Richard Diehl is a Mesoamerican archaeologist. He received his education from William T. Sanders and Paul T. Baker, who taught him cultural ecology, cultural evolution, and the centrality of field research to all good anthropology. Diehl’s research has focused on the pre-Columbian cultures of central Mexico and the Olmec culture of the tropical lowlands of the Mexican Gulf coast (see Olmec head in photo to the right). His field research includes projects at Tula, San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán Matacapan, Kaminaljuyu, and La Mojarra, settlement pattern surveys in the Basin of Mexico, and ethnographic research on contemporary settlement patterns in the Basin of Mexico and peasant agriculture in the tropical lowlands of Veracruz.