Staff profile

Thomas Foster, Ph.D.

Consulting Archaeologist, Northern Kentucky University; Prehistoric and Historic Indians

What do you do at Southern Research?

I am a Prehistoric and Historic Period archaeologist and human ecologist. I have significant experience with the Historic Period Indians that lived in the Southeastern United States. I serve as a specialist researching these types of sites. I have served as a Senior Archaeologist and Principal Investigator in Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Arkansas, and Louisiana. I also specialize in the prehistoric ecology and paleoenvironmental reconstruction. I have published on the anthropogenic ecology and culture history of the Southeastern Indians in Southeastern Archaeology, Human Ecology, the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology. I have published primary historical journals of the Indian Agent, Benjamin Hawkins (1796-1810) and have a book in press at the University of Alabama Press that synthesizes Lower Creek Indian Archaeology. My methodological specialties are in ceramics and geographic information systems (GIS) as well as spatial modeling. I have been using GIS with archaeological research for about 15 years.

How did you become interested in archaeology?

I became most intensively involved in archaeology as an undergraduate at the University of Georgia. I have always been interested in science and human variation. Although I didn't know about anthropology until I went to college, I took some courses and found my calling. I have been researching anthropology using archaeological data for almost two decades now. I received my Ph.D. at the Pennsylvania State University.

What do you do when you are not working?

I spend most of my time on my research but I also enjoy outdoor activities. I believe that archaeology and anthropology, in general, should be incorporated into the public. So my research and activities are oriented toward engaging the public through museums, education, and activist archaeology.