Richard G. Cooke (28 October 1946 – 22 February 2023) was an archaeologist who specialized in the archaeology of Panama and, more generally, the Isthmo-Colombian Area.[1]
Cooke was born in Guildford, Surrey, southern England. He studied at Bristol and got his doctorate from the University of London in 1972.[2]
Among his areas of concentration were zooarchaeology and the “Greater Coclé semiotic tradition" of central Panama. He did extensive research on ancient fishing [3] He was also interested in Panamanian paleo-ecology, the original settlement of the tropical-forest region of the Americas, the development of agriculture, and general social development in the area. For some ten years, he led an archaeological project in Cerro Juan Díaz. [1] His contributions to Central American archaeology were celebrated in a conference held in San José, Costa Rica in 2017: “Tras una Herencia Cultural Milenaria: Contribuciones de Richard Cooke a la Arqueología del Área Istmo- Colombiana.” Cooke established a modern reference collection of fauna species of tropical America, for use by archaeologists and others.
A Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute staff scientist for the Smithsonian Institution,[3] he spent most of his career working in Panama.
In 2017, Cooke was designated a Member of the Order of the British Empire.[4][5]
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