Daniel O. Sayers

Daniel O. Sayers is an Historical Archaeologist and Anthropologist whose research on the Great Dismal Swamp of North Carolina and Virginia, USA, is internationally recognized. He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at American University in Washington, D.C. As one who grew up in the Detroit Metro Area, he is a member of what he calls the "Michigan Diaspora", since his late-20s, and has lived and worked around the United States (Tennessee, Utah, and Montana to name a few), mostly as an archaeologist and occasionally as a landscaper. He earned his PhD from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. In addition to his academic writings on the Dismal Swamp he has published on many subjects, including: the Underground Railroad; Animal Rights and archaeology; Depression-era hobos and transient workers; 19th Century farmsteads in the American Midwest; Public archaeology; archaeology theory; and (coming soon) the archaeology of the Homeless and the Home. Sayers has also published newspaper opinion pieces, essays, and even a fictional short story entitled, "The Omphalos of Pritchard McCovey". He has appeared as an archaeologist and expert in many different media, including CNN, NPR, PBS, Mysteries of the Museum (The Learning Channel), in Smithsonian and Archaeology magazines, in many newspaper articles, and in the film "Escape to the Great Dismal Swamp" on the Smithsonian Channel (available on Amazon streaming).