Erin Thornton

Erin Thornton is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Washington State University, part of the College of Arts and Sciences. Her research focuses on environmental archaeology, particularly in New World societies, with a strong emphasis on the ancient Maya region, Peru, the Caribbean, and the southeastern United States. She utilizes zooarchaeology, human osteology, and stable isotope analysis to explore subsistence, animal management, political economy, and environmental change.

Her research interests include environmental archaeology, zooarchaeology, stable isotope analysis, human osteology, ancient Maya civilization, animal domestication, subsistence systems, political economy, exchange networks, deforestation, climate change, Andean archaeology, and biocultural anthropology. She investigates how ancient societies interacted with their environments, managed animal resources, and responded to ecological challenges. Her work combines methodological rigor with broad theoretical questions about socio-economic organization and cultural adaptation.

Her recent publications reveal a strong focus on turkey domestication in Mesoamerica, faunal exchange among the Maya using strontium isotopes, and environmental reconstruction through zooarchaeological and isotopic methods. Themes across her work include animal use in ritual and subsistence, long-distance trade, climate impacts on ancient civilizations, and the timing and process of animal domestication. Her research is highly collaborative and often involves interdisciplinary teams and advanced scientific techniques.

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Erin Thornton advises graduate students, including Ph.D. student Brandon McIntosh and M.A. student Lori Phillips. She is actively involved in securing research funding, such as NSF support for her turkey husbandry project, and collaborates with major institutions including the Florida Museum of Natural History, Vanderbilt University, and the FARES Foundation. Her research contributes significantly to understanding ancient economies, environmental interactions, and cultural change in the Americas.

She is affiliated with the Anthropology Stable Isotope Lab at Washington State University, where she conducts isotopic analyses central to her research on diet, mobility, and environmental change. Her work at sites like El Mirador, Cancuen, and Motul de San Jose involves large-scale faunal analysis and integration with other archaeological data to reconstruct ancient lifeways and ecological dynamics.