Sam Challis
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December 12, 1973
University of Oxford (MSt, DPhil)
Sam Challis | |
|---|---|
 Sam Challis (2024) | |
| Born | William Robert Challis December 12, 1973 |
| Alma mater | Durham University (BA) University of Oxford (MSt, DPhil) |
| Notable work | Deciphering Ancient Minds: The Mystery of San Bushman Rock Art (2011) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Archaeology |
| Institutions | University of the Witwatersrand |
| Thesis | The impact of the horse on the AmaTola ‘bushmen’: new identity in the Maloti-Drakensberg Mountains of Southern Africa (2008) |
| Doctoral advisor | Peter Mitchell |
William Robert (Sam) Challis FRAI FSA (born 12 December 1973) is a British archaeologist. He is Head of the Rock Art Research Institute (RARI) at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.[1]
Challis graduated with a BA in Archaeology from the University of Durham in 1996, and later earned an MSt (2003) and a DPhil at the University of Oxford (2008).[2] He wrote his DPhil thesis on the impact of horses on AmaTola 'bushmen' in Southern Africa.[3]
Challis describes his main research interest as the expression of 'the interaction between hunter-gatherers, pastoralists and farmers, as well as Europeans' in global rock art.[4] He studies 'both historical and modern indigenous ontologies as well as cultural creolization following contact', largely from a rock art perspective.[5] His research programme in the Matatiele trains locals as field technicians.[6]
He is a Research Affiliate of the Museum of Anthropological Archaeology at the University of Michigan, and also an Honorary Research Fellow of the Department of Archaeology at the University of Aberdeen.[4][7]
He co-authored Deciphering Ancient Minds: The Mystery of San Bushman Rock Art with David Lewis-Williams.[8][9][10]
