Chris Stantis

About

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I'm an Assistant Professor at Southern Illinois Carbondale. I'm an archaeologist with training in anatomy and chemistry to focus on analyzing bones and teeth to place people in their past environment.

Learn about my forensic methods improvement project (and how you can help!) here

Besides research, I like gaming (video, board, and tabletop) and bouldering

Research

Stable Isotopes

I'm a bioarchaeologist with a focus on archaeological chemistry. With small pieces of bones and teeth, I can investigate what people ate in the past and where they lived when they were alive. With that information, I like to ask questions about the social and physical environments that shaped those decisions.

Open Data

I'm a big believer in open data in archaeology. I think it helps erode barriers to access in science, and does honor to the samples which had to be destroyed to generate information. I'm a founding member of IsoArcH, a data repository and community for archaeological isotopic data, and also a champion for IsoBank, which wants to have isotopic data across all disciplines available.

Data Visualization

I adore good data visualization. Check out my GitHub page on creating R code for creating isotopes scatterplots.

Around the World

My research focuses on methods and types of questions rather than a specific region, culture, or time period. This means I've gotten to study lots of people in the past! This includes people who died in London to the Black Death, pre-Contact Tonga and Fiji, Hyksos Dynasty Egypt, Bronze Age Near East, and pre-Hispanic Peru.

Media

I've had several opportunities to talk about my research. Here's some links!

Video

• 2022. What we can, or shouldn't, extract from human bones. National Museum of Natural History ScienceCafe. Link
• 2021. Not me, but Scott Manley talks about my criticisms of a Scientific Reports article. Link
• 2020. My UpGoer5 Challenge, explaining my research using only the most commonly-used words. Link

Podcasts

• 2022. Ethics in Museum Collections with Chris Stantis. Women in Archaeology Podcast Link
• 2020. Merry Hyksmas! With Chris Stantis. The Dirt Podcast Link
• 2020. How may isotopic analyses help us understand who Egypt's Hyksos Dynasty were? The Arch and Anth Podcast. Link
• 2019. A career in isotopes. Career in Ruins Podcast. Link

News Articles

• 2023. Mutton, an Indigenous woolly dog, died in 1859 − new analysis confirms precolonial lineage of this extinct breed, once kept for their wool, The Conversation Link
• 2021. New Research Reveals Surprising Origins of Egypt's Hyksos Dynasty. Theresa Machemer, Smithsonian Mag Link
• 2019. Foreigners may have conquered ancient Egypt without invading it. Bruce Bower, Science News Link
• 2019. How breastfeeding sparked population growth in ancient cities. Chris Stantis, The Conversation Link

Invited Blogs

• 2020. The Foreigner as Scapegoat: Lessons from Ancient Egypt and Today. Guest post for Chris Naunton. Link
• 2023. Sending Fossils Into Space Ignites Age-Old Debate. Link

Contact

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Instagram
• GitHub

Elements

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