PhD, Anthropology - UC Berkeley 2024
MA, Anthropology - University of Cincinnati 2015
BA, Anthropology, Latin American Studies, Spanish - Miami University 2012
Venicia is a paleoethnobotanist working in Latin America and specializes in the identification and interpretation of macrobotanical (seeds, fruits, etc.) and anthracological (wood charcoal) archaeological plant remains. She has conducted archaeological excavations and analyzed paleoethnobotanical material from El Salvador, Costa Rica, Belize, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador as well as from Ohio and New Mexico within the United States. Her research interests include household archaeology, agroforestry, foodways, resilience, sustainability, historical ecology, and agroecology.
Current Projects:
I am currently collaborating with an interdisciplinary team tracking the co-evolution of humans and maize throughout the Americas from maize’s early domestication through European contact funded with an NSF-DISES grant. I am also a paleoethnobotanist on multiple archaeological projects at the sites of Cueva del Gigante (Honduras), Altar de Sacrificios (Guatemala), and in Chachapoyas (Peru).
Recent Publications:
In-press Slotten, V. Forest Foods: Subsistence in Ancient Arenal, Costa Rica at the G-995 La Chiripa Site. In Foodways and Subsistence in Central America, Colombia and the Caribbean, edited by Y. Núñez Cortés, S. Monge, and M. Lopez Rojas. Springer Nature: New York.
2025 Slotten, V. Ancestral Remembrance and Food Consumption at La Chiripa in Ancient Arenal, Costa Rica. Archaeological Review from Cambridge, Issue 40.1: Food, Gods, and Ancestors – Global Perspectives on the Archaeology of Ritual Food Practices, edited by M.R. Hinks and E. McCafferty Wright.
2024 Slotten, V. Recursos vegetales y resiliencia en el antiguo Arenal: resultados botánicos preliminares de la estructura doméstica en La Chiripa. Vínculos 44 “Proyecto Prehistorico Arenal” edited by P. Sheets and R. Vasquez.
2021 Slotten, V. Mesoamerican Plants of the Night: A Paleoethnobotanical Perspective. In Night and Darkness in Ancient Mexico and Central America, edited by Nancy Gonlin and David Reed. University Press of Colorado, Boulder, CO, Pages 59-78.
2021 Lentz, D.L., V. Slotten, N.P. Dunning, J.G. Jones, V.L. Scarborough, J. McCool, L.A. Owen, S.G. Fladd, K.B. Tankersley, C.J. Perfetta, C. Carr, B. Crowley, and S. Plog. Ecosystem impacts by the Ancestral Puebloans of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, USA. PLoS ONE 16(10): e0258369. https://doi.org/10.1371/
2021 Slotten, V., and D. Lentz. Trees, shrubs, and forests at Joya de Cerén, a Late Classic
Mesoamerican village. Quaternary International, Special Issue: Charcoal Science in Archaeology and Palaeoecology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
2020 Slotten, V., D. Lentz, and P. Sheets. Landscape Management and Polyculture in the Ancient Gardens and Fields at Joya de Cerén, El Salvador. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 59: 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.
2016 Lentz, D., E. Graham, X. Vinaja, V. Slotten, and R. Jain. Agroforestry and Ritual at the Ancient Maya Center of Lamanai. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 8:284-294.
2015 Sheets, P., C. Dixon, D. Lentz, R. Egan, A. Halmbacher, V. Slotten, R. Herrera, and C. Lamb. The Sociopolitical Economy of an Ancient Maya Village: Cerén and its Sacbe. Latin American Antiquity 26(3): 341-361.
2015 Kaplan, L., D. Lentz, V. Slotten, P. Sheets and A. Hood. Phaseolus from Ceren, a Late Classic Maya Site in El Salvador. Economic Botany 69(2): 150-160.