Ph.D
Archaeology
Center, Stanford
University
P.O. Box 20446
Stanford, CA 94309
415.297.2676
http://works.bepress.com/daniel_contreras/
2007 Ph.D,
Department of Anthropological Sciences, Stanford University
Dissertation
title: Sociopolitical and Geomorphologic
Dynamics
at Chavín de Huántar, Peru
2004 M.S.,
Anthropological Sciences, Stanford University
1998
M.A.,
Latin American Studies, Stanford University
1996 B.A.,
Religion (Magna cum laude), Amherst College
Certificate,
Five
College Program in Latin American Studies
THEORY
AND METHODS
Geoarchaeology;
human-environment interactions,
digital methods and archaeology; GIS; geomorphology; environmental
archaeology;
prehistoric ecology; obsidian; origins and development of social
inequality
AREAS
Andean
South America, Mesoamerica
2009
Postdoctoral Teaching
Fellow, Introduction to the Humanities, Stanford University
2007-09
Lecturer,
Department of Anthropology, Stanford University
2008-09
Research
Associate, Cultural Heritage Resource, Stanford University
2006
Organizer, “Searching for
Patterns in the Diversity of the Central Andean Formative” Roundtable
Symposium, held at Stanford University 3-4 March 2006.
2005-07
Co-coordinator, Stanford Obsidian
Research Group, Stanford Archaeology Center
2003-07
Coordinator, Andean Archaeology
Working Group, Center for Latin American Studies, Stanford University
2003
Curriculum Support, Human
Biology "B" side (social theory, linguistics, paleoanthropology and
archaeology), Stanford University Dept. of Human Biology
2009 Contreras, Daniel A. “Reconstructing Landscape at Chavín de Huántar, Perú: A GIS-based Approach.” Journal of Archaeological Science 36(4): 1006-1017.
2009
Contreras, Daniel A. and David K. Keefer.
“Implications of the Fluvial History of the Wacheqsa River
for
Hydrologic Engineering and Water Use at Chavín de Huántar, Peru.” Geoarchaeology
24(5):589-618.
2009
Contreras, Daniel A. “Reconstructing an Engineered Environment in the
Central
Andes: Landscape Geoarchaeology at Chavín de Huántar, Peru.” In The
Archaeology of Anthropogenic Environments,
edited by Rebecca M.
Dean. Center for Archaeological Investigations, Occasional Paper No. 37. Carbondale: Southern
Illinois University.
2008 Contreras, Daniel A. “Geomorfología y Paisaje en Chavín de Huántar.” In
Museo
Nacional Chavín. Lima: Instituto Nacional de Cultura, pp51-59.
In
press Contreras, Daniel A. “A Mito-Style Structure at Chavín
de Huántar:
Dating and Implications.” (Accepted
August 2008 to Latin American Antiquity).
In
press Contreras, Daniel A. “Landscape and Environment:
Insights from the
Prehispanic Andes.” (Accepted June 2009 to Journal
of Archaeological Research).
In
press. Contreras, Daniel A. and Neil Brodie “Quantifying
Destruction: An
evaluation of the utility of publicly-available satellite imagery for
investigating looting of archaeological sites in Jordan.”
(Accepted October
2009 to Journal of Field Archaeology).
In
press. Contreras, Daniel A. and Neil Brodie.
“Shining Light on Looting: Using Google Earth
to Quantify Damage and Raise Public Awareness.” (Accepted September
2009 to the
SAA Archaeological Record).
In
preparation. Contreras,
Daniel A., “Satellites,
Huaqueros, and Settlement Patterns: Visual Spectrum Remote-Sensing
Imagery and
Looting Damage in the Virú Valley, Peru.” (Submitted September 2009 to Antiquity).
In
preparation Tripcevich, Nicholas and Daniel A. Contreras. “Quarrying
Evidence
at the Quispisisa Obsidian Source, Ayacucho, Peru.” (Submitted October
2009 to Latin American Antiquity).
2006 Explorers
Club Exploration Fund Grant
2006 Lewis
and Clark Field Scholar Grant, American Philosophical Society
2006 John
Mason Clark 1877 Fellowship, Amherst College
2005 National
Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant # 0532350
2005 Amherst
College Memorial Fellowship
2005 Lynford
Family Foundation Grant
2002 Amherst
College Memorial Fellowship
2006 Stanford
Humanities Center Mellon Foundation Dissertation Fellowship
2006 Freeman
Spogli Institute O’Bie Shultz Dissertation Write-Up Grant
2005 Graduate
Research Opportunity Grant, School of Humanities and Sciences
2003 Graduate
Summer Field Research Grant, Center for Latin American Studies
2002 Mellon
Summer Fieldwork Grant
2002 Graduate
Summer Field Research Grant, Center for Latin American Studies
2007 Joseph H. Greenberg Award
for Academic Excellence in Anthropological Sciences, Department of
Anthropological Sciences, Stanford University
2002 Annual
Reviews Prize, Department of Anthropological Sciences, Stanford
University
1996 Inducted
into Phi Beta Kappa Society,
Amherst
College Chapter.
1996 Moseley
Prize in Religion (2nd place), Amherst College.
2009 Proyecto Arqueológico Stanford, Chavín de Huántar, Peru (P.I. John Rick, Stanford University)
2007 Field Consultant, Proyecto Arqueológico Queneto, Valle de Virú, Peru (P.I. Ignacio Cancino, Stanford University)
2002-2006
Field
Director, Proyecto Arqueológico Stanford, Chavín de Huántar, Peru (P.I.
John
Rick, Stanford University)
2004-2005
Field
Supervisor, Stanford-Universidad del Valle Semetabaj Project, San
Andres
Semetebaj, Guatemala (P.I. John Rick, Stanford University and Luisa
Escobar
Galo, Lic., Universidad del Valle)
2003
Field Supervisor, Stanford
Field School, Çatalhüyük Archaeological Project, Çatalhüyük, Turkey
(P.I. Ian
Hodder, Stanford University)
1998,
2000
Field Assistant, Proyecto
Arqueológico Stanford, Chavín de Huántar, Peru (P.I. John Rick,
Stanford
University)
1995
Student,
Proyecto Arqueológico Valle de Naco, La Sierra, Honduras (P.I.s Ed
Schortman
and Pat Urban, Kenyon College)
2010 “Interpreting Geochemically Characterized Obsidian from Chavín de Huántar, Peru .”
With Kristin Nado.
Paper
to be presented
for the invited symposium Social Archaeometry: Promise and Prospects in the Anthropological Sciences at
the 75th
Annual
Society
for American Archaeology Meeting,
St. Louis, Missouri, April 2010.
2009
“Investigaciones en la fuente de la
obsidiana tipo Quispisisa, Huancasancos- Ayacucho.”
With
Nicholas Tripcevich and Yuri Cavero.
Paper presented
at the XVI Congreso Peruano del
Hombre y la Cultura Andina y Amazónica, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos,
Lima, Peru, October 2009.
2009 “The
Quarry
Pits of Quispisisa Obsidian Source: Ayacucho, Peru.” With Nicholas
Tripcevich. Presentation
for the UC
Berkeley Archaeological
Research Facility Brownbag Series.
2009 “Research at the Quispisisa obsidian source in the central Peruvian highlands.” With Nicholas Tripcevich. Paper presented at the 74th Annual Society for American Archaeology Meeting, Atlanta, Georgia, March 2009.
2009 “Satellites,
Huaqueros, and Settlement
Patterns: Uses of Remote-Sensing Imagery in the Virú Valley” Paper
presented at
the 49th Annual
Meeting of the
Institute of Andean Studies, Berkeley, CA, January 2009.
2009 “Lessons
from the Landscape: Geoarchaeology
at Chavín de Huántar.” Presentation for the Human Ecology of Landscapes
and
Watersheds Geomorphology Brown Bag, Oregon State University, February
2009.
2008 “The
Janabarriu Problem: Context and
Chronologies at Chavín de Huántar.”
With
John Rick, Christian Mesia, John Wolf, Matt Sayre, and Silvia Kembel. Presentation for the 48th Annual Meeting of the
Institute of Andean Studies,
Berkeley, CA, January 2008.
2008
“La cronología de Chavín de Huántar y sus
implicancias para el Periodo Formativo.”
With John Rick, Silvia Rodriguez Kembel, and Christian
Mesia. Paper
presented at the VI Simposio Internacional de
Arqueología PUCP: El Periodo
Formativo: Enfoques y Evidencias Recientes.
Cincuenta Años de la Misión Arqueológica Japonesa y su
Vigencia,
September 2008.
2008 “Lessons from the Landscape: Reconstructing
the Engineered Environment at Chavín de Huántar, Peru.”
Presentation for the Stanford Archaeology
Center Brownbag Series, December 2008.
2008 “Quantifying
Looting - Hybrid Research Using Google Earth and ArcGIS.” Presentation for the GIS
Special Interest
Group,
Stanford University, November 2008.
2007 “Implications
of a Dynamic Environment:
Reconstructing Past Landscapes at Chavín de Huántar, Peru.” Presented for the Stanford Archaeology Center Workshop Series.
2007 “A
Mito-Style Chamber at Chavín de Huántar: Dating and
Implications.”
Paper for the 72nd Annual
Society for American Archaeology
Meeting, Austin, Texas.
2007 “Reconstructing
an Engineered
Environment in the Central Andes: Landscape Geoarchaeology at Chavín de
Huántar, Peru.” Presented for the 2007 SIU
Carbondale Visiting Scholar Conference,
Carbondale, Illinois.
2007 “Understanding
the Archaeological Landscape
at Chavín de Huántar.” Presentation
for
the UC Berkeley Archaeological Research
Facility Brownbag Series.
2007 “Praying
or Playing? Belief
in Archaeological
Interpretation.” Presentation
for the Stanford Archaeology Center Brownbag
Series.
2006 “Expanding
the Map: Geomorphologic and
Cultural Processes at Chavín de Huántar”.
Presented at the 46th
Annual Meeting of the Institute of
Andean Studies, Berkeley, CA.
2006 “A
Mito-style Chamber at Chavín de Huántar:
Implications for Regional Interaction in the Initial Period and Early
Horizon.” Presented
at Searching for
Patterns in the Diversity of the Andean Formative, Stanford
University.
2006 “Machiavellian
Agents and Created
Structures: Defining Setting and Understanding Landscape Engineering at
Chavín
de Huántar”. Presented
as part of the
invited symposium, Agency, Settings and Architecture in
Andean Archaeology
at the 71st Annual Society for American
Archaeology Meeting, San
Juan, Puerto Rico. Organizers:
David
Chicoine and Elizabeth DeMarrais.
2006 “Natural Sources of Power and Emerging Authority at
Chavín de Huántar”. Co-presented
with
John Rick as part of the invited symposium, Religious Authority and Ritual
Architecture in Prehispanic South America at the 71st Annual Society
for
American Archaeology Meeting, San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Organizers: Augusto Oyuelo-Caycedo and Jerry
Moore.
2006 “A
Modified Landscape in the Central Andes:
Integrating Geoarchaeology into the Prehistory of Chavín de Huántar,
Peru”. Presented at
the 2nd
Archaeological Sciences of the Americas Symposium, Tucson,
Arizona.
2005
“Proyecto de Historia Paisajística, Riesgo
Ambiental, y Ingenieria del
Terreno,
Chavín de Huántar, Resultos Preliminares, 2005”. Presented at the Primer
Congreso de
Arqueología de Ancash, Huaraz, Peru.
2005 “Uncovering
the Temple Landscape: Problems
of Topographic History and Settlement Survey in the Geologically
Dynamic Valley
of Chavín de Huántar”. Presented
as part
of the invited symposium,
Research
at
Chavin de Huantar, Peru, 1994-2004 at
the 70th
Annual Society for American Archaeology Meeting, Salt Lake City, UT. Organizer: Silvia Kembel.
2005 “Geomorphologic
and Sociopolitical Dynamics
at Chavín de Huántar, Peru”. Presented
at Defining Social Complexity: Approaches to Power and
Interaction in the
Archaeological Record conference, Cambridge, England.
2004 “Drinking
One’s Way to False Consciousness:
The Role of Chicha in the Emergence of Social Inequality at Chavin de
Huantar,
Peru”. Presented at the Congreso
Internacional sobre la
Cerveza en la Prehistoria y la Antigüedad, Barcelona, Spain.
2004
“Are They Biting Yet? The
Mid-Holocene Sea-level Rise and the
Antiquity of the Maritime Adaptation in Coastal Peru”.
Presented for the Andean Archaeology Working
Group, Center for Latin American Studies, Stanford University.
2004
“Where Do We Go from
Here? Conservation
Easements and ‘Chavin
at the Crossroads’”. Presented
at the
Archaeology Center Brown Bag Series, Stanford University.
2003 “Assessing Change in Peruvian Archaeological Sites: Developing a Digital Methodology”. Co-presented with Dana Jensen at the Center for Latin American Studies Bolívar House Lecture Series, Stanford University.
2009
Past Human
Environments, GIS
in Anthropological Research
2008
Digital Methods in
Archaeology, Introduction to Peruvian Prehistory, Archaeology as a
Profession.
Tropical
Ecology and Conservation
(with Rodolfo Dirzo)
2007
Humanized Landscapes:
Archaeological Approaches to Human-Environment Interactions.
Advanced
Andean Archaeology
(with John Rick)
2006
Models
and Images in Archaeological Computing (with John Rick)
2003-2005
Teaching Assistant, Department of
Anthropological Sciences, Stanford University.
Courses included: Introduction to Prehistoric
Archaeology, Peruvian
Archaeology, Human Origins, Introduction to Mesoamerican Archaeology
1999-2001
History
Teacher, Robert Louis Stevenson School, Pebble Beach, CA
1998-1999
Teaching
Assistant, Center for Latin American Studies, Stanford University
Courses
included: History
of Mexico, Sustainable Development in Latin America
1997-1998
History
Teacher, Punahou School, Honolulu, HI
Spatial
data management software (ArcGIS,
Surfer, Didger); archaeological survey; geomorphologic field survey
Written
and oral fluency in Spanish.
Register
of Professional Archaeologists
Institute
of Andean Studies
International
Association of Obsidian Studies