José M. Capriles

Affiliate Researcher
Titles and Affiliations
Associate Professor, Anthropology

Dr. Capriles's research is focused on three sets of questions: (1) how did humans adapt to the changing environmental conditions of the South American Andes and Amazonia during the late Pleistocene-early Holocene transition? (2) which specific economic and ecological processes were involved in the development of early camelid pastoralism and other food production economies? and (3) how were the economic and technological organization of subsistence-scale communities impacted by the emergence and expansion of complex polities such as the Tiwanaku and Inca states? To address these problems, he conducts research in Bolivia and Chile and collaborates broadly with international interdisciplinary research teams. He is also engaged in the preservation of cultural heritage through public outreach and the active participation of indigenous and local communities in archaeological research. 

In the News

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Recent Publications

Evaluating Dietary Diversity among Andean Central Altiplano Early Camelid Pastoralists Using Stable Isotope Analysis

Capriles, J. M., Miller, M. J., Fox, J. R., Browman, D. L. & Yoder Urista, C., 2024, In: Environmental Archaeology. 29, 3, p. 246-264 19 p.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

The Geochronological and Geoarchaeological Context of the Clovis-Age La Prele Mammoth Site (48CO1401), Converse County, Wyoming

Allaun, S. A., Surovell, T. A., Vance Haynes, C., Pelton, S. R., Mackie, M. E., Kelly, R. L., O’Brien, M., Sanders, P. H., Capriles, J. M. & Mahan, S., 2023, In: PaleoAmerica. 9, 3, p. 174-193 20 p.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

A Review of Archaeological and Paleoecological Radiocarbon Dating in Bolivia

Capriles, J. M., 2023, In: Open Quaternary. 9, 2.

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

The Bolivian Radiocarbon Database: A Countrywide Compilation of Radiocarbon Dates

Capriles, J. M., 2023, In: Journal of Open Archaeology Data. 11, 6.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Precipitation variability, vegetation turnover, and anthropogenic disturbance over the last millennium in the Atacama highlands of northern Chile (19°S)

Domic, A. I., de Porras, M. E., Capriles, J. M., Zamora-Allendes, A., Ivory, S. J. & Maldonado, A., May 2023, In: Holocene. 33, 5, p. 536-549 14 p.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Chinchorro fibre management in the Atacama Desert and its significance for understanding Andean textilization processes

Montt, I., Valenzuela, D., Cases, B., Santoro, C. M., Capriles, J. M. & Standen, V. G., Sep 2023, In: Journal of Anthropological Archaeology. 71, 101530.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

p3k14c, a synthetic global database of archaeological radiocarbon dates

Bird, D., Miranda, L., Vander Linden, M., Robinson, E., Bocinsky, R. K., Nicholson, C., Capriles, J. M., Finley, J. B., Gayo, E. M., Gil, A., d’Alpoim Guedes, J., Hoggarth, J. A., Kay, A., Loftus, E., Lombardo, U., Mackie, M., Palmisano, A., Solheim, S., Kelly, R. L. & Freeman, J., Dec 2022, In: Scientific Data. 9, 1, 27.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Pre-Columbian cultivation of vegetatively propagated and fruit tree tropical crops in the Atacama Desert

Capriles, J. M., García, M., Valenzuela, D., Domic, A. I., Kistler, L., Rothhammer, F. & Santoro, C. M., Sep 29 2022, In: Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. 10, 993630.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Reconstructing the sequence of an Inca Period (1470-1532 CE) camelid sacrifice at El Pacífico, Peru

Flores-Blanco, L., Altamirano, A. J., Villacorta, M., Capriles, J. M., Estrada, F., Herrera, K., Llosa, M., Chávez, E. & Alarcón, C., Feb 2022, In: Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. 41, 103247.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

The Rise and Fall of Wiñaymarka: Rethinking Cultural and Environmental Interactions in the Southern Basin of Lake Titicaca

Bruno, M. C., Capriles, J. M., Hastorf, C. A., Fritz, S. C., Weide, D. M., Domic, A. I. & Baker, P. A., Apr 2021, In: Human Ecology. 49, 2, p. 131-145 15 p.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Pre-Columbian transregional captive rearing of Amazonian parrots in the atacama desert

Capriles, J. M., Santoro, C. M., George, R. J., Bedregal, E. F., Kennett, D. J., Kistler, L. & Rothhammer, F., Apr 13 2021, In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 118, 15, e2020020118.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Distribution shifts in habitat suitability and hotspot refugia of Andean tree species from the last glacial maximum to the Anthropocene

Domic, A. I. & Capriles, J. M., 2021, In: Neotropical Biodiversity. 7, 1, p. 297-309 13 p.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Plant community assembly is predicted by an environmental gradient in high-altitude wetlands in the semiarid western bolivian andes

Domic, A. I., Capriles, J. M., Meneses, R. I. & Pacheco, P., 2021, In: Mires and Peat. 27, p. 1-12 12 p., 1.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Correction to: Landscape Engineering Impacts the Long-Term Stability of Agricultural Populations (Human Ecology, (2021), 49, 4, (369-382), 10.1007/s10745-021-00242-z)

Freeman, J., Anderies, J. M., Beckman, N. G., Robinson, E., Baggio, J. A., Bird, D., Nicholson, C., Finley, J. B., Capriles, J. M., Gil, A. F., Byers, D., Gayo, E. & Latorre, C., Aug 2021, In: Human Ecology. 49, 4, p. 383 1 p.

Research output: Contribution to journalComment/debatepeer-review

Landscape Engineering Impacts the Long-Term Stability of Agricultural Populations

Freeman, J., Anderies, J. M., Beckman, N. G., Robinson, E., Baggio, J. A., Bird, D., Nicholson, C., Finley, J. B., Capriles, J. M., Gil, A. F., Byers, D., Gayo, E. & Latorre, C., Aug 2021, In: Human Ecology. 49, 4, p. 369-382 14 p.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review