Christyann M. Darwent

Education

• Ph.D., Anthropology, University of Missouri–Columbia, 2001
• M.A., Archaeology, Simon Fraser University, Canada, 1995
• B.Sc., Archaeology, University of Calgary, Canada, 1992

About

Christyann Darwent is a zooarchaeologist interested in how humans adapt to arid, high arctic environments and coastal ecosystems. She manages the Zooarchaeology Lab and Comparative Skeletal Collection, which includes the Peter D. Schulz Osteoichthyology collection. In addition to serving as the Graduate Advisor and Evolutionary Anthropology Wing Chair, Dr. Darwent is Chair of the Faculty Executive Committee for the College of Letters & Science, Vice Chair of the UC Davis Graduate Council, and serves as Graduate Advisor (criminalistics track) and member of the executive committee for the Forensic Science Graduate Group. She previously served as editor of the journal Arctic Anthropology from 2012-2022.

Research Focus

Professor Darwent’s interests lie primarily in animal skeletal remains from archaeological sites and how these remains can shed light on past human subsistence economies and past environments. Over the past 25 years her arctic field research has taken her to western Alaska, northwestern Greenland, and the high arctic islands of Nunavut. In collaboration with Bowdoin College and the Greenland National Museum, she conducted archaeological field work in northwestern Greenland with support of the National Science Foundation (2004-2016). Since 2013, graduate students at UC Davis have been working in collaboration with Shaktoolik Native Corporation in Alaska, to investigate subsistence fishing and the archaeological record in this part of Norton Sound.

Publications 

• Darwent, C. M., J. S. Eubanks, E. Mooneyham, J. W. Eerkens, A. DeGeorgey, and S. Gabaldon (2025). Understanding Ancestral Wappo Hunting and Fishing Practices through Archaeological Faunal Remains. Proceedings of the Society for California Archaeology 38:1-21. https://scahome.org/resources/Documents/1_Darwent et al_FINAL.pdf
• Driscoll, B., C. M. Darwent, and P. Szpak (2025). Thule Dog Diets in the Hudson Bay Reflect Human Dietary Variability: Implications for Palaeodietary Studies and Past Human-Dog Relationships in the Canadian Arctic. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 65:105233. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2025.105233
• Miszaniec, J. I., J. W. Eerkens, M. V. Hall, K. W. Gobalet, C. M. Darwent, and C. Canzioneri (2024).  Ancient Fishing Strategies for the Extinct Thicktail Chub (Gila crassicauda) in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. California Archaeology 16(2): https://doi.org/10.1080/1947461X.2024.2400805
• Barron, M. O., J. W. Eerkens, C. M. Darwent, and D. Shoup (2024). Estimating the Seasonality of Bent-nose Clam (Macoma nasuta) Harvesting at a 3,000-Year-Old Ancestral Ohlone Site (CA-ALA-11) on San Francisco Bay. California Archaeology 16(1):91-109 https://doi.org/10.1080/1947461X.2024.2315824.
• Ebel, E., G.M. LeMoine, C.M. Darwent, J. Darwent, and D.P. Kirby (2023). Using Bone Technology and ZooMS to Understand Indigenous Use of Marine Mammals at Iita, Northwest Greenland. Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology 19(4): 678–699. https://doi.org/10.1080/15564894.2023.2213662
• Miszaniec, J.I., I. Paulsen, J. Darwent, and C.M. Darwent (2023). Fallback Foods and Foraging Demographics in Early Thule Diets: Paleoethnobotanical and Zooarchaeological Results of a Column Sample from Ganigak (49-NOB-001), Norton Sound, Alaska. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 51:104164 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2023.104164

Teaching

Dr. Darwent teaches upper, lower and graduate level courses in Anthropology including Introduction to Archaeology (ANT 003), Vikings (ANT 029), Indigenous Peoples of the Arctic (ANT 141), Archaeological Theory and Method (ANT 170), Zooarchaeology (ANT 180), History of Archaeological Theory (ANT 203), and Personal Identification Methods in Forensic Science (FOR 210).

Honors & Awards

UC Davis Academic Senate Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award (2020); UC Davis College of Letters and Sciences, Division of Social Sciences Dean’s Leadership Award (2015). Research grants from NSF Polar Programs (n=10, 2003–2020).