Hello!
I am a Fellow in the History of Art and Visual Culture in the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I recently completed my doctorate in anthropology at Yale University, and I am interested in the intersection between people, patterns, and pots. My current project is focused on the collecting of Usulután pottery in the 20th century, expanding on my doctoral research on Usulután pottery in ancient Mesoamerica.
Teaching at the Yale University Art Gallery 2024
Cotzumalguapa 2019
Chalchuapa 2023
Museum Writing
Jar
Teotihuacan artist(s)
350–550 CE
This seemingly simple jar tells a more complex story. The elegant form, monochrome orange slip, and thin, strong walls identify it as an (appropriately named) Thin Orange vessel…
Double-crocodile pendant
Coclé (Macaracas) artist
950–1100 CE
This composite object from Gran Coclé, in central Panama, depicts two tiny gold heads attached to greenstone projections. Measuring only two centimeters in height, it integrates two highly valued materials in the ancient Americas….
Peer-Reviewed Papers
Davis, Caitlin Reddington (in prep) 2026 Reconstructing Usulután production and exchange patterns in the Late Formative Southern Maya Region. In: Carlos Flores Manzano (ed.), Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust: The Archaeology of El Salvador. University of Florida Press, Gainesville.
Davis, Caitlin Reddington, Carlos Flores Manzano, and David Rafael McCormick Alcorta 2025 La tradición Usulután en la región Maya Meridional: Nuevas interpretaciones desde el análisis elemental. In: Gloria Ajú Álvarez (ed.) XXXVII Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala, 2024, 893-901. Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología, Guatemala.
Davis, Caitlin Reddington 2022 Metaphorical Diphrasis in the Murals of Tulum. Journal of Manuscript and Text Culture 1:3-29.
Davis, Caitlin Reddington and David Rafael McCormick Alcorta 2022 Formative obsidian procurement and production in Salinas La Blanca, Guatemala. International Association of Obsidian Studies Bulletin 67:15-26.
Interior of the Temple of the Diving God, Tulum. Drawing by C.R. Davis 2022 after F. Davalos 1982.
Conference Papers
Davis, Caitlin Reddington 2025 Reconstructing Usulután production and exchange patterns in the Late Formative Southern Maya Region. Paper presented at the Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, USA.
Davis, Caitlin Reddington, Carlos Flores Manzano, and David Rafael McCormick Alcorta 2024 Cerámica de estilo Usulután en la Región Maya del Sur. Paper presented at the 37th Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueologicas en Guatemala, Guatemala City, Guatemala.
Davis, Caitlin Reddington 2024 Usulután pottery in the Southern Maya Region: paste composition & potting communities. Paper presented at the Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, USA.
Davis, Caitlin Reddington 2021 Formative Ceramic and Obsidian Transitions at Salinas La Blanca. Paper presented at the Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online.
Davis, Caitlin Reddington 2017 Flower & Song: Exploring Literacy in PostClassic Mesoamerica. Poster presented at the Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, Canada.
Davis, Caitlin Reddington 2015 Ritualized Discourse in the Mesoamerican Codices. Poster presented at ARCHON Research School of Archaeology Conference, Amersfoort, Netherlands.
Davis, Caitlin Reddington 2015 Applying a Central Mexican Approach to a Maya Codex. Paper presented at the Symposium Onderzoek Jonge Archeologen, Leiden, Netherlands.
Davis, Caitlin Reddington 2015 Miscarriage and Fetal Personhood: Attitudes Towards the Unborn in Precolumbian Mesoamerica. Poster presented at the Archaeology, Identity, and Personhood Conference, Leiden, Netherlands.
Funding History
2025-2026
Sylvan C. Coleman and Pam Coleman Memorial Fund Fellowship
Michael C. Rockefeller Wing
Metropolitan Museum of Art
2023-2024
International Dissertation Fellowship
The Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies
Yale University
2021-2023
Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant #2138007
“The Role of Material Culture in Developing Social Integration”
National Science Foundation
Proyecto Arqueológico Cotzumalguapa (2019)
Director: Dr. Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos, Yale University
Proyecto Arqueológico Centro de Nicaragua (2016)
Director: Dr. Alexander Geurds, Oxford University, Leiden University
Belize River East Archaeology Project (2012)
Director: Dr. Eleanor Harrison-Buck, University of New Hampshire
“What is uncertain is not the world, but the knowledge we have about it.”
Yale University
Advisor: Prof. Oswaldo Chinchilla
Leiden University
r(MA) Archaeology 2016
Leiden University Excellence Scholarship
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. M.E.R.G.N. Jansen
Thesis: Ritualized Discourse in the Mesoamerican Codices: An Inquiry into Epigraphic Practice.
Boston University
BA Archaeology, Anthropology 2013
Advisor: Prof. Paul Goldberg
Interested in talking?
You can reach me at:
Caitlin.Davis@MetMuseum.org
Caitlin.Davis.Judd@gmail.com