T J Chevral (T L Thurston)  

"There's plenty of time to sleep when we die..."      


 

Professor
Ph.D. University of Wisconsin, Madison
Office: 363 Richmond 4
Phone: (716) 645-0408
Email: tt27@buffalo.edu


Research interests
Dr. Chevral (Thurston) is an archaeologist specializing in northern Europe - Sweden, Denmark and Northern Ireland - with secondary interests in the Caribbean and United States. This research, funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Geographic Society, concerns the development of the political complexity, especially under conditions of colonialism or imperialism during the late prehistoric, Medieval, and Early Modern periods. Current projects focus on attempted transitions between more egalitarian/heterarchic forms of rule to more centralized and hierarchic structures, and the conflicts between state beaurocracies and agropastoralists in both temperate lowlands and high-elevation, marginal environments. The study of these sequences involves both historically contingent processes, embedded in local knowledge and practice, but also includes comparative, cross-cultural studies of similar sequences in many times and places. Dr. Chevral theorizes these problems through landscape  theory, postcolonial theory, political ecology, focusing on domination and resistance, force vs. power, interethnic conflict, warfare, and the role of identity in political, economic and religious participation and/or exclusion.

Selected publications

Books

Thurston, T L and Roderick B. Salisbury (eds.) 2009. Re-imagining Regional Analyses: The Archaeology of Spatial and Social Dynamics CSP, Cambridge.

Thurston, T L and Christopher T. Fisher (eds.) 2007. Seeking A Richer Harvest: The Archaeology of Subsistence Intensification, Innovation and Change Human Ecology and Adaptation Book Series. Springer Scientific Publishing New York.

Thurston, T L 2001. Landscapes of power, landscapes of conflict: state formation in the South Scandinavian Iron Age. Springer Scientific, New York.

                                       

Articles and book chapters

Thurston, T L 2014. Expanding Identity: Archaeology, the Humanities, and the Social Sciences in V. Ginn, R. Enlander and R. Crozier (eds) Exploring Prehistoric Identity: our construct or theirs? Oxbow, Oxford, pp. 186-196.

Thurston, T L and Plunkett, G. 2012. A Dynamic Socioecology of Iron Age, Medieval and Early Modern Ulster, Northern Ireland In Climates, Past Landscapes, and Civilizations. Giosan, L. (ed.) Geophysical Monograph Series, American Geophysical Union, Washington DC.

Milisauskas, S., Thurston, T. and R. Whitlow. 2011. American Conributions to European Archaeology Sprawozdania Archeologiczne volume 63:35-63. Instytut Archeolgii i Etnologii PAN, Krakow, Poland.

Thurston, T L 2011. Tracing the political geography of early Denmark through integrated archaeological and geochemical survey. In Zwischen Fjorden und Steppe. Festschrift Fur Johan Callmer Zum 65 Geburstag. Theune-Vogt, C. & Biermann, F. (eds.) Internationale Archäologie, Studia honoraria, Band 31. Rahden/Westf. Verlag Marie Leidorf GmbH, pp. 135-146.

Thurston, T L 2010.  Bitter Arrows and Generous Gifts: What Was a King in the European Iron Age? In Pathways to Power New Perspectives on the Emergence of Social Inequality. Price, T.D. and G. M. Feinman (eds.) Springer Scientific Publishing, New York, pp. 193-254.

Thurston, T L, Westphal, J.,  and Roesgaard, M.  2009.  Imagining Danish prehistory through 50 years: methodological and paradigmatic transformations in regional and interregional archaeology. In  Re-imagining Regional Analyses: The Archaeology of Spatial and Social Dynamics T L Thurston and Roderick B. Salisbury (eds.) CSP, Cambridge, pp. 67-99.

Thurston, T L 2009.  Farming the Margins: on the social causes and consequences of soil management strategies in The Archaeology of Environmental Change: Socionatural Legacies of Degradation and Resilience. C. T. Fisher, B. Hill & G. Feinman (eds), U of Arizona Press, pp. 106-134.

Thurston, T L  2009. Unity and diversity in the European Iron Age: out of the mists, some clarity? Journal of Archaeological Research 17(4): 347-423.

Thurston, T L 2007. Rituals of Rebellion: Cultural Narratives and Metadiscourse of Violent Conflict in Iron Age and Medieval Denmark Journal of Conflict Archaeology. 3(1):269-295.

Thurston, T L 2007. Infields, Outfields, and Broken Lands: agricultural intensification and the ordering of space in Iron Age Denmark. Thurston and Fisher (eds.) Seeking A Richer Harvest: The Archaeology of Subsistence Intensification, Innovation and Change  Human Ecology and Adaptation Book Series.  Springer Scientific Publishing New York pp. 155-191.

Thurston, T L 2006.  The Barren and the Fertile: central and local intensification strategies across variable landscapes. Agricultural Strategies J. Marcus & C. Stanish (eds). Cotsen Institiute of Archaeology Press, Los Angeles CA pp. 131-161.

Thurston, T L 1999. The knowable, the doable, and the undiscussed: tradition, submission, and the "becoming" of rural landscapes in Denmark's Iron Age Antiquity 1999 (3):661-671.

Undergraduate Courses Offered

333 North American Archaeology
437 Celts, Anglo-Saxons & Vikings
420 Gender Archaeology
434 The Archaeology of Sacred Places and Spaces

Graduate Courses Offered

587 Sacred Places and Spaces
589 Complex Societies
609 Gender Archaeology
610 Archaeological Method and Theory
611 Celts, Anglo-Saxons & Vikings
729 Human Impacts on Ancient Environments
731 Landscape Archaeology
733 Analytical Methods in Archaeology