Biography
Gabriel Wrobel (PhD, Indiana University) is a Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Michigan State University. His research and teaching focus on bioarchaeology, examining the dynamic interactions between biology and culture in past populations through the analysis of human skeletal remains within their mortuary and archaeological contexts. His work has centered primarily on ancient Maya communities in Belize, where he has directed multiple archaeological projects, including his current one at the site of Sarteneja on the Chetumal Bay in northern Belize. He also leads the MSU Bioarchaeology Laboratory, where he and his students analyze morphological and pathological skeletal data in collaboration with international, multidisciplinary teams to reconstruct the histories of Maya populations in central Belize and along the Caribbean coast and to situate these findings within broader cultural processes in Mesoamerica. Additionally, his work encompasses broader efforts in Australasian bioarchaeology and Digital Heritage.
Across both field and laboratory settings, his work emphasizes hands-on training and engaged research opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students through study abroad programs and diverse laboratory projects. He regularly teaches courses in Bioarchaeology, Paleopathology, Biocultural Anthropology, and Introduction to Biological Anthropology.
Works
Selected Publications (last 5 years)
Wrobel, Gabriel D., & Andrea Cucina, editors (2024) Mesoamerican Osteobiographies: Revealing the Lives and Deaths of Ancient Individuals. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.
Stemp, W. James, Jaime J. Awe, & Gabriel D. Wrobel (2026) Better Late Than Never: Current Understanding of the Archaic in Central Belize. Heritage 9(1): 31. https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage9010031
Kratimenos, Panos, Gabriel Wrobel, & Elizabeth Graham (2025) Merchants and Their Wares: The 2023-24 Excavations at Marco Gonzalez. Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology 19: 355-368. https://doi.org/10.62064/RRBA.19.29
Chen, Huan, Amy Baetsen-Young, Addie Thompson, Brad Day, Thelma Madzima, Sally Wasef, Claudia Rivera Casanovas, William Lovis, & Gabriel Wrobel* (2025) Fifteenth century CE Bolivian Maize Reveals Genetic Affinities with Ancient Peruvian Maize. eLife 14:RP106818 (*corresponding author) https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.106818.3
Wrobel, Gabriel D., & Andrea Cucina (2024) Osteobiographies in Mesoamerica: Their History and Scope. In Mesoamerican Osteobiographies: Revealing the Lives and Deaths of Ancient Individuals, edited by Gabriel D. Wrobel& Andrea Cucina, pp. 1-23. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.
Wrobel, Gabriel D., Eleanor M. Harrison-Buck, Carolyn Freiwald, Jack A. Biggs, Morgan McKenna, & Satoru Murata (2024) Death and Remembrance in Central Belize: An Osteobiography. In Mesoamerican Osteobiographies: Revealing the Lives and Deaths of Ancient Individuals, edited by Gabriel D. Wrobel & Andrea Cucina, pp. 203-221. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.
Jason Kariwiga, Gabriel D. Wrobel, & Michael C. Westaway (2023) Papuan Pasts: The Origins of Papuan Human Remains Collections in the World’s Museums, the Issue of Repatriation, and Telling New Stories with Skeletal Data. InThe Routledge Handbook of Museums, Heritage, and Death, edited by Trish Biers & Katie Clary, pp. 177-190. Routledge Press. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003195870-17
Kratimenos, Panos, Elizabeth Graham, James J. Aimers, Gabriel Wrobel, & Aubree Marshall (2023) Catbirds and Crabholes: The 2023 Field Season at Marco Gonzalez, Belize. Archaeology International 26 (1): 102–121. https://doi.org/10.14324/AI.26.1.08
Wrobel, Gabriel D., Jaime J. Awe, Joseph Hefner, & Andrea Cucina (2022) Exploring Maya Population History of Central Belize. Journal of Archaeological Science Reports 45: 103630. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2022.103630
Wrobel, Gabriel D. (2022) 3D Digitization and Analysis of Human Skeletal Remains for Mesoamerican Bioarchaeology. In The Routledge Handbook of Mesoamerican Bioarchaeology, edited by Vera Tiesler, pp. 563-576. Routledge Press, London. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429341618-37
Wrobel, Gabriel D., Raúl Alejandro López Pérez, & Claire E. Ebert (2021) Life and Death among the Earliest Maya: A Review of Early and Middle Preclassic Burials from the Maya World. Ancient Mesoamerica 32(3): 545-557. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0956536121000456
Wrobel, Gabriel D., Julie A. Hoggarth, & Aubree Marshall (2021) Before the Maya: A Review Paleoindian and Archaic Skeletons Found in the Maya Region. Ancient Mesoamerica 32(3): 475-485. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0956536121000250
Westaway, Michael C., Doug Williams, Kelsey M. Lowe, Nathan Wright, Ray Kerkhov, Jennifer Silcock, Joshua Gorringe, Justyna Miszkiewic, Rachel Wood, Richard Adams, Tiina Manne, Shaun Adams, Tony Miscamble, Justin Stout, Gabriel D. Wrobel, Justine Kemp, Brooke Hendry, Max Gorringe, Betty Gorringe, Keiron Lander, Shawnee Gorringe, Ian Andrews, & Mark Collard (2021) Hidden in Plain Sight: The Archaeological Landscape of Mithaka Country, South-west Queensland. Antiquity 95(381): 1-18. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2021.31
Wasef, Sally Adel, Gabriel Wrobel, Nathan Wright, Joanne L. Wright, Shaun Adams, Jason Kariwiga, Matthew Leavesley, Mark Collard, & Michael C. Westaway (2021) A Contextualised Review of Genomic Evidence for Gene Flow Events Between Papuans and Indigenous Australians in Cape York, Queensland. Quaternary International 603: 22-30. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2021.02.011
2023 Fulbright Specialist, Public Archaeology in Belize, September 2023.
2022 Michigan State University Undergraduate Research Faculty Mentor of the Year Award.
Gallery
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