Office: DHT 509
Email: jessica.cerezoroman@ou.edu
Education: Ph.D., School of Anthropology, University of Arizona, 2014
My academic and professional trajectory has enabled me to study the human body and mortuary customs across fascinating ancient, historical, and modern contexts, employing cutting-edge methodological and theoretical archaeological approaches. One of my technical strengths is my expertise in analyzing human remains, particularly highly burned and fragmented remains, to reconstruct posthumous treatments of bodies and answer broader anthropological questions. I am one of the leading experts on ancient cremation in North America. I have worked with more than 2,800 inhumation and complex cremation burials from Prehispanic populations in Arizona, Northern Mexico, and Mesoamerica, Gallo-Roman and Medieval period burials in Belgium, Middle Gobi Bronze Age burials from Mongolia, Neolithic cremations from China, Neo-Punic and Early Roman cremations from North Africa, Late Stone Age cremations in Malawi, and cremations from the Archaic period in Greece.
I am also a forensic anthropologist and a member of the American Academy of Forensic Science. Throughout my experiences working with modern human remains, and previously as a Forensic Anthropology Postdoctoral Fellow in the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner (PCOME) - Forensic Science Center, Tucson, Arizona, I developed methods to document human remains more accurately. I have worked with cases of migrant death, homicide, child abuse, and, more recently, with issues of social justice and reparations. This is exemplified by my current involvement as a forensic anthropology consultant in the Tulsa Race Massacre investigation since 2020. In addition, I have also worked on over 90 forensic anthropology cases (details upon request).
I also am currently the director of the bioarchaeological component of the El Palmar Archaeological Project, Campeche, Mexico, where I am analyzing Classic Period Maya unburned human remains and mortuary materials to better understand the construction, display, and legitimation of power manifest in the funerary practices and remains of subordinate elites (lakams) and their impacts on health. Other themes I study include the construction of memory, the intersection of group identities, and personhood. I have a long-term project that explores broader regional changes in funerary rituals in the Sonoran Desert of Southern Arizona and Sonora, Mexico, from CE 600 to 1450/1500. I theorize the body as both person and object to understand the special role of the corpse and the construction of memory. This perspective is especially useful because the study of skeletal remains, mortuary customs, posthumous treatments of the body, and archaeological contexts can be integrated in different ways to explore how different aspects of identity intersect, such as health, class, and aging, among others, and how these were portrayed, emphasized, and contested throughout funerary customs.
I also have two ongoing projects related to hunter-gatherers and issues of memory, commemoration, and ancestral connections to the land. In Malawi, Africa, I am analyzing mortuary practices, “token” burials, mobility, persistent places, and body manipulation by Later Stone Age hunter-gatherers. In an exciting new project in Belize, I am currently working on , analyzing cremated human remains from the Paleoindian and Archaic periods.
I have extensive national and international museum experience, including working for six years at the Arizona State Museum (ASM), Tucson, and two years in the Anthropology and Prehistory Section of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), Brussels, Belgium. I developed methods for my research and for working with human remains and burial artifacts from museum collections, which have significantly impacted how these remains are studied, treated, and curated. I am engaged in the broader context of how archaeological research influences contemporary descendant communities, repatriation, and NAGPRA.
Peer-Reviewed Book
· Cerezo-Román, Jessica, Anna Wessman and Howard Williams (editors). 2017. Cremation and the Archaeology of Death. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles (*Invited Submission)
· Cerezo-Román, Jessica I., Jane E. Buikstra, Anna Alexandropoulou, Thomas R. Fenn, Paraskevi Tritsaroli, Megan Walsh and Claire Zikidi. Were There Double Cremations at the Phaleron Burial Ground in Greece? Accepted [Dec. 2025]. Bioarchaeology International.
· Cerezo Román, Jessica I., Thomas R. Fenn, Brett Kaufman, Hans Barnard, Glenys McGowan, Ali Drine, Sami Ben Tahar, Rayed Khedher, Elyssa Jerray and Megan Daniels. 2025. Postmortem Care of Subadults from the Neo-Punic Tophet at Zitha, Tunisia. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 32(48):1-31.
· Cerezo-Román, Jessica I., Elizabeth A. Sawchuk, Alex Bertacchi, Annalys Hanson, Megan Walsh, Grace Veatch, Potiphar Kaliba and Jessica Thompson. 2025. Detailed Recovery Methods Show the Complexity of Ancient Mortuary Practices in Later Stone Age Hunter-Gatherers of Southern-Central Africa. 2025. Bioarchaeology International. DOI: 10.5744/bi.2024.0027
· Moes, Emily, Lexi O’Donnell, Nadia C. Neff, Jessica Cerezo-Román, Willa R. Trask, Douglas J. Kennett and Keith M. Prufer. 2024. Mortuary Practices during the late Paleoindian and Archaic Periods in the Southern Maya Mountains. Bioarchaeology International. DOI:https://doi.org/10.5744/bi.2023.0029
· Cerezo-Román, Jessica I., Brett Kaufman, Glenys McGowan, Ali Drine, Thomas R. Fenn, Hans Barnard, Rayed Khedher, Sami Ben Tahar, Stacy Edington, Elyssa Jerray and Megan Daniels, 2024. The Life and Death of Cremated Infants and Children from the Neo-Punic Tophet at Zita, Tunisia. Antiquity, 98(400):936-953.
· Cerezo-Román, Jessica I., Fenn, Thomas R., Cruz Guzmán, Carlos, Maldonado, Silvia I. N., León Romero, Claudia., and Villalpando, Elisa. 2022. Cremations and Pyrotechnologies among the Prehispanic Inhabitants of Cerro de Trincheras, Northern Mexico. Latin American Antiquity, 34(1):1-20.
· Mark Lipson, Elizabeth A. Sawchuk, Jessica C. Thompson, Jonas Oppenheimer, Christian A. Tryon, Kathryn L. Ranhorn, Kathryn M. de Luna, Kendra A. Sirak, Iñigo Olalde, Stanley H. Ambrose, John W. Arthur, Kathryn J.W. Arthur, George Ayodo, Alex Bertacchi, Jessica I. Cerezo-Román, Brendan J. Culleton, Matthew C. Curtis, Jacob Davis, Agness O. Gidna, Annalys Hanson, Potiphar Kaliba, Maggie Katongo, Amandus Kwekason, Myra F. Laird, Jason Lewis, Audax Z. P. Mabulla, Fredrick Mapemba, Alan Morris, George Mudenda, Raphael Mwafulirwa, Daudi Mwangomba, Emmanuel Ndiema, Christine Ogola, Flora Schilt, Pamela Willoughby, David K. Wright, Andrew Zipkin, Ron Pinhasi, Douglas J. Kennett, Fredrick Kyalo Manthi, Nadin Rohland, Nick Patterson, David Reich, and Mary E. Prendergast. 2022. Ancient DNA Reveals Complex Population Structure among Late Pleistocene and Holocene African Foragers. Nature 603(7900), 290-296.
· Kaufman, Brett, Hans Barnard, Ali Drine, Rayed Khedher, Alan Farahani, Sami Ben Tahar, Elyssa Jerray, Brian N. Damiata, Megan Daniels, Jessica I. Cerezo-Román and Thomas R. Fenn. 2021. Quantifying Surplus and Sustainability in the Archaeological Record at the Carthaginian→Roman Urban Mound of Zita, Tripolitania. Current Anthropology 62(4): 484-497.
· *Cerezo Román, Jessica I. 2021. Métodos morfoscópicos para analizar restos humanos quemados y cremaciones, Revista Noroeste de México, Nueva Época, 1(1): 97–122.
· Cerezo-Román, Jessica I. 2021. A Comparison of Mortuary Practices among the Tucson Basin Hohokam and Trincheras Traditions. American Antiquity 86(2): 327-349.
· Cerezo-Román, Jessica I. and Kenichiro Tsukamoto. 2021. The Life Course of a Standard-Bearer: A Nonroyal Elite Burial at the Maya Archaeological Site of El Palmar, Mexico. Latin American Antiquity 32(2) 274-291.
· Cerezo-Román, Jessica I. and James T. Watson. 2020. Transformation by Fire: Changes in Funerary Customs from the Early Agricultural to Early Preclassic Period among Prehispanic Populations of Southern Arizona. American Antiquity 85(1): 132-151
· Cerezo-Román, Jessica I., Silvia Nava I. Maldonado, Carlos Cruz Guzmán, Watson, James T., and Elisa Villalpando. 2018. Changes in Remembrance of a Cremation Urnfield Cemetery from Prehispanic Times to the Present at Cerro de Trincheras, Sonora, Mexico. Latin American Antiquity 29(1):185-190.
· Skoglund, Pontus, Alissa Mittnick, Kendra Sirak, Mateja Hajdinjak, Nadin Rohland, Swapan Mallick, Tasneem Salie, Anja Heinze, Matthias Meyer, Alexander Peltzer, Matthew Ferry, Eadaoin Harney, Megan Michel, Kristin Stewardson, Jessica I. Cerezo-Román, Chrissy Chiumia, Alison Crowther, Elizabeth Gomani-Chindebvu, Richard Helm, Mark Horton, Alan Morris, John Parkington, Mary E. Prendergast, Raj Ramesar, Ceri Shipton, Jessica Thompson, Ruth Tibesasa, Vanessa Hayes, Svante Pääbo, Nick Patterson, Nicole Boivin, Ron Pinhasi, Johannes Krause and David Reich. 2017. Reconstructing Prehistoric African Population Structure. Cell 171, 59–71
· *Hanut, Frédéric, Caroline Polet, Koen Deforce, Fabienne Pigière, Jessica I. Cerezo-Román, Véronique Hurt, Mircea Udrescu and Wim Van Neer. 2017. La Nécropole de Messancy (Province de Luxembourg, Belgique): Évolution d'un Grand Cimetière Trévire au Cours du Haut-Empire. In Du Bûcher à La Tombe. Diversité et Évolution des Pratiques Funéraires dans les Nécropoles à Crémation de la Période Galloromaine en Gaule Septentrionale, edited by Frédéric Hanut, pp. 279-304. vol. 36. Département du Patrimoine (SPW/DGO4), Namur.
· Cerezo-Román, Jessica. 2015. Unpacking Personhood and Funerary Customs in the Hohokam Area of Southern Arizona. American Antiquity 80(2):353-375.
· Cerezo-Román, Jessica and Patricia O. Hernández. 2014. Estimating Age at Death Using the Sternal End of the Fourth Ribs from Mexican Males. Forensic Science International. Vol. 236, pp.196.e1-196e6.
· Bosquet, Dominique, Marie-Laure van Hove, Benjamin van Nieuwenhove, Jessica Cerezo-Román, Sophie Challe, Sandrine Fievez, Stéphanie Lozet, Chloé Vandenbranden, Frédéric Heller, and Didier Willems. 2014. Rebecq/Rebecq: Fouilles sur la Grand-Place à l’emplacement de l’église Saint-Géry. Chronique de l’ Archéologie Wallonee. Vol. 22, pp. 15-19.
· Deforce, Koen, Fabienne Pigière, Caroline Polet, Jessica I. Cerezo-Román, Frédéric Hanut, Mircea Udrescu and Wim Van Neer. 2014. Etudes Bioarchéologiques de la Nécropole à Incinération Romaine de Messancy (Prov. De Luxembourg). Comité Pour la Diffusion de la Recherche en Archéologie Gallo-Romaine – Comité Voor de Verspreiding van het Onderzoek in de Gallo-Romeinse. Archeologie Signa 3:75-76.
· *Hanut, Frédéric, Jessica I. Cerezo-Román, Koen Deforce, Véronique Hurt, Fabienne Pigière, Caroline Polet, Mircea Udrescu and Wim Van Neer. 2014. La Nécropole de Messancy /Messancy province de Luxembourg). In Du Bûcher à La Tombe. Les Nécropoles Gallo-Romaines à Incinération en Wallonie, edited by Frédéric Hanut and Denis Henrotay, pp. 150-157. Institut du Patrimoine Wallon, Namur.
Peer-Reviewed Book Chapters (*Invited Submission)
· *Lincoln-Babb, Lorrie, T. Michael Fink, Rebecca Hill, Chris Loendorf, John A. McClelland, Penny Dufoe Minturn, Teresa Rodrigues, Jessica I. Cerezo-Román and Korri Turner. 2025. Southern and Central Arizona Bioarchaeology: Disease, Health, Mortuary Programs and Affinity in the Land of the Hohokam. In Readings in Southwestern Bioarchaeology, Volume 2, edited by Ann L. W. Stodder and Dawn M. Mulhern. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.
· *Buikstra, Jane E., Anna Alexandropoulou, Jessica Cerezo-Román, Stella Chryssoulaki, Aviva Cormier, Krysten Cruz, Susan Frankenberg, Elizabeth Hannigan, Leigh Hayes, Lyle Konigsberg, Hannah Liedl, Giannis Pappas, Jessica Rothwell, and Marina Velegraki. In edits. Paleodemography and the Phaleron Cemetery, In Proceedings of the International Conference Athens and Attica in the Early Iron Age and the Archaic Period.
· *Cerezo-Román, Jessica I. and Elissa Villalpando C. In press [2025]. La población prehispánica de Cerro de Trincheras, Sonora. Análisis funerario. In La Población del Norte de México: Ante viejos paradigmas, nuevas metodologías, edited by Patricia Olga Hernández Espinoza and James T. Watson. Coordinación Nacional de Antropología, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Distrito Federal, México.
· *Cerezo-Román, Jessica I. and Elissa Villalpando C. In press [2025]. Life and Death for Women at Cerro de Trincheras. In A Bioarchaeological Exploration of Women's Roles and Life Histories, edited by Christine Lee and Katherine Miller Wolf. Routledge.
· *Cerezo-Román, Jessica. 2022. Estimación de la Edad al Momento de la Muerte Usando el Extremo Esternal de la Cuarta Costilla de Individuos Masculinos Mexicanos. In Mirsa Quinto Sánchez & Jorge Gómez Valdés (Eds.), Avances en Antropología Forense (pp. 108-122). México: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.
· *Cerezo-Román, Jessica. 2020. Cremation Funeral Customs among the Classic Period Hohokam of the Tucson Basin. In Ancient Southwestern Mortuary Practices, edited by Watson, James, and Gordon Rakita. pp. 175-208. University Press of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado.
· *Cerezo-Román, Jessica I. 2020. Bodies among Fragments: Non-Normative Inhumations among the Preclassic and Classic Period Hohokam of the Tucson Basin. In The Odd, the Unusual, and the Strange:
Bioarchaeological Explorations of Atypical Burials, edited by Tracy K. Betsinger, Amy B. Scott, and Anastasia Tsaliki. pp. 18-43. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.
· *Cerezo-Román, Jessica I. and Bruce E. Anderson. 2019. Deconstructing Non-Carious Cervical Lesion on Teeth in Forensic Contexts. In Dental Wear in Evolutionary and Biocultural Contexts, edited by Christopher W. Schmidt and James T. Watson. Pp. 123-142. Elsevier, Philadelphia, PA.
· Cerezo-Román, Jessica I., Koen Deforce, Denis Henrotay and Wim Van Neer. 2017. “From Life to Death: Dynamics of Personhood in Gallo-Roman Funeral Rituals, Arlon, Belgium. In Cremation and the Archaeology of Death, edited by Cerezo-Román, Jessica, Anna Wessman, and Howard Williams. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 148-176.
· Howard Williams, Cerezo-Román, Jessica, and Anna Wessman. 2017. Introduction: Archaeologies of Cremation. In Cremation and the Archaeology of Death, edited by Cerezo-Román, Jessica, Anna Wessman and Howard Williams. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 1-24.
· *McClelland, John and Jessica Cerezo-Román. 2016. Personhood and Re-embodiment in Osteological Practice. In Dealing with the Dead: Mortuary Archaeology and Contemporary Society, edited by Melanie Giles and Howard Williams. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 39-67.
· *Watson, James T., Jessica I. Cerezo-Román, Silvia Nava I. Maldonado, Carlos Cruz Guzmán and Elisa Villalpando. 2015. Death and Community Identity in the Trincheras Cremation Cemetery, Sonora, Mexico. In The Analysis of Burned Human Remains, edited by Christopher W. Schmidt and Steven A. Symes, Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp. 339-354.
· *Cerezo-Román, Jessica. 2014. Pathways to Personhood: Cremation as a Social Practice among the Tucson Basin Hohokam. In Transformation by Fire: The Archaeology of Cremation in Cultural Context, edited by I. Kuijt, C. Quinn and G. Cooney. University of Arizona Press, Tucson, pp 148-167.
· *Cerezo-Román, Jessica and Howard Williams. 2014. Future Directions for the Archaeology of Cremation. In Transformation by Fire: The Archaeology of Cremation in Cultural Context, edited by Ian Kuijt, Colin Quinn, and Gabriel Cooney. University of Arizona Press, Tucson, pp. 240-255.
Workshops Organized
· La investigación de los cuidados en el pasado: la bioarqueología del cuidado, Centro Asociado a la Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Motril, Granada, Spain, October 22-24, 2025.
· Archaeology of Cremation: From Big Questions to Archaeological Excavation and Bioarchaeological Analysis September 29, 2022 2:00-4:00, RPA certified zoom seminar, Deeper Digs seminar series for Society for American Archaeology.
· FIRE IT UP! Cremations in Athens and Attica: How and why? May 3, 2022 Andreas Lentakis Foundation - Ag. Asomaton 47, Athens, Greece, co-organizer with Jane E. Buikstra (Arizona State University), Emmanuele Petiti (Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Berlin) and Jutta Stroszeck (Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Athen).
· Archaeology of Cremation workshop (2.5 hrs) February 10th, 2021. Open to staff, faculty undergraduates and graduate students in Department of Anthropology, University of Oklahoma, Norman.
· La Bioarqueología del Fuego: Cremaciones y Prácticas Funerarias" In the Seminario Aleŝ Hrdliĉka, October 26–27, 2017 Escuela de Antropología e Historia del Norte de México, Chihuahua, México.
Forensic Anthropology Consultation
· Tulsa Race Massacre Graves Investigation, City of Tulsa. Spring 2020 to present.
· Missing person/Cold case consultation, Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, Oklahoma City. Fall, 2018.
Bioarchaeology Consultation
· Oklahoma Archeological Survey, Norman, Oklahoma, and Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, Oklahoma City, 2023.
· Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, Spring 2023.
