About Dr. Christopher S. Davis

Dr. Christopher Sean Davis is a tenured instructor of Anthropology at McHenry County College. He holds a Ph.D. degree in Archaeology and a M.A. degree in Anthropology from the University of Illinois in Chicago, and a B.A. degree in Chemistry from Dartmouth College.

With a focus on Paleoindians and paleoclimate, Davis’ research has involved rock art and archaeoastronomy analyses, lithic and ceramic analyses, and some forensic anthropology. He started his career in archaeology attending a field school and conducting preliminary study on Easter Island, ground-truthing GIS data and satellite imagery of boat house remnants. He continued Island Archaeology research in the Caribbean, assisting ceramic analysis, and conducting his own exploratory study for Taino settlements in the Indieras region of Puerto Rico. From there, he joined scientific and salvage archaeology in the Brazilian Amazon at Santarem. With Dr. Anna Roosevelt becoming his doctoral advisor, he established his own research further down river at the Monte Alegre site. However, Christopher continues assisting and participating in other projects, including work with the D.P.A.A. (Defense Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Accounting Agency) conducting forensic anthropology to retrieve fallen American soldiers from the Vietnam War.

Research he has conducted has been published in international professional peer-reviewed journals in English and a few in (Brazilian) Portuguese, he compiled the textbook, The Rise of Ancient Civilizations with Cognella publishing , and he just published Before Sunset: Ice Age Amazonian Rock Art and Archaeoastronomy before the Younger Dryas through Springer publishing.

Dr. Davis has appeared in two documentaries, including the second season of Graham Hancock’s Ancient Apocalypse series on Netflix and the 2018 PBS documentary, Native America, highlighting his expertise in the field.He has received some competitive grants, including a Fulbright Grant and the Abraham Lincoln Graduate Fellowship. Fluent in Portuguese and proficient in Spanish, Davis is an active member of several professional organizations, including the Society of American Archaeologists, the Explorers Club, and the American Anthropological Association.

He is committed to fostering a supportive academic environment and has served on various diversity and inclusion committees. He also recently reinitiated an Archaeology Field School at the Macktown historic and prehistoric site in Rockton, Illinois.