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Thomas E. Emerson (b. 1945) is an american archaeologist who specializes in North American Eastern Woodland archaeology. He has done extensive archaeological research in the Upper Mississippi River Valley region specifically Cahokia and the American Bottom. He is the current director of the Illinois State Archaeological Survey.

Emerson has done a wide range of studies in archaeology. They include writing archaeological preservation and burial legislation, managing some of the largest excavations in North America at the East St. Louis Mound Group, involvement in Great Lakes shipwreck litigation and mound and site looting trials as well as doing research to discover the earliest evidence of Black Drink ceremonialism and geological quarry sourcing of native figurines and effigy pipes to transform our understanding of native trade patterns.

Emerson has produced 18 books or edited volumes and over 125 book chapters and articles.

Background
Emerson was born in 1945 in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. While in high school and college he worked with his uncles in house construction and did the night shift in a plastics factory, as well as working in grocery stores and gas stations. He was the first one in his family to go to college and in 1968 he received his BA in Sociology and Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. He spent two tours in Vietnam in the Navy aboard a hospital ship that operated between the Demilitarized Zone with North Vietnam and the port of DaNang. For his service he received the National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal with 2 stars, Vietnam Campaign Medal with decoration, Naval Unit Commendation Ribbon. . After coming back from Vietnam, Emerson enrolled in the archaeology program at the University of Wisconsin under Dr. David Baerreis. In 1977 he earned his MA in Anthropology from the University of Wisconsin. He then left school and was in South Dakota for two years that ultimately led him to excavating the Crow Creek Massacre site. From there he moved to the American Bottom to become a site director on the FAI-270 Project. He went back to Wisconsin for a couple of years as a CRM archaeologist before he was hired as the Chief Archaeologist for the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency (1984-1994). In 1994, he moved over to the University of Illinois to run the Illinois Transportation Archaeological Research Program. In 2010 it was transformed into the Illinois State Archaeological Survey. In 1995 he received his Ph.D in Anthropology from the University of Wisconsin.

Employment History
He was the director of the Illinois Transportation Archaeological Research Program from 1994-2008 and then the Illinois State Archaeological Survey in 2010. He has been an Adjunct Professor for the Department of Anthropology at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign since 1998. He worked on the FAI-270 Archaeological Project for the University of Illinois from 1978-1982 as a site director.

Key Excavations
While as a graduate student, Emerson was involved in excavating the Orendorf Site along with Lawrence A. Conrad between 1971 and 1974. . Emerson and Conrad created a not-for-profit organization and linked up with a Chicago teacher and ran field schools at Orendorf. It was his first experience with large scale stripping of a site and over 1300 pit features and 200 houses laid out around a large central plaza were excavated. One of the hallmarks of all the projects he has directed since then has been the use of large-scale excavation strategies to expose the maximum information.

Other excavations Emerson has conducted include the Crow Creek Massacre site where he was the site director. . This site contained the remains of over 500 men, women, and children who had been murdered in the 14th century. From there he moved to the American Bottom to become a site director on the FAI-270 Project where he excavated a number of Late Archaic, Early Woodland, and Mississippian sites. Emerson had the opportunity to analyze and publish these sites that include the Dyroff and Levin sites, the Florence street site, and the BBB Motor site. . His most recent project has been the excavation of 34 acres through the heart of the East St. Louis Mound Center, the second largest mound center in North America. Emerson and his team recovered 1429 houses and about 3600 pits, as well as discovering an unknown platform mound.

Awards
In 1996 he was presented the Charles J. Bareis Distinguished Service Award by the Illinois Archaeological Survey for his role in preserving the Grand Village of the Illinois. He is the recent recipient of the Environmental Excellence Award (2011) and Exemplary Human Environment Initiative Award (2010) from the Federal Highway Administration.

Research Emphasis
A large part of Emerson’s research has focused on understanding the social, religious and political life-ways of Cahokia society. In his book Cahokia and the Ideology of Power he demonstrates how we can understand the socio-political dimensions of a prehistoric society through its material remains.

Most of Emerson’s research has been as part of a group effort to solve focused research questions. His work with colleagues on sourcing and identifying mid-continental pipestone is typical of that work. For over 15 years, Emerson and his colleagues have done chemical and mineralogical studies that have allowed them to identify discrete quarries and by analyzing artifacts they have been able to dramatically change the understanding of Hopewell and Mississippian trade networks. Emerson has been engaged in similar studies with bioarchaeology and isotopic studies of Upper Mississippian and Mississippian subsistence and health. Emerson and his colleagues have been able to show a tremendous variation in maize consumption between various farming groups. They have also started tracking migration and have shown the tremendous movement of people in and about Cahokia.

He is also extremely active in the administrative, bureaucratic, political, and social side of archaeology. While he was with the IHPA, he took the opportunity to initiate the creation of several new preservation laws. He was the primary author and has the responsibility for implementation of the Human Skeletal Remains Protection Act (20 ILCS 3440) and the Archaeological and Paleontological Resources Protection Act (20 ILCS 3435) and accompanying regulations that govern archaeological work in Illinois.

Selected Books

 * 1997 Cahokia and the Archaeology of Power. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.

Selected Papers

 * 1978 A new method for calculating the live weight of the northern white-tailed deer from osteoarchaeological material. Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology3(1): 35-44.
 * 1983 A Settlement-Subsistence Model of the Terminal Late Archaic adaptation in the American Bottom, Illinois (Emerson and D. McElrath). In Archaic Hunters and Gatherers in the American Midwest, edited by J. Phillips and J. Brown, pp. 219-242. Academic Press, New York.
 * 1986 Early Woodland cultural variation, subsistence, and settlement in the American Bottom (With A. Fortier). In Early Woodland Archeology, edited by K. Farnsworth and T. Emerson, pp. 475-522. Center for American Archeology Press, Kampsville.
 * 1989 Water, Serpents, and the Underworld: An Exploration into Cahokian Symbolism. In The Southeastern Ceremonial Complex: Artifacts and Analysis, edited by P. Galloway, pp. 45-92. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln.
 * 1990 The socio-politics of the living and the dead: the treatment of historic and prehistoric human remains in contemporary Midwest America (T. Emerson and P. Cross). Death Studies 14(6):543-564.
 * 1991 Some perspectives on Cahokia and the northern Mississippian expansion. In Cahokia and the Hinterlands: Middle Mississippian Cultures of the Midwest edited by T. Emerson and R.B. Lewis, pp. 221-236. University of Illinois Press, Urbana.
 * 1991 The Search for French Peoria (Emerson and F. Mansberger). In French Colonial Archaeology: The Illinois Country, edited by J. Walthall, pp. 149-164. University of Illinois Press, Urbana.
 * 1991 The Ideology of Authority and the Power of the Pot (T. Pauketat and T. Emerson). American Anthropologist 93: 919-941.
 * 1992 The Late Prehistory and Protohistory of Illinois (Emerson and J. Brown). In Calumet and Fleur–De–Lys: French and Indian Interaction in the Midcontinent, edited by J. Walthall and T. Emerson, pp. 77-125. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC.
 * 1993 Saving the Great Nobb: A Case Study in the Preservation of Cahokia's Monks Mound through Passive Management (Emerson and W. Woods). In Highways into the Past, edited by T. Emerson, A. Fortier, and D. McElrath. Illinois Archaeology,Volume 5(1&2): 100–107. Illinois Archaeological Survey, Urbana.
 * 1993 The Osteology and Archaeology of the Crow Creek Massacre (P. Willey and T. Emerson). In Prehistory and Human Ecology of the Western Prairies and Northern Plains, edited by J. Tiffany. Plains Anthropologist 38(145), Memoir 27:227–269.
 * 1996 Preserving the Shipwrecks of the Prairie State. Illinois Archaeology 8(1&2): 1-22.
 * 1997 Reflections from the Countryside on Cahokian Hegemony. Cahokia: Ideology and Domination in the Mississippian World, edited by T. Pauketat and T. Emerson, pp.167-189. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln.
 * 1997 Cahokia Elite Ideology and the Mississippian Cosmos. Cahokia: Ideology and Domination in the Mississippian World, edited by T. Pauketat and T. Emerson, pp. 190-228. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln.
 * 1999 Representations of Hegemony as Community at Cahokia (T. Pauketat and Emerson). Material Symbols: Culture and Economy in Prehistory, edited by J. Robb, pp. 302-317. Center for Archaeological Investigations, Occasional Paper No. 26, Carbondale, Illinois.
 * 1999 The Langford Tradition and the Process of Tribalization on the Middle Mississippian Borders.Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology 24(1): 3-56.
 * 1999 Review Feature: Cahokia and the Archaeology of Power (Emerson, W. Dancey, T. Pauketat, A. Whittle, E. DeMarrais, W. DeBoer, and A. Kehoe). Cambridge Archaeological Journal 9(2): 249-275.
 * 2000 Figurines, Flint Clay Sourcing, the Ozark Highlands, and Cahokian Acquisition (Emerson and Randall E. Hughes). American Antiquity 65(1):79-101.
 * 2000 Strangers in Paradise: Recognizing Ethnic Mortuary Diversity on the Fringes of Cahokia (Emerson and Eve Hargrave). Southeastern Archaeology 19:1-23.
 * 2001 Interpreting Discontinuity and Historical Process in Midcontinential Late Archaic and Early Woodland Societies. (T. Emerson, and D. McElrath). In The Archaeology of Traditions: Agency and History Before and After Columbus, edited by T.R. Pauketat, pp. 195-217. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.
 * 2002 An Introduction to Cahokia 2002: Diversity, Complexity, and History. Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology 27(2): 127-148.
 * 2002 Mineralogical Approaches to Sourcing Eastern Woodlands Pipes and Figurines. (Sarah U. Wisseman, Duane M. Moore, Randall E. Hughes, Mary R. Hynes, Thomas E. Emerson.) Geoarchaeology17(7): 689-715.
 * 2002 Embodying Power and Resistance at Cahokia (T. Emerson and T. Pauketat). In The Dynamics of Power edited by M. O'Donovan, pp. 105-125. Center for Archaeological Investigations, Occasional Paper No. 30. Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.
 * 2003 Death and Ritual in Early Rural Cahokia. (T. Emerson, Eve Hargrave, and Kristin Hedman). InTheory, Method, and Practice in Modern Archaeology, edited by R. J. Jeske, and D. K. Charles, pp. 163-181. Praeger, Westport, CT.
 * 2003 The Sourcing and Interpretation of Cahokia-Style Figures in the Trans-Mississippi South and Southeast. (T. Emerson, R. Hughes, M. Hynes, S. Wisseman). American Antiquity 68(2): 287-314.
 * 2003 Materializing Cahokia Shamans. Southeastern Archaeology 22(2): 135-154.
 * 2004 Using a Portable Spectrometer to Source Archaeological Materials and to Detect Restorations in Museum Objects. (S. Wisseman, T. Emerson, M. Hynes, R. Hughes). Journal of American Institute of Conservation.
 * 2007 Cahokia and the Evidence for Late Pre-Columbian Warfare in the North American Midcontinent. Chapter contribution in Problems in Paradise: Conflict and Violence Among the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas, edited by Richard J. Chacon and Ruben G. Mendoza. Submitted to University of Arizona, Tucson.
 * 2008 Historical-Processual Archaeology and Culture Making: Unpacking the Southern Cult and Mississippian Religion (T. Emerson and T. Pauketat). Belief in the Past: Theoretical Approaches to the Archaeology of Religion, edited by David.S. Whitley and Kelley Hays-Gilpin, pp.167-188. Left Coast Press, Walnut Creek, CA.
 * 2008  Locating American Indian Religion at Cahokia and Beyond. (T.E. Emerson, S.M. Alt, T.R. Pauketat). In Religion, Archaeology, and the Material World, edited by Lars Fogelin, pp. 216-236.  Occasional Paper No. 36, Center for Archaeological Investigations, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, Illinois.
 * 2009  The Eastern Woodlands Archaic and the Tyranny of Theory. (T. Emerson and D. McElrath). InArchaic Societies: Diversity and Complexity Across the Midcontinent, edited by T. Emerson, D. McElrath, and A. Fortier, pp. 23-38. State University of New York Press, Albany.