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This is a podcast from the Archaeology Podcast Network about the relationship between animals and humans on archaeology sites - it’s called Zooarchaeology and we have a couple of experts, Alex Fitzpatrick and Simona Falanga, to guide you through it.

Rachel Roden Rachel Roden

Culinary Zooarchaeology - Ep 25

In this episode, Alex and Simona will be tackling culinary zooarchaeology. Listen on to find out more about how to identify food preparation in the archaeological record, ancient BBQs and interpreting archaeological rubbish.

Links

  • Besherer Metheny, K. and Beaudry, M.C. (2015) Archaeology of Food: An Encyclopedia. Rowman & Littlefield.

  • Binford, L. (1981) Bones: Ancient Men and Modern Myths.

  • Pavao-Zuckerman, B., Anderson, D.T. & Reeves, M. (2018) Dining with the Madisons: Elite Consumption at Montpelier. Hist Arch 52, 372–396.

  • O'Connor, T. (2000) The Archaeology of Animal Bones. Gloustershire: Sutton Publishing Ltd.

  • Rackham, J. (1994) Interpreting the past: Animal Bones

  • Hastorf C.A. (2008) Food and feasting, social and political aspects. In: Pearsall D.M. (ed) Encyclopedia of Archaeology. London: Elsevier Inc.

  • Nelson S.M. (2003) Feasting the Ancestors in Early China. In: Bray T.L. (eds) The Archaeology and Politics of Food and Feasting in Early States and Empires. Springer, Boston, MA

  • Neolithic Eating Rituals

  • Feasting Archaeology and History

  • Maisels, C. (2010) The Archaeology of Politics and Power: Where, When and Why the First States Formed. Oxford, Oxbow books

  • Russell, N. (2012) Social Zooarchaeology. Cambridge University Press.

  • Elliot, P. (2016) Food and Farming in Prehistoric Britain. Fonthill Media

Butchered Animal Bone

Butchered Animal Bone

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Unicorns, Sasquatches, and Mermaids, Oh My! Cryptozoology and Fake Zooarchaeology - Ep 24

On this episode of ArchaeoAnimals, Alex and Simona delve back into the world of cryptids, with three new case studies on unicorns, mermaids and sasquatches.

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Applied Zooarchaeology: primitive breeds today - Ep 23

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Sick to Death? Pathologies and Animal Bones - Ep 22

In this episode, Simona and Alex tackle palaeopathology. Listen on for how to identify signs of injury and disease in archaeological skeletal remains and what these can tell us about human-animal interactions in the past. Also Roman Pugs.

Links

  • Bartosiewicz, L. and Gal, E. (2013) "Shuffling Nags and Lame Ducks: The Archaeology of Animal Disease". Oxbow Books.

  • Gaastra, J.S., Greenfield, H.J., and Linden, M.V. (2018) "Gaining Traction on Cattle Exploitation: Zooarchaeological Evidence from the Neolithic Western Balkans". Antiquity.

  • MacKinnon, M. (2010) "'Sick as a Dog': Zooarchaeological Evidence for Pet Dog Health and Welfare in the Roman World". World Archaeology. pp. 290-309.

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Ancient goddesses, eggs and bunny rabbits: The Zooarchaeology of Lagomorphs - Ep 21

It is ‘the season’ so this month’s episode of ArchaeoAnimals is all about rabbits and hares! Join us to find out more about self-explanatory taxonomy, medieval rabbit hutches and what does all this have to do with Easter.

Bibliography

Rabbit and Hare Bones

Rabbit and Hare Bones

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Birds of a Feather... - Ep 20

In this months episode, Alex and Simona talk about all things birds. Find out more about identifying avian remains, how we can use birds to reconstruct past environments and how humans have lived alongside them for millennia.

Links

  • Cohen, A. and Serjeantson, D. (1986) "A Manual for the Identification of Bird Bones from Archaeological Sites". Archetype Books.

  • Serjeantson, D. (2010) "17 Ravens and crows in Iron Age Britain: the Danebury Corvids Reconsidered". In "Birds in Archaeology: Proceedings of the 6th Meeting of the ICAZ Bird Working Group in Groningen". Barkhuis.

  • Gaskell, J. (2000) "Who Killed the Great Auk?". Oxford University Press.

  • Lawrence, D. (2006) "Neolithic Mortuary Practice in Orkney". Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 136. pp. 47-60.

  • Luff, M. (1984) Animal Remains in Archaeology

  • Shire Archaeology

  • https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-50603415

Comparisons between bird and rodent skulls.

Comparisons between bird and rodent skulls.

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Does Zooarchaeology Exist in Star Wars? - Ep 19

While Simona is away, Alex will play...and spend an entire episode flaunting her Star Wars knowledge. Does zooarchaeology exist in the Star Wars universe? And how can we somehow involve Baby Yoda in this conversation? Tune in to find out!

Further Reading

  • Wookiepedia: https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Creatures_by_planet

  • Sith Archaeology & Propaganda: https://animalarchaeology.com/2017/12/15/keeper-of-the-archives-sith-archaeology-and-propaganda/

  • Anderson, K.J. and Wallace, D. (2000) Star Wars: the Essential Chronology. New York: Del Rey.

  • Mangels, A. (1995) Star Wars: the Essential Guide to Characters. New York: Del Rey. Wallace, D. (2002) Star Wars: the New Essential Guide to Characters. New York: Del Rey.

  • Wallace, D. (2010) The Jedi Path: A Manual for Students of the Force. San Francisco: Chronicle Books.

General Discussion: Part 1

  • Disclaimer: I don't care about canon, this is gonna include expanded universe material.

  • Star Wars is All About Archaeology: A Thesis By Alex Fitzpatrick

  • And thus, Star Wars must ALSO be all about ZOOARCHAEOLOGY!

  • Fun Fact: Jedi Zooarchaeologists are (most likely) canon!

  • CONFIRMED: There are Star Wars zooarchaeology toys????

  • Dark and Light Sides: Why is Archaeology So Important to the Jedi and Sith? And how would zooarchaeology factor in?

General Discussion Part 2

  • What would space zooarchaeologists have to consider?

  • Differences in Pressure, Other Environmental Issues (Preservation in Hoth VS Preservation in Manaan?))

  • Different cultures per planet and issues of sentience - cultural aspects of creatures?

  • Do droids count? See: Droid Planet M4-78

  • What would be the point of zooarchaeology in the Star Wars Universe?

  • How does the Force factor into all this?

  • Jedi can integrate their bodies and life into the Force after death - can Force sensitive creatures do the same? How will that affect the zooarchaeological record?

  • See also: other forms of mysticism and how that interacts with the dead, like the Nightsisters on Dathomir who resurrect their mummified dead Case Studies (aka Favourite Star Wars Animals)

More

  • We gotta talk about Baby Yoda and Alex’s Yoda Species Conspiracy Theory.

  • Porgs: The Bane of Achto Archaeologists’ Lives?

  • The Hsiss aka Invisible Creatures that can do Jedi Mind Tricks who Definitely Ruined a LOT of Excavations on Korriban

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Alpaca llama: adventures with South American Camelids - Ep 18

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Holidays and Feasting in the Archaeological Record - Ep 17

On this ‘holiday special’, Alex and Simona once again push their endurance to the limit by talking about food before dinner-time. Tune in to learn more about feasting in the archaeological record, and why it is not all that different from present day feasting. To demonstrate this, our hosts describe some of their favourite holiday feasts (in addition to some listeners’ suggestions) and the reasoning behind them.

Ps. Happy birthday APN 🙂

Links and Sources

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Desert Pack Animals: Introducing Donkeys and Camels! - Ep 16

This episode, Alex and Simona take the road less traveled and explore two staple desert pack animals: donkeys and camels! From extravagant pets to Sicilian carts, learn more about these two beasts of burden in the archaeological record and present day.

Sources

An extremely good photo of a donkey (and a goat) from North Carolina.

An extremely good photo of a donkey (and a goat) from North Carolina.

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That’ll Do, Pig - Ep 15

On this episode of ArchaeoAnimals, (a very hungry) Alex faces one of her many nemeses: pig teeth! Learn more about pig domestication, the wealth of information you may gather from archaeological pig remains and some exciting archaeological projects featuring pigs. Simona’s fascinating insight into Roman tax law is a bonus ;)

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Native or Introduced? The Animals You’d NEVER Thought Came From Elsewhere - Ep 14

For this episode, Alex and Simona delve into the realm of native and introduced species. How long does a certain species have to consistently live in a geographical location to be considered native? What do introduced species tell us about past populations? What is it with the Romans introducing a horde of animals to Britain? Are squirrels real? These are but few of the questions they shall attempt to answer.

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The Weird and the Wonderful: Imagined Zooarchaeologies of Video Games - Ep 13

Simona and Alex finally get to be experts in this fun episode imagining the zooarchaeologies of video games! Using the hundreds (and, if you're Alex, THOUSANDS) of hours of gaming experience, Simona and Alex go through popular video game series (The Witcher, Fallout, Dragon Age, and Skyrim) and try to reconstruct and compare some of the weirder creatures you encounter.

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A Fishy Situation - Ep 12

Alex and Simona attempt to make it through an entire episode of our most hated type of bone: fish bones. Listen as they talk about the difficulties of dealing with archaeological fish and why they are actually quite important! Oh, and lots of complaining. Ugh...fish bones.

Bibliography

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Hunter's Hotpot - Ep 11

Alex and Simona are going ‘wild’ for this month’s episode. Tune in to find out more about wild animal remains in the archaeological record and what traces hunting and butchering may leave behind (some assumptions and biases MAY apply!).

Further Reading

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Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner - Ep 10

This episode is all about chickens! How to eat them. How to identify them. Different types. All things chicken. There’s even a few chicken jokes.

Sources

The Silkie Bantam

The Silkie Bantam

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A Horse, Of Course - Ep 9

On today's episode of ArchaeoAnimals, we'll be talking about horse bones! Why are they so venerated in the past? How is this reflected in the way we find horse burials? And why are their bones just so large and scary?!

We were also joined by two zooarchaeology researchers, Rúnar Leifsson and Albína Hulda Pálsdóttir, who have told us all about their fascinating research on Icelandic horses!

Links

Bibliography

  • Hillson, S. (1992) Mammal Bones and Teeth: An Introductory Guide to Methods of Identification. London: University College London Institute of Archaeology

  • Fagan, B. (2015) The Intimate Bond: How animals shaped human history. London: Bloomsbury Press

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Everything is Ritual! - Ep 8

Wait (1985) "Ritual" is beliefs and behaviors functioning together.

When identifying ritual, context is everything. In the case of zooarchaeology, the location of the remains alone has much inference on whether ritual activity is involved. A notable example is perhaps the burial of dogs (or parts thereof) at the threshold of a structure, which is seen from the Neolithic down to Iron Age, from Italy to Kazakhstan, through Sweden and Britain. Ultimately, as is the case for the near entirety of populations which have not left a written record behind, we can only infer on intent and make a pretty good educated guess, but we will never know the full story. It is perhaps what is most fascinating about ritual: not the action itself, but the intent behind it.

Sources

  • Covesea Caves Project

  • -Cunliffe, B. (1992) Pits, Preconceptions, and Propitation in the British Iron Age. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 11 (1). pp. 69-83.

  • Morris, J. (2008) Associated Bone Groups: One Archaeologist's Rubbish is Another's Ritual Deposition. In "Changing Perspectives on the First Millennium BC: Proceedings of the Iron Age Research Student Seminar 2008". Oxbow Books.

  • Russell, N. (2012) Social Zooarchaeology. Cambridge University Press.

  • Wait, G.A. (1984) Ritual and Religion in Iron Age Britain. BAR British Series.

  • Grant, Annie (1989) Animals and Ritual in Early Britain: The visible and the invisible. In L’Animal dans les Pratiques Religieuses: Les Manifestations Materielles. J.-D. Vigne, ed. Pp. 341-355. Antrhopozoologica, Vol. 3. Paris: Editions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

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The Cat's Out Of The Bag - Ep 7

Felis catus is the domesticated form of the African wildcat Felis s. lybica. The latter is believed to have been domesticated in the Near East at the time of the Neolithic agricultural revolution, where keeping pests away from grain storage would have been paramount. It likely that, much like other domesticates, several domestication attempts would have taken place across time and geographical regions.

As rodents such as the rat and house mouse hitchhiked their way across Europe, cats were soon to follow. One notable case is perhaps Cyprus, which was never attached to the mainland and had no native cat population. Cats’ sudden appearance around 7500BCE (most notably with a young adult individual associated with a human burial) thus imply that these would have been tamed wildcats at the very least which had been brought to Cyprus by boat.

Perceptions of domestic cats were somewhat ambivalent, as can still be perceived from contemporary folklore. This led to them being viewed as creatures imbued with supernatural abilities, both revered and reviled. Cats were notably worshipped in Ancient Egypt, yet killed by the hundreds to be sold as mummies; persecuted in the Medieval period for supposedly being witches’ familiars, or simply being viewed as ratters or even pests. While their ‘dog cousins’ were being selectively bred for a variety of functions, cats merely lingered at the edge of human settlements - though cases of companionship exist. It was in fact not until the late 18th century that the cat fancy developed along with the vast majority of the breeds we see today.

It’s not easy being a cat.

Case Studies

  • Gussage All Saints

  • Dried Cats

  • Cyprus cat burials

Further Reading

  • Archaeology of the Domestic Cat

  • Dried Cats

  • https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archives/view/eh_monographs_2014/contents.cfm?mono=1089034

  • Brian Hoggard, 'Concealed Animals', in Ronald Hutton, The Physical Evidence for Ritual Acts, Sorcery and Witchcraft in Christian Britain, 2015, Palgrave, pp106-117.

  • Brian Hoggard, 'The archaeology of counter-witchcraft and popular magic', in Owen Davies & Willem de Blecourt, Beyond the Witch-Trials, 2004, Manchester University Press, pp167-186.

  • Margaret M Howard, ‘Dried Cats’, Man, no 252, November 1951, pp149-151.

  • Ralph Merrifield, The Archaeology of Ritual and Magic, 1987, Batsford, London.

  • Bradshaw, J. (2013) Cat sense: The Feline Enigma Revealed. London, Penguin Books

  • Clutton-Brock, J. (1994) The British Museum Book of Cats. London, The British Museum Press

  • Fagan, B. (2015) The Intimate Bond: How animals shaped human history. London: Bloomsbury Press

  • Toynbee, J.M.C. (2013) Animals in Roman Life & Art. Barnsley: Pen & Sword

  • Van Grouw, K. (2018) Unnatural Selection. Oxfordshire: Princeton University Press

  • Houlbrook, C. and Armitage, N. (Eds.) (2015) The Materiality of Magic. Oxford: Oxbow Books.

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Cow-abunga! - Ep 6

Cattle domestication

Modern domestic cattle descends from the aurochs (Bos primigenius). The dynamics of aurochs domestication is, as always when domestication is concerned, not well understood as of yet. They were supposedly domesticated in SW Asia some 8,000 years BP.

How do we identify cattle bones?

Cattle bones are usually identified by their large size (compared to most animals encountered within archaeological assemblages) and a number of morphological features which distinguish them from other large mammals, such as horse and red deer (C. elaphus). The latter are in fact often mistaken for cows, the reason for this being threefold. Firstly, the fragmented nature of archaeological remains and a bias towards cattle ID (due to their higher frequency when compared to deer) means red deer elements are sometimes identified as cattle. Secondly, prehistoric cattle was smaller than their modern counterparts, making it easier to confuse their remains with those of red deer. When complete specimens are present, the morphological differences between cattle, horse and red deer are however easily distinguishable.

What do cattle remains often indicate in an assemblage?

They can provide inference on the economy of the settlement (e.g. meat or dairy production), although it is important to remember that in the past many settlements probably had a somewhat mixed economy. This is usually carried out by analyzing the age profiles of your assemblage.

Cattle remains may be able to offer insight on the culture of a particular settlement. For instance, in Britain, more romanized sites are likely to have a higher number of cattle within their assemblages. A high number of cattle remains are sometimes also indicative of a military site.

THAT BIG COW MEME

https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/11/27/australia-cattle-knickers-steer-giant-internet-twitter-holstein-friesian/2125889002/

Fig. 1. Iron Age Cow Skull with Pole Axe Damage.

Fig. 1. Iron Age Cow Skull with Pole Axe Damage.

Further Reading

  • Bloody Slaughter: Ritual Decapitation and Display At the Viking Settlement of Hofstaðir, Iceland

  • Morris, J. (2011) Investigating Animal Burials: Ritual, mundane and beyond

    • BAR British Series 535

  • -Hillson, S. (1992) Mammal Bones and Teeth: An Introductory Guide to Methods of Identification

    • London: University College London Institute of Archaeology

  • O’Connor, T. & Sykes, N. (Eds.) (2010) Extinctions and Invasions: A Social History of British Fauna

    • Windgather Press

  • Fagan, B. (2015) The Intimate Bond: How animals shaped human history

    • London: Bloomsbury Press

  • Toynbee, J.M.C. (2013) Animals in Roman Life & Art

    • Barnsley: Pen & Sword

  • Merrifield, R. (1987) The Archaeology of Ritual and Magic

    • London: Guild Publishing London

  • Van Grouw, K. (2018) Unnatural Selection

    • Oxfordshire: Princeton University Press

  • Knickers (2018) Knickers, the magical Australian steer

    • Cleavers Press

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the relationship between animals and humans On archaeology sites is called Zooarchaeology. This podcast explores that relationship.

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