Christopher T Fisher

Christopher T. Fisher (born 1967) is an American archaeologist. Early days

Fisher grew up in Duluth and Spokane and is a first generation college student.

Education

Fisher began his academic studies as a percussion-performance major at Eastern Washington University. However, after going on an archaeology field-school, he changed his major to anthropology, getting a B.A. in anthropology from Michigan State University. Thereupon, he got an M.A. and a Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Professional activities

Fisher is the founder and co-director of the Earth Archive as well as Professor of Anthropology at Colorado State University and a National Geographic Explorer. His specialities include LiDAR and aspects of urban development and environmental change in Meso-America. Fisher's use of LiDAR at the site of is possibly its first archaeological application in Mesoamerica. "The images gathered after flying over Angamuco for just forty-five minutes revealed twenty thousand previously unknown archeological features, including a pyramid that, seen from overhead, is shaped like a keyhole."

Fisher was also the lead archaeologist and scientific director of the Mosquitia Archaeological Project (MAP) through which the World Heritage Site, the City of the Jaguar, also known as Ciudad Blanca was first documented using Airborne LiDAR. Fisher also led excavations at the ancient city in 2016 sponsored by National Geographic and the Honduran Government.

Publications

Fisher, Christopher T., et al., eds. (2022) The Archaeology of Environmental Change: Socionatural Legacies of Degradation and Resilience. University of Arizona Press. Thurston, Tina L. and Christopher T. Fisher, eds. (2007) Seeking a Richer Harvest: An Introduction to the Archaeology of Subsistence Intensification, Innovation, and Change. Springer. Fisher, Christopher T. (2005) "Demographic and Landscape Change in the Lake Patzcuaro Basin, Mexico: Abandoning the Garden,"American Anthropologist 107(1): 87-95.