Skip to main content
Anthropology Anthropology
  1. HOME
  2. People
  3. Adjunct Professors & Lecturers
  4. lecturer-profiles
  5. Andres Garzon-Oechsle

Andres Garzon-Oechsle

Lecturer

Andrés Garzón-Oechsle is an Ecuadorian archaeologist and geoscientist with 15 years of experience in the field. He is a postdoctoral researcher at the Scripps Center for Marine Archaeology and co director of the Center of Investigations and Museum Salango in Manabí, Ecuador. Andrés’ research focuses on the interface between traditional Archaeology, Remote Sensing, and Climate Change Science to understand how the Manteño civilization of coastal Ecuador responded to changing conditions from El Niño-Southern Oscillation during the major global climate shifts of the Late Holocene and how those resiliency approaches can be used in today’s changing climate. Andrés developed and applied a UAV mobile LiDAR mapping system in the cloud forest of coastal Ecuador to reveal a modified landscape of cultivation terraces, water retention ponds, and water distribution channels. Charcoal frequencies and age-depth modeling of radiocarbon dates of these Manteño landscape modifications revealed that from the 12 th to the 17 th century, the society endured extreme droughts and torrential rains from changing conditions in ENSO during the Medieval Climate Anomaly and the Little Ice Age by creating a modified human landscape in the most resilient region of their territory, the cloud forests of the high elevations of the Chongón-Colonche mountains. Andrés works closely with the Manteño descendant communities of El Pital-Río Blanco, Salango, Agua Blanca, and Picoazá members of the Pueblo Ancestral Manta. Andrés uses Photogrammetry, 3D modeling, 3D prints, and videogames for public archaeological outreach within these communities, museums, and visitors.
  • BA in Anthropology, Indiana University (2007)
  • MA in Anthropology, Florida Atlantic University (2018)
  • Ph.D. in Geosciences, Florida Atlantic University (2023)