Sarah Baitzel

Sarah Baitzel serves as Associate Professor of Archaeology in the Department of Anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis, holding a PhD from the University of California, San Diego. Her research focuses on Andean societies during periods of political transformation, particularly examining social identities through mortuary practices and subsistence strategies.

Her primary research interests include:

• Andean archaeology with emphasis on Tiwanaku-influenced cultures
• State collapse dynamics and societal reorganization
• Mortuary archaeology and archaeothanatology
• Pastoralism and ecological complementarity in vertical economies
• Isotopic analysis for reconstructing mobility and diet
• High-altitude human adaptation in the Andes

Professor Baitzel's recent publications (2018-2022) reveal consistent engagement with Tiwanaku material culture, mortuary practices, and settlement patterns across southern Peru. Key thematic trends include authority transmission through seal iconography, biocultural approaches to grief and mourning, and interdisciplinary investigations of ecological adaptation in marginal environments. Her work increasingly integrates isotopic methodologies with traditional archaeological analysis to reconstruct ancient lifeways.

She leads an interdisciplinary U.S.-Peruvian team conducting excavations at Los Batanes (Sama Valley) and co-directs the Centro de Investigación Arqueológica y Antropológica Sama-Tacna (CIAAST), which provides laboratory facilities and researcher housing. Her collaborative projects include a 2019 partnership with Earth and Planetary Sciences on high-altitude pastoralism in the Sibinacocha Valley (15,000 ft elevation), documented in media features about climate change research.

Professor Baitzel actively engages in archaeological preservation efforts, working with Peru's Ministerio de Cultura to protect sites threatened by urban and agricultural expansion. Her teaching includes foundational courses like Introduction to Archaeology, emphasizing hands-on analysis of lithics and faunal remains to reconstruct past human behavior.