Christopher Donta

About Christopher Donta

I have been working professionally in archaeology since 1985. My experience includes multiple years of field research in Alaska, Arizona, and throughout the Northeast. I directed approximately 250 projects at the University of Massachusetts, from New Jersey to Maine, from 19••••12. I next worked for Gray & Pape in Providence for six years, where I directed over 175 projects across the Northeast. At my current position, I am a Principal Investigator and Team Lead of the Cultural Resources program at SWCA, based in Amherst, Massachusetts.I have worked in all six New England states, as well as New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. My interests are primarily in Native American culture change, from Paleoindian through the Contact Period, and I have worked on sites spanning the past years, and particularly have spent a lot of time on Late Archaic sites across the region. I also have extensive experience on a wide variety of historic period sites, from mill and water industry sites, to farmsteads and homesteads, taverns and inns, to wharves and urban sites. Prior to my time in the Northeast, I spent six years in Alaska working on coastal sites in the Kodiak archipelago, as well as in the Aleutians and on the Alaska Peninsula, and two years on Native sites in various parts of Arizona.

Experience

1. Senior Cultural Resources Team Lead

   SWCA Environmental Consultants

   Dec 2018 — Present · Amherst, MA, US

   Currently leading a team of 12 full time cultural resources specialists based in our western Massachusetts office. We complete archaeological and architectural surveys across the Northeast and support other offices across the country.

Education

• College of the Holy Cross

  Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), History

  1982 — 1986

• Bryn Mawr College

  Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Anthropology

  1986 — 1993

• Bryn Mawr College

  Master of Arts (M.A.), Anthropology

  1986 — 1988

• Boston University

  Archaeology/Anthropology

  1985 — 1985

• University of Pennsylvania

  Anthropology

  1986 — 1989

Skills

• Archaeology
• Research
• Teaching
• Historic Preservation
• Nepa
• Lecturing
• Mitigation
• Arcgis
• Spatial Analysis
• Oral History
• Cultural Resource Management
• Field Work
• Scientific Writing
• Anthropology
• Community Outreach
• American History
• Research Design
• Archival Research
• Historical Research
• Archaeological Survey
• Report Writing
• History
• Public Speaking
• Architectural History
• Proposal Writing