My research over the last 20 years has centered on the origin and practice of agropastoralism in the Pyrenees Mountains and Iberian Systems of continental Europe. I am particularly interested in the pivotal role played by agropastoralism in the social, political, economic and religious transformations in the Franco-Iberian region during the last 2,000 years. I seldom work alone and my collaborations are designed to integrate geomorphic, geophysical, archaeological and socioecological evidence to reveal the contingency and behavioral variability of human agents in transforming a landscape. The overall goal of our research is to connect the present continuously and strongly to the past so we may contribute to building a more desirable and sustainable future.
Research
- Human ecosystem ecology
- Historical landscape ecology
- Continental / Mediterranean Europe
- Southeastern US
- South America
- Mountain systems
- Domestication of plants, animals and landscape
- Multilevel approaches to individual, household & community
- Airborne / Ground-based remote sensing
- Quantitative/qualitative/spatial analysis
Selected Publications
Gragson, T. L and Coughlan, M. R. 2024. The social-ecological landscape of herding on the high mountain commons of Larrau in the Western Pyrenees (France). Frontiers in Human Dynamics 6 htts://doi.org/10.3389/fhumd.2024.1359845
Gragson, T. L and Thompson, V. D. 2022. Legacy radiocarbon dates and the archaeological chronology of the Western Pyrenees. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 43: 103483. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2022.103483
Gragson, T. L, Coughlan, M. R. and Leigh, D. S. 2020. Contingency and Agency in the Mountain Landscapes of the Western Pyrenees: A Place-Based Approach to the Long Anthropocene. Sustainability 12, 3882. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su12093882
Gragson, T. L., Hautefeuille, F., Thompson, V. D., & Leigh, D. S. 2016. Discovery and appraisal of the early Christian church of Notre Dame de Baudes near Labastide-du-Temple, France. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 6: 584-593. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2016.03.038
Gragson, T. L., Leigh, D. S., and Coughlan, M. R. 2015. Basque Cultural Landscapes of the French Western Pyrenees. Cultural Capital 12: 565-596. http://dx.doi.org/10.13138/2039-2362/1153
Education
PhD, Anthropology, Pennsylvania State University, 1989
