Angelina Locker
Operations Director, Stable Isotope Biogeochemistry Lab
M.A. Anthropology, The University of Texas at Austin
B.A. Anthropology, California State University, Long Beach
Curriculum Vitae
- angelina.locker@northwestern.edu
- 847-467-6303
- 3-150 Hogan
My research combines archaeology, biological anthropology, genomics, and isotope geochemistry to investigate migration, diet, and population history among ancient peoples and animals. I use carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes to reconstruct diet, oxygen and strontium isotopes to track human mobility and migration, and ancient DNA to examine population continuity and genetic ancestry. My work centers on understanding what ancestral remains reveal about individuals, populations, and broader cultural practices by examining how evidence scales across these levels of analysis.
My primary research program focuses on chronological patterns of Maya population dynamics in northern Belize from the Preclassic (800 BCE) through contemporary times, conducted in active partnership with local Maya villages. I also collaborate with descendant communities in New Mexico on parallel bioarchaeological projects, integrating local knowledge with molecular and isotopic data to understand historical population movements and cultural continuities. Additionally, I measure carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen isotopes of fauna remains from the ancient Andes to assess human-animal-environment relationships across the region from the Early Horizon (500 BCE) through Spanish contact, exploring how environmental and cultural shifts shaped subsistence practices over millennia.
Select Publications
2026 Baker, Lilian J., Alaica, A., Locker, A.J., Krause, M., González, L. M., Aramburu Venegas, D.M., and Tung, T.A. Human-Camelid Interactions in the Wari Hinterlands: A stable isotopic analysis of camelid remains from Auquimarca (600-1000 CE), Huancayo, Peru. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 18: 125. DOI: 10.1007/s12520-026-02471-z
2025 Locker, A.J. Dearly de-parted: Ancestors, body partibility, and making place at Dos Hombres, Belize. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 78: 101681. DOI: 10.1016/j.jaa.2025.101681
2025 Locker, A. J., Chase, D.Z., Chase, A.F., Chase, A.S.Z., Vallejos, A.P., Cano, G., Rodriguez, R., To’one Masehualoon NGO, Badillo, M., Baker, L.J., Tung, T. A. and Smith, R. W. A. The Maya are a People of Movement: Reconstructing Shifts in Maya Mobility from Oxygen Isotopes across Three Millenia at Santa Rita Corozal (Chactemal), Northern Belize. American Journal of Biological Anthropology 186(3): e70024. DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.70024
2023 Locker, A.J., Valdez, Jr., F., Breecker, D.O., Banner, J.L., Loewy, S.L., Luzzadder-Beach, S., Drake, S.M., Hyde, D.M., Trachman, R.M., and Lewis, B.S. Ancient Maya movement in the Rio Bravo Conservation and Management Area, NW Belize. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 49: 104052. DOI: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2023.104052