Christopher B. Donnan

Christopher B. Donnan is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and Director Emeritus of the Fowler Museum of Cultural History at UCLA. Donnan's scholarship has established him as a world-renowned, influential voice on Andean research, where his discoveries have had significant effects on how anthropologists, archeologists and historians have come to think about the evolution and composition of Andean society and culture, especially the Moche culture. In recognition of his contributions to Peruvian art and prehistory, the president of Peru awarded Donnan the Great Cross of the Order of Merit for Distinguished Services. He is the author, among other works, of Moche Fineline Painting: Its Evolution and Its Artists (1999) and Chotuna and Chornancap: Excavating an Ancient Peruvian Legend (2012). He is a leading authority on Peru's oldest pre-Hispanic state, the Moche. His work combines both science and the humanities, from studies of domestic architecture and subsistence to the details of Moche iconography and style.