Jago Cooper (born 1 June 1977) is a British

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

. He is the Executive Director of the

Sainsbury Centre The Sainsbury Centre is an art museum located on the campus of the University of East Anglia, Norwich, England. As part of its relaunch in 2023 under new executive director, Jago Cooper, the Sainsbury Centre became the first museum in the worl ...

and professor of Art and Archaeology at the

University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a Public university, public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus university, campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and twenty-six schools of ...

. Formerly, he was Curator of the Americas at the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

whose career has focused on the archaeology of South America and the Caribbean, in particular the historic effects of

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

on island communities. Since 2011 he has written and presented a series of programmes for

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

, including ''Lost Kingdoms of South America'', ''Lost Kingdoms of Central America'', ''Easter Island: Mysteries of a Lost World'', ''Masters Of The Pacific Coast: The Tribes Of The American Northwest'', and ''The Inca: Masters of the Clouds''. He has also published books on world art and archaeology.

Biography

Cooper attended

Bryanston School Bryanston School is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English Private schools in the United Kingdom, private boarding school, boarding and day school for pupils aged 13–18) located next to the village of Bryanston, and near the ...

in Dorset, and

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

(UCL) where he was awarded BA, MA and PhD qualifications in archaeology. After periods on the teaching staff at the

University of Leicester The University of Leicester ( ) is a public university, public research university based in Leicester, England. The main campus is south of the city centre, adjacent to Victoria Park, Leicester, Victoria Park. The university's predecessor, Univ ...

and UCL, Cooper joined the

's Department of Africa, Oceania and the Americas in 2012. Cooper's archaeological work has focused on the

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era, also known as the pre-contact era, or as the pre-Cabraline era specifically in Brazil, spans from the initial peopling of the Americas in the Upper Paleolithic to the onset of European col ...

archaeology of the Americas The archaeology of the Americas is the study of the archaeology of the Western Hemisphere, including North America (Mesoamerica), Central America, South America and the Caribbean. This includes the study of pre-historic/pre-Columbian and historic ...

, including major projects at

El Chorro de Maíta EL, El or el may refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional entities * El, a character from the manga series ''Shugo Chara!'' by Peach-Pit * Eleven (''Stranger Things'') (El), a fictional character in the TV series ''Stranger Things'' * El, fami ...

and Los Buchillones in Cuba. He specialises in studying the historic effects of

in Caribbean island societies, most recently through examination of the cavescapes of

Isla de Mona Mona Island () is the third-largest island of the Puerto Rican archipelago, after the main island of Puerto Rico and Vieques. It is the largest of three islands in the Mona Passage, the strait between Hispaniola and Puerto Rico, with the othe ...

off

Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...

. In 2012 he released the book ''Surviving Sudden Environmental Change: Answers from Archaeology'' with Payson D. Sheets which was described as being one of the "outstanding examples of 'thinking big'. . . carefully researched, interdisciplinary, focused and informative" by Erika Guttmann-Bond in the Antiquity Journal. In 2009 Cooper co-presented the

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

series '' Man on Earth'' with

Tony Robinson Sir Anthony Robinson (born 15 August 1946) is an English actor, author, broadcaster, and political activist. He played Baldrick in the BBC television sitcom ''Blackadder'' and has presented many historical documentaries, including the Channel ...

and

Joy Singarayer Joy Sargita Singarayer (born 23 September 1976) is a British climate scientist and Professor of Palaeoclimatology at the University of Reading, where she is joint Head of the Department of Meteorology. She has made contributions to understanding p ...

, and in 2011 wrote and presented the series ''Lost Kingdoms of South America'' for

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

, including four episodes exploring the

Chachapoya The Chachapoyas, also called the "Warriors of the Clouds", were a culture of the Andes living in the cloud forests of the southern part of the Department of Amazonas of present-day Peru. The Inca Empire conquered their civilization shortly be ...

people, the city of

Tiwanaku Tiwanaku ( or ) is a Pre-Columbian archaeological site in western Bolivia, near Lake Titicaca, about 70 kilometers from La Paz, and it is one of the largest sites in South America. Surface remains currently cover around 4 square kilometers and in ...

, the legend of

El Dorado El Dorado () is a mythical city of gold supposedly located somewhere in South America. The king of this city was said to be so rich that he would cover himself from head to foot in gold dust – either daily or on certain ceremonial occasions � ...

and the

Kingdom of Chimor Chimor (also Kingdom of Chimor or Chimú Empire) was the political grouping of the Chimú culture (). The culture arose about 900 CE, succeeding the Moche culture, and was later conquered by the Inca Empire, Inca emperor Topa Inca Yupanqui aro ...

. A second series aired in September 2014 entitled ''Lost Kingdoms of Central America'' focusing on the

Olmec The Olmecs () or Olmec were an early known major Mesoamerican civilization, flourishing in the modern-day Mexican states of Veracruz and Tabasco from roughly 1200 to 400 Before the Common Era, BCE during Mesoamerica's Mesoamerican chronolog ...

, Chiriquí (

Ngäbe The Ngäbe are an Indigenous people within the territories of present-day Panama and Costa Rica in Central America. The Ngäbe mostly live within the Ngäbe-Buglé comarca in the Western Panamanian provinces of Veraguas, Chiriquí and Bocas del ...

) and

Taíno The Taíno are the Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, Indigenous peoples of the Greater Antilles and surrounding islands. At the time of European contact in the late 15th century, they were the principal inhabitants of most of what is now The ...

people and the ancient Mexican city of

Teotihuacan Teotihuacan (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Teotihuacán'', ; ) is an ancient Mesoamerican city located in a sub-valley of the Valley of Mexico, which is located in the State of Mexico, northeast of modern-day Mexico City. Teotihuacan is ...

. In 2013 he filmed a one off-special for BBC 4 entitled ''Easter Island: Mysteries of a Lost World'' which re-examined the historic collapse in

Rapa Nui Easter Island (, ; , ) is an island and special territory of Chile in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle in Oceania. The island is renowned for its nearly 1,000 extant monumental statues, ...

society. January 2015 saw the broadcast of the two part series ''The Inca: Masters of the Clouds'', also on BBC 4.

Curated exhibitions

* ''Peru: A Journey in Time''. 11 November 2021 - 20 February 2022, British Museum - Marking Peru's bicentennial year of independence, this exhibition highlighted the history, beliefs and cultural achievements of the different peoples who lived here from around 2500 BC to the arrival of Europeans in the 1500s, and their legacy in the centuries that followed. * ''Arctic: Culture and Climate''. 22 October 2020 - 21 February 2021, British Museum - "Developed in collaboration with Arctic communities, the exhibition celebrated the ingenuity and resilience of Arctic Peoples throughout history. It told the powerful story of respectful relationships with icy worlds and how Arctic Peoples have harnessed the weather and climate to thrive." * ''Where the Thunderbird Lives: Cultural Resilience on the Northwest Coast of North America''. 23 February - 27 August 2017, British Museum - "''Where the Thunderbird lives'' celebrated the cultural resilience of First Nation communities on the Northwest Coast of North America. The exhibition aimed to bring the story of communities with more than 10,000 years of cultural continuity to an international audience at the British Museum."

Books

* Cooper, J. & Sheets, P. (eds). 2012 ''Surviving Sudden Environmental Change: Answers from Archaeology''. University of Colorado Press, Boulder. * Lincoln, A, Cooper, J. & Loovers, J. P. L. 2020 ''Arctic: Culture and Climate''. Thames & Hudson SBN 978-05004-80663* Sunnucks, L. O. & Cooper, J. 2021 ''Mapping a New Museum.'' Routledge SBN 978-10004-12512* Pardo, C. & Cooper, J. (eds). 2021 ''Peru: a journey in time.'' British Museum Press, London, UK SBN 978-07141-24919ref>

References

External links

British Museum – Jago Cooper

Jago Cooper, British Museum
at

Academia.edu Academia.edu is a commercial platform for sharing academic research that is uploaded and distributed by researchers from around the world. All academic articles are free to read by visitors, however uploading and downloading articles is restrict ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cooper, Jago Alumni of the UCL Institute of Archaeology Employees of the British Museum English archaeologists Living people 1977 births People educated at Bryanston School Pacific archaeology