Dr Philip Riris

Biography
Favourites

Biography

I am a Lecturer in Archaeological & Palaeoenvironmental Modelling at the Institute for the Modelling of Socio-Environmental Transitions. Previously I held postdoctoral fellowships at the UCL Institute of Archaeology.

I earned my PhD in 2015 from the University of Southampton, focusing on long-term patterns of hunter-gatherer land use in northern Argentina. I specialize in the archaeology and historical ecology of tropical South America, with a focus on quantitative analyses and computational modelling. I have conducted fieldwork in Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, and Oman.

My two principal areas of research focus on: 1) coupled human-environmental systems, and 2) computational approaches to rock art and sacred landscapes. I maintain an especial interest in spatial analysis and agent-based modelling, drawing especially on physical geography, quantitative ecology, and complex adaptive systems to understand past human societies. Recently, I have focused on the interface between climate change and ancient demography...

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Favourites

Riris, P., Oliver, J.R. and Lozada Mendieta, N., 2024. Monumental snake engravings of the Orinoco River. Antiquity, 98 (399), 724-742.
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Riris, P. et al., 2024. Frequent disturbances enhanced the resilience of past human populations. Nature, 629 (8013), 837-842.
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Riris, P. and Arroyo-Kalin, M., 2019. Widespread population decline in South America correlates with mid-Holocene climate change. Scientific Reports, 9 (1).
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Riris, P., 2017. On confluence and contestation in the Orinoco interaction sphere: The engraved rock art of the Atures Rapids. Antiquity, 91 (360), 1603-1619.
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Journal Articles
Chapters

Journal Articles

Korpershoek, M., Reynolds, S.C., Budka, M. and Riris, P., 2024. Old and New Approaches in Rock Art: Using Animal Motifs to Identify Palaeohabitats. Quaternary, 7 (4).
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Newton, A.C., Coward, F., Elliott, S., Jenkins, E., Linden, M.V., Riris, P. and Silva, F., 2024. Understanding long-term human ecodynamics through the lens of ecosystem collapse. Holocene, 34 (10), 1439-1453.
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Riris, P., Oliver, J.R. and Lozada Mendieta, N., 2024. Monumental snake engravings of the Orinoco River. Antiquity, 98 (399), 724-742.
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- view in BU repository
Riris, P. et al., 2024. Frequent disturbances enhanced the resilience of past human populations. Nature, 629 (8013), 837-842.
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- view in BU repository
Lozada-Mendieta, N., Riris, P. and Oliver, J.R., 2023. Beads and Stamps in the Middle Orinoco: Archaeological Evidence for Interaction and Exchange in the Atures Rapids from AD 1000 to 1480. Latin American Antiquity, 34 (4), 742-763.
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Lombardo, U., Riris, P. et al., 2022. Evidence confirms an anthropic origin of Amazonian Dark Earths. Nature Communications, 13 (1).
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Silva, F. et al., 2022. Developing Transdisciplinary Approaches to Sustainability Challenges: The Need to Model Socio-Environmental Systems in the Longue Durée. Sustainability (Switzerland), 14 (16).
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Riris, P. and de Souza, J.G., 2021. Formal Tests for Resistance-Resilience in Archaeological Time Series. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 9.
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Riris, P. and Silva, F., 2021. Resolution and the detection of cultural dispersals: development and application of spatiotemporal methods in Lowland South America. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 8 (1).
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Arroyo-Kalin, M. and Riris, P., 2021. Did pre-Columbian populations of the Amazonian biome reach carrying capacity during the Late Holocene?: Amazonian pre-Columbian demography. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 376 (1816).
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French, J.C., Riris, P., Fernandéz-López De Pablo, J., Lozano, S. and Silva, F., 2021. A manifesto for palaeodemography in the twenty-first century: Palaeodemography in the 21st Century. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 376 (1816).
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de Souza, J.G. and Riris, P., 2021. Delayed demographic transition following the adoption of cultivated plants in the eastern La Plata Basin and Atlantic coast, South America. Journal of Archaeological Science, 125.
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Riris, P., 2020. Spatial structure among the geometric earthworks of western Amazonia (Acre, Brazil). Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 59.
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Riris, P. and Arroyo-Kalin, M., 2019. Widespread population decline in South America correlates with mid-Holocene climate change. Scientific Reports, 9 (1).
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- view in BU repository
Riris, P., 2019. Sparse radiocarbon data confound culture-climate links in late pre-columbian amazonia. Quaternary, 2 (4).
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Riris, P. and Oliver, J., 2019. Patterns of Style, Diversity, and Similarity in Middle Orinoco Rock Art Assemblages. ARTS, 8 (2).
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Riris, P., 2018. Dates as data revisited: A statistical examination of the Peruvian preceramic radiocarbon record. Journal of Archaeological Science, 97, 67-76.
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Riris, P., Oliver, J.R. and Mendieta, N.L., 2018. Missing the point: Re-evaluating the earliest lithic technology in the Middle Orinoco. Royal Society Open Science, 5 (6).
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Riris, P., 2018. Assessing the impact and legacy of swidden farming in neotropical interfluvial environments through exploratory modelling of post-contact Piaroa land use (Upper Orinoco, Venezuela). Holocene, 28 (6), 945-954.
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Riris, P., 2017. On confluence and contestation in the Orinoco interaction sphere: The engraved rock art of the Atures Rapids. Antiquity, 91 (360), 1603-1619.
- more information
- view in BU repository
Riris, P., 2017. Towards an artefact's-eye view: Non-site analysis of discard patterns and lithic technology in Neotropical settings with a case from Misiones province, Argentina. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 11, 626-638.
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Mendieta, N.L., Oliver, J. and Riris, P., 2016. Archaeology in the Atures Rapids of the Middle Orinoco, Venezuela. ARCHAEOLOGY INTERNATIONAL, 19, 73-77.
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Riris, P. and Romanowska, I., 2014. A reconstructed reduction sequence for curved bifacial stone tools from the eastern la plata basin, Argentina. Lithics, 5-17.
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Riris, P. and Corteletti, R., 2014. A new record of pre-columbian engravings in urubici (SC), Brazil using polynomial texture mapping. Internet Archaeology.
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Chapters

Riris, P., 2016. Monumentality and territoriality in intermediate societies: An example from the eastern La Plata basin. In: Goepfert, N., Vasquez, S., Clement, C. and Christol, A., eds. LAS SOCIEDADES ANDINAS FRENTE A LOS CAMBIOS PASADOS Y ACTUALES: Dinámicas territoriales, crisis, fronteras y movilidades. Paris: Instituto Francés de Estudios Andinos (IFEA), Laboratoire d'Excellence Dynamiques Territoriales et Spatiales, 287-231.
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Grants

Grants

Comparative Legacies of Human Land Use in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest (Arts and Humanities Research Council, 01 Feb 2023). Awarded
Connected Communities: Network approaches to rock art in lowland South America (British Academy, 01 Sep 2018). Completed
Ancient Networks of Art: towards a relational study of pre-Columbian iconography across the Orinoco Interaction Sphere (Sainsburys Research Unit, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, 01 Jan 2017). Completed

External Responsibilities

External Responsibilities

UCL Institute of Archaeology, Honorary Research Fellow (2018)
Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas, Visiting Collaborator (2015-2017)
Instituto Nacional de Antropología y Pensamiento Latinoamericano, Foreign Investigator (2013)

Twitter, @philriris

Website Links

External Media and Press

Ancient Climate Linked to Dip in South American Population, Archaeology Magazine, 10 May 2019. https://www.archaeology.org/news/7646-190510-south
Ancient Climate Change in South America Caused Populations to Plummet as People Couldn’t Adapt, Newsweek, 09 Apr 2019. https://www.newsweek.com/abrupt-climate-change-drove-early-south-american-population-decline-1419013
See Some of the World's Largest Rock Art—Scanned for the First Time, National Geographic, 07 Dec 2017. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/12/pre-colombian-rock-art-scanned-venezuela-south-america-spd/
Aerial Photos Show Ancient Rock Art Found In Venezuela, International Business Times, 07 Dec 2017. https://www.ibtimes.com/aerial-photos-show-ancient-rock-art-found-venezuela-2625298
Ancient and Enormous South American Rock Art Mapped for First Time Shows Mysterious 100-foot-long Snake, Newsweek, 07 Dec 2017. https://www.newsweek.com/ancient-and-enormous-south-american-rock-art-mapped-first-time-reveals-742351

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