David Hurst Thomas
David Hurst Thomas is Senior Curator in Residence, North American Archaeology at the American Museum of Natural History and a professor at Richard Gilder Graduate School. He is one of the founding trustees for the National Museum of the American Indian at the Smithsonian Institution, was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1989, and received the Presidential Recognition Award from the Society for American Archaeology.
Thomas has published dozens of books, ranging from technical site reports to widely used popular textbooks and has been involved in archaeological fieldwork throughout North America. The more than 100 archaeological excavations he has led include the Gatecliff Rockshelter in Nevada; St. Catherines Island in Georgia, where he discovered the site of the Franciscan mission Santa Catalina de Guale; and the Spanish mission south of Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Thomas's academic research is varied, with concentrations on the human response to environmental change in the Great Basin, as well as the consequences of Spanish exploration and colonization of the South on indigenous people in the region. His 2001 book, Skull Wars, traces the development of the existing tensions in these relationships over the past two centuries, while seeking ways to build bridges between the groups' diverse perspectives.
He received his BA and Ph.D. in anthropology at University of California, Davis.