Martinón-Torres, M., Valcárcel Rojas, R. Cooper, J. and T. Rehren. 2007. Metals, Microanalysis and Meaning: a study of metal objects excavated from the indigenous cemetery of El Chorro de Maíta, Cuba. Journal of Archaeological Science 34(2):194–204.
• Calvera Rosés, J., Valcárcel Rojas, R. & Cooper J. 2006. "Los Buchillones: Universo de Madera". Revista de Ciencias Sociales: ACRD. 9–16.
• Cooper, J., R. Valcárcel Rojas and P. Cruz Ramírez. 2006. Gente en los Cayos: Los Buchillones y sus vínculos marítimos. El Caribe Arqueólogico 9:66–75.
• Valcárcel Rojas, R., J. Cooper, J. Calvera Rosés, O. Brito and M. Labrada. 2006. Postes en el Mar: Excavación de una estructura constructiva aborigen en Los Buchillones. El Caribe Arqueólogico 9:76–88.
• Cooper, J. 2004. Islas y Isleños en el Caribe: Interacción a través del paisaje. El Caribe Arqueólogico 8:91–96.
• Cooper, J. & Valcarcel Rojas, R. 2004. Pre-Hispanic Settlements Along the North Coast of Cuba: A Pilot Survey Report from Los Buchillones (eds.Clement, A. et al.) Papers from the Institute of Archaeology 15:77–81.

References

1. "Jago Cooper (H '95) presents The Lost Kingdoms of South America". Bryanston School. 14 January 2013.
2. "University of Leicester work highlighted at prestigious international event". University of Leicester. 6 September 2014.
3. "Jago Cooper". British Museum. 6 September 2014.
4. "New discoveries of cave art in the Caribbean". British Museum. 6 September 2014.
5. Guttmann-Bond, Erika (December 2012). "Lessons from the past: coping with natural hazards and climate change". Antiquity Journal, Vol. 86, Issue 334. Retrieved 6 September 2014.
6. "Man on Earth". Channel 4. 6 September 2014.
7. "Lost Kingdoms of South America". BBC. 6 September 2014.
8. "Lost Kingdoms of Central America". BBC. 6 September 2014.
9. "Easter Island: Mysteries of a Lost World". BBC. 6 September 2014.
10. BBC 4. "The Inca: Masters of the Clouds". bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04xrsx6 February 2015.

External links

• British Museum – Jago Cooper
• Jago Cooper, British Museum at Academia.edu
• Jago Cooper at the Internet Movie Database