Research:

My dissertation project at the University of Missouri is centered on the archaeology of the Late Preceramic site of Buena Vista in the Chillon Valley of Peru. Specifically, I'm interested in evaluating the contribution of agriculture to the development of Late Preceramic civilizations on the coast of Peru where, it has been hypothesized, civilizations may have developed without intensive agricultural production of food in favor of the rich marine resources of the eastern Pacific Ocean. I have worked at Buena Vista as the Field Director with the site's P.I., Bob Benfer. I also work in Debby Pearsall's Paleoethnobotany Lab at MU.

Recent Papers:

April 2004 Resolving Contemporaneity in the Peruvian Cotton Preceramic-Initial Period. Neil A. Duncan and Robert A. Benfer. Paper presented at the 69th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Montreal, Canada.

March 2003 The First Field Season at Buena Vista, Chillón Valley, Peru. Neil A. Duncan, Robert A. Benfer, and Bernardino Ojeda. Paper presented at the 68th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Milwaukee, WI.

March 2003 Prehistoric Agriculture on the Pacific Coast of Guatemala: Insights from Phytolith Analysis. Shawn K. Collins, Deborah M. Pearsall, and Neil A. Duncan. Paper presented at the 68th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Milwaukee, WI.

March 2003 An Early Fisherman's House, Lower Chilca Valley, Peru. Robert A. Benfer and Neil A. Duncan. Poster presented at the 68th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Milwaukee, WI.

February 2000 Test Excavations at Antibál, Peru. Paper presented at the Midwest Conference on Andean and Amazonian Archaeology and Ethnohistory, Fort Wayne, IN.