2015 Fryxell Award Symposium: Papers in Honor of David Hurst Thomas

David Hurst Thomas is the 2015 recipient of the Fryxell Award for Interdisciplinary Research in archaeology. The Fryxell Award is presented in recognition for interdisciplinary excellence of a scientist who need not be an archaeologist, but whose research has contributed significantly to American archaeology. The award is made possible through the generosity of the family of the late Roald Fryxell, a geologist whose career exemplified the crucial role of multidisciplinary cooperation in archaeology. The 2015 Fryxell Award recognizes the area of general interdisciplinary studies. The fundamental nature of Dr. Thomas' research is, and has been since the beginning of his career, interdisciplinary. For over four decades, he has engaged in pioneering research that has incorporated human biology, history and ethnohistory, experimental archaeology, paleoethnobotny, zooarchaeology, and geoarchaeology. This approach has been at the heart of large-scale, long-term, research projects focused on broad anthropological questions. The scope of this work includes projects in the Great Basin, the Georgia Coast, and the missions of California and the American Southwest, and addresses core questions including inquiries into human mobility and foraging subsistence strategies, the transition to farming, the rise of social inequality, and the impact of colonialism on Native American societies.