About

Douglas J. Kennett is a Professor and Department Chair in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His specialization is in Archaeology, with a focus on Environmental Archaeology and Human Behavioral Ecology. He is based in the Humanities and Social Sciences Building at UCSB and can be contacted via email at kennett@anth.ucsb.edu or by phone at (805) 893-3456. His research interests include archaeological studies related to environmental factors and human behavior, contributing to the understanding of past human-environment interactions.

Research topics

• Geography
• Archaeology
• Biology
• Demography
• Sociology
• Ecology
• Evolutionary biology
• History
• Paleontology
• Genetics
• Ethnology
• Ancient history
• Geology
• Political Science
• Forestry
• Development economics
• Genealogy
• Oceanography
• Law
• Agroforestry
• Botany
• Medicine
• Cartography
• Linguistics

Selected publications

• Earliest evidence for intentional cremation of human remains in Africa

  Science Advances · 2026-01-01 · 4 citations

  articleOpen accessCorresponding

  Human cremation on an open pyre demands intensive labor, communal resources, and sensory exposures. We report the earliest evidence for intentional cremation in Africa, the oldest in situ adult pyre in the world, and one of only a few associated with hunter-gatherers. A large cremation feature at Hora 1 in Malawi dates to ~9500 years ago and contains the remains of a small, gracile adult with evidence for perimortem defleshing and postcremation manipulation. Subsequent revisiting of the site to build fires in the same place provided additional pyrotechnological spectacles. High-resolution, multiproxy reconstruction of the ritual associated with cremation and its subsequent deposition demonstrates complex mortuary practices among ancient African foraging groups with substantial social investment and use of natural landscape features as persistent mortuary monuments.

  PublisherDOI

• Early evidence of avocado domestication from El Gigante Rockshelter, Honduras

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2025-03-03 · 3 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Molecular research suggests that avocados ( Persea americana Mill.) were domesticated multiple times in the Americas. Seed exchange, hybridization, and cloning have played an essential role across their wild distribution from Mexico to South America to create the modern varieties of today. Archaeological sites with well-preserved and directly radiocarbon-dated botanical assemblages are rare, however, so we know very little about the complexities of the domestication process. Here, we define an early locus of avocado domestication using well-dated desiccated and carbonized avocado remains from El Gigante rockshelter in western Honduras spanning the last 11,000 y. Measurements of avocado seeds and rinds show evidence for long-term management resulting in selection for larger, more robust fruits through time that culminated by 2,250 to 2,080 calendar B.P. (cal. B.P.). However, human-directed selection for larger fruits with thicker rinds is evident as early as 7,565 to 7,265 cal. B.P. Seed morphology is similar to P. americana var. guatemalensis and is congruent with genetic data for the development of this variety in both the highlands of Guatemala and Honduras. Increases in seed size and rind thickness through time are consistent with genetic evidence for the enrichment of putative candidate genes for fruit development and ripening in this variety.

  PublisherDOI

• Accessibility and Exchange in Boriquén: Compositional Study of Ceramics in Pre-colonial Puerto Rico

  The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology · 2025-07-21

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Modeling the rise and demise of Classic Maya cities: Climate, conflict, and economies of scale

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2025-10-06 · 4 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Urbanization was one of the most significant transitions in human history, yet explanations for the rise and expansion of early cities remain contentious. Here, we propose that simple models from population ecology can integrate existing theories for the development of early cities. Using newly synthesized paleoclimatological, paleoecological, demographic, and historical data from across the Classic Period Maya Lowlands (250-1000 CE) integrated with piece-wise structural equation models, we show that climate downturns, intergroup conflict, and strong economies of scale interact to promote the coevolution of urbanism and patron-client relationships, fueling city expansion, urban institutions, and systemic inequality. In addition, we elucidate how these nonlinear pathways structure the persistence or dissolution of cities. This study underscores the importance of robust economies of scale in the development of early cities and provides a comprehensive framework for understanding the conditions that promote or hinder urbanization, offering insights applicable to both ancient and contemporary urban dynamics.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Feasting at coastal shellmounds in Guerrero, Mexico

  The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology · 2024-04-08

  articleSenior author

  Three shellmounds, positioned on the inland margin of the Coyuca Lagoon in Guerrero, Mexico, consist of molluskan shells from taxa that live in lagoonal environments. Co-occurring ceramics are typical of local pottery dating to the Classic Period but are significantly restricted in diversity compared to pottery found at nearby coeval residential sites. Throughout the shellmounds potsherds from large, coarse-tempered cooking vessels occur with sherds from fine-tempered serving vessels, indicating that food was prepared and consumed at these locations. We propose these sites developed where local people repeatedly held feasts, resulting in the formation of these sites. This case study indicates that in Mesoamerica shellmounds can accumulate after the development of complex societies, and at locations away from sociopolitical centers.

  PublisherDOI

• Testing scale-dependent temporal and spatial biases in relative chronology using AMS 14C dating: A case study of Early–Middle Cucuteni-Tripolye sites in Southeastern Europe

  Journal of Archaeological Science Reports · 2024-03-18 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access

  Aiming at developing a syncretic chronology for Eneolithic sites in Romania, Moldova and Ukraine, this paper tests the hypothesis that relative material culture sequences will be preserved within lower-order taxonomic units and collapse within higher-order units. We examine relative sequences for sub-groups of the Cucuteni-Tripolye cultural complex (ca. 5050–2950 BCE) using Bayesian sequencing of extant and newly obtained radiocarbon dates. The traditional archaeological perspective holds that the space-time expansion of this cultural complex occurred in rapidly disseminated horizons, with little cross-regional variability in dating. Absolute dating efforts from the 1960s–2000s did little to clarify the situation, especially in the upper section of the Dniester river valley in Ukraine, where numerous older radiometric 14C dates present an improbably early chronology for sites of the Early and early Middle Tripolye periods (Tripolye A and BI). Here we present 21 new AMS 14C dates from early settlements in Southwestern Ukraine and Moldova, with results dating to the latter half of the fifth millennium and the beginning of the fourth millennium BCE. Eschewing the concept of monolithic horizons, we compile both old and new data into regionally distinct sequences, enabling a more nuanced examination of material synchronization and cross-regional settlement dynamics.

  PublisherDOI

• Life into Old Age:

  University of Florida Press eBooks · 2024-06-28

  book-chapter
  PublisherDOI

• Ancient DNA challenges prevailing interpretations of the Pompeii plaster casts

  Current Biology · 2024-11-01 · 10 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Archaeobotanical evidence supports indigenous cucurbit long-term use in the Mesoamerican Neotropics

  Scientific Reports · 2024-05-13 · 2 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  The squash family (Cucurbitaceae) contains some of the most important crops cultivated worldwide and has played an important ecological, economic, and cultural role for millennia. In the American tropics, squashes were among the first cultivated crop species, but little is known about how their domestication unfolded. Here, we employ direct radiocarbon dating and morphological analyses of desiccated cucurbit seeds, rinds, and stems from El Gigante Rockshelter in Honduras to reconstruct human practices of selection and cultivation of Lagenaria siceraria, Cucurbita pepo, and Cucurbita moschata. Direct radiocarbon dating indicates that humans started using Lagenaria and wild Cucurbita starting ~ 10,950 calendar years before present (cal B.P.), primarily as watertight vessels and possibly as cooking and drinking containers. A rind directly dated to 11,150-10,765 cal B.P. represents the oldest known bottle gourd in the Americas. Domesticated C. moschata subsequently appeared ~ 4035 cal B.P., followed by domesticated C. pepo ~ 2190 cal B.P. associated with increasing evidence for their use as food crops. Multivariate statistical analysis of seed size and shape show that the archaeological C. pepo assemblage exhibits significant variability, representing at least three varieties: one similar to present-day zucchini, another like present-day vegetable marrow, and a native cultivar without modern analogs. Our archaeobotanical data supports the hypothesis that Indigenous cucurbit use started in the Early Holocene, and that agricultural complexity during the Late Holocene involved selective breeding that encouraged crop diversification.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Life into Old Age

  University Press of Florida eBooks · 2024-07-23

  book-chapter

  Paleodemographic studies often assume that individuals within ancient populations died before they could achieve old ages, compounding their erasure from the deep past. The primary burial of a pre-agriculture female recovered in a rock shelter in the Maya Mountains of Belize challenges such assumptions. Transition Analysis of her skeletal remains provided an age estimate of 64–93 years. This chapter focuses on the paleopathological and molecular analyses of this individual, directly dated to 5040–4860 cal. BP, to contextualize her life history, diet, and ancestry. Her skeletal remains show evidence of age-related changes that are not uncommon among the elderly in other societies. Although such changes provide a glimpse into the aging process during the Middle Holocene, aging is not identical across contexts and should be considered within its own setting.

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: The Origins Of Social Stratification

  NSF · $30k · 2015–2016

• HSD: Collaborative Research: Development and Resilience of Complex Socioeconomic Systems: A Theoretical Model and Case Study from the Maya Lowlands

  NSF · $321k · 2008–2012

• Collaborative Research: Long-Term Human-Environmental Interaction In a Lowland Tropic Setting

  NSF · $127k · 2016–2020

• Investigating The Relationship Between Climate Change And Social Organization In A Small Scale Society

  NSF · $103k · 2015–2017

• Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Settlement Ecology on California's Channel Islands

  NSF · $30k · 2013–2015

Frequent coauthors

• Brendan J. Culleton

  Pennsylvania State University

  155 shared

• David Reich

  Broad Institute

  109 shared

• Swapan Mallick

  Broad Institute

  72 shared

• Kristin Stewardson

  Howard Hughes Medical Institute

  64 shared

• Jonas Oppenheimer

  Howard Hughes Medical Institute

  60 shared

• Matthew Mah

  Harvard University

  54 shared

• Nadin Rohland

  52 shared

• Keith M. Prufer

  50 shared

Labs

• ArchaeologyPI