Judith (Judy) Thomas
Judith (Judy) Thomas is an Instructor and Project Archaeologist with the Mercyhurst Archaeological Institute (MAI) at Mercyhurst University, Erie, Pennsylvania. She obtained her
undergraduate degree in Anthropology from Cleveland State University in 1976 and her
masters in anthropology/archaeology from Kent State University in 1993. During the course of
her 35+ year career, Ms. Thomas has conducted traditionally-funded and CRM-funded projects
within the full range of prehistoric and historic archaeology. Since joining MAI in 1993,
however, she has focused on historic archaeology where she teaches a variety of historic
archaeological classes including the Historic Archaeological Field Training course. Although her
research interests are generally in nineteenth century sites (e.g., 1818 lighthouse, 1840s mill, as
well as farmsteads and urban sites), in 2006, her research took her into the twentieth century
and a WWII prisoner-of-war camp at Fort Hood, Texas. Presently, she is leading the excavations
of the 1850s Cantonment Burgwin in Taos, New Mexico.
