Sam Challis

Sam Challis
Sam Challis (2024)
Born	William Robert Challis (1973-12-12) December 12, 1973 (age 52)
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]

Career and research

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]}

Selected publications

Books

• Lewis-Williams, David; Challis, Sam (2011). Deciphering Ancient Minds: The Mystery of San Bushman Rock Art. London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN   9780500051696.
• Hampson, J.; Challis, Sam; Goldhahn, J., eds. (2022). Powerful Pictures: Rock Art Research Histories Around the World. Oxford: Archaeopress. ISBN   9781803273884.

Articles

• Challis, Sam (2012). "Creolisation on the nineteenth-century frontiers of southern Africa: a case study of the AmaTola 'Bushmen' in the Maloti-Drakensberg". Journal of Southern African Studies. 38 (2): 265–280. doi:10.1080/03057070.2012.666905.
• McGranaghan, Mark; Challis, Sam (2016). "Reconfiguring hunting magic: Southern Bushman (San) perspectives on taming and their implications for understanding rock art" (PDF). Cambridge Archaeological Journal. 26 (2): 245–269. doi:10.1017/S0959774316000408.
• Challis, Sam; Sinclair-Thomson, Brent (2022). "The Impact of Contact and Colonization on Indigenous Worldviews, Rock Art, and the History of Southern Africa: "The Disconnect"". Current Anthropology. 63 (5): 525–544. doi:10.1086/722260.

References

1. https://www.wits.ac.za/rockart/staff-and-students/
2. "Curriculum Vitae" (PDF). University of Michigan. 2024. Retrieved 22 August 2025.
3. Challis, Sam (2008). The impact of the horse on the AmaTola ‘bushmen’: new identity in the Maloti-Drakensberg Mountains of Southern Africa (DPhil thesis). University ofOxford.
4. "Sam Challis". Museum of Anthropological Archaeology. University of Michigan. Retrieved 21 August 2025.
5. "Sam Challis Biography". University of the Witwatersrand. Retrieved 3 September 2025.
6. "Rock Art Network - Sam Challis". Bradshaw Foundation. Retrieved 3 September 2025. his research programme in the mountains of Matatiele in the Eastern Cape, aims to redress the imbalance of this neglected former-apartheid region while training local community Field Technicians
7. "Honorary Staff & Researchers". School of Geosciences. University of Aberdeen. Retrieved 26 August 2025.
8. Kohn, Marek (10 June 2011). "Deciphering Ancient Minds: The Mystery of San Bushman Rock Art, by David Lewis-Williams & Sam Challis". The Independent . Retrieved 21 August 2025.
9. Helvenston, Patricia A. (November 2012). "Deciphering ancient minds: the mystery of San Bushman rock art. A critical book review". Rock Art Research . 29 (2): 247–256.
10. Deacon, Janette (December 2011). "Review: (Untitled)". The South African Archaeological Bulletin. 66 (194). South African Archaeological Society: 189–190.

External links

• Sam Challis publications indexed by Google Scholar