Author Information
Walter R.T. Witschey initiated his life-long love of archaeology reading Gods, Graves, and Scholars, by C.W. Ceram, a 12th birthday present. Educational and work-world detours from then to a career in archaeology were numerous.
He graduated from Princeton University with a B.A. in physics, specializing in particle physics and acquiring basic computer skills. He took an M.B.A. at the Darden School of the University of Virginia, using his computer skills to explore problems in operations research, especially queuing theory. After graduation, he joined IBM as a systems engineer in Richmond, Va., specializing in solving operations research problems for a wide range of science- and medicine-based college and business organizations.
In 1969, he and other IBM alumni formed a computer services business, which he headed until 1984. With a dual focus on pre-internet time-sharing services, and facility management of transaction processing systems (particularly Medicaid claims processing), the business grew to $35 million annual sales and 1,200 employees.
In 1985 he at last had the opportunity to return to archaeology, and moved his family to New Orleans where he took an M.A. and Ph.D. in anthropology, specializing in the archaeology of the Maya area. From 1987–1992, he served as Principal Investigator for the Caribbean coastal Maya site Muyil.
In 1992, he returned to Richmond and served for fifteen years as the director of the multi-site state-agency Science Museum of Virginia. He and Dr. Brown began their efforts to create the Electronic Atlas of Ancient Maya Sites, a project that continues today, data from which was used to prepare this volume.
In 2007, he retired from the Science Museum to become Professor of Anthropology and Science Education at Longwood University, teaching anthropology, archaeology, and geographic information systems, where he served until retirement in 2020.
With Dr. Brown, he is the co-author of Historical Dictionary of Mesoamerica, and is author/editor of Encyclopedia of the Ancient Maya. Together they authored “The fractal geometry of ancient Maya settlement” and “The Broken Past: Fractals in Archaeology” with Larry S. Liebovitch.
He and his wife Joan have five children, thirteen grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.
Clifford T. Brown has been fascinated with archaeology and prehistory since he was a child. He enrolled at Yale University at the age of 17 and was graduated, cum laude, with a B.A. in Archaeology four days after his 21st birthday. As an undergraduate, he participated in laboratory research in Chiapas, Mexico, and in fieldwork in Veracruz, Mexico.
He took his M.A. and Ph.D. in Anthropology at Tulane University. While in graduate school, he worked at the ancient Maya sites of Muyil, Quintana Roo, Ek Balam, Yucatán, and Copán, Honduras. At Copán, he excavated Temple 30 on the Acropolis. He then spent two years excavating at the ancient Maya capital city of Mayapán, the largest of all Maya sites in its heyday. He is currently excavating in western Nicaragua. His research interests include mathematical methods in archaeology, fractal analysis, archaeological econophysics, and many other unusual topics.
Before coming to Florida Atlantic University in 2002, he served for four years as Senior Archaeologist at the United States Department of the Navy. He is currently a Professor in the Department of Anthropology. To date, he has published two books, a score of peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, and many smaller items. He is also author or co-author of over 30 technical reports on archaeological investigations. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in archaeology.