Christopher Jazwa

Graduate Student, University of Rhode Island 

Chris joined IAO and began work toward his PhD in the fall of 2005.  He earned B.S. in Physics and Anthropology from Harvey Mudd College in May of 2005.  As an undergraduate, Chris’s major research focus was on the prehistoric Chumash inhabitants of Santa Cruz Island in southern California.  He continues to be interested in prehistoric coastal hunter-gatherers, but has turned his sights underwater to submerged coastlines, landscapes, and sites. 

Currently, Chris is involved in two major projects.  First, he is researching prehistoric settlement patterns in the salt pond region of southern Rhode Island, with particular focus on what is likely a submerged shell midden site in Ninigret Pond.  In the summer of 2007, he will lead a team that will map and excavate this site.  Secondly, Chris continues to study the Chumash of southern California.  As a follow-up to his undergraduate research, he is working with the staff at the Rhode Island Nuclear Science Center to use Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis to attempt to obtain chemical signatures of chert from both the Channel Islands and the California mainland.  He hopes to use this information to reconstruct prehistoric trade patterns across the Santa Barbara Channel.