Gary Crawford

I am a retired anthropological archaeologist (Professor Emeritus at U of T) specializing in archaeological botany and environmental archaeology throughout my career. I began my faculty career at U of T (Mississauga Campus)  in 1979, retiring in 2020. I'm still active, as much as my busy retirement allows. My geographical focus has been East Asia with a secondary interest in Eastern North America. I've been investigating the fascinating topic of the origins and intensification of agriculture. I first travelled to Japan in 1974. I had been working on issues in Hokkaido in the 1980s that pushed me to learn more about China, a region that wasn't the easiest for a Westerner to get involved with. I began establishing contacts there in 1986 when I made my first trip to assess the potential for research.

To accomplish this research I built a palaeoethnobotany lab and established the subdiscipline as a part of both undergraduate and graduate programs in the department. I'm proud of the legacy of the lab that saw so many graduate and undergraduate students come through.

I have also investigated human and plant interactions in North America (mainly Ontario and Kentucky with my first field experience being a foray into the wilds of Wisconsin). My work is informed by a comparative approach. The similarities and differences between Eastern North America and East Asia between 10,000 and 1000 years ago are especially intriguing.