Integrating Zooarchaeology

In recent years, scholars have emphasized the need for more holistic subsistence analyses, and collaborative publications towards this endeavor have become more numerous in the literature. However, there are relatively few attempts to qualitatively integrate zooarchaeological (animal) and paleoethnobotanical (plant) data, and even fewer attempts to quantitatively integrate these two types of subsistence evidence. Given the vastly different methods used in recovering and quantifying these data, not to mention their different preservational histories, it is no wonder that so few have undertaken this problem. Integrating Zooarchaeology and Paleoethnobotany takes the lead in tackling this important issue by addressing the methodological limitations of data integration, proposing new methods and innovative ways of using established methods, and highlighting case studies that successfully employ these methods to shed new light on ancient foodways. The volume challenges the perception that plant and animal foodways are distinct and contends that the separation of the analysis of archaeological plant and animal remains sets up a false dichotomy between these portions of the diet. In advocating qualitative and quantitative data integration, the volume establishes a clear set of methods for (1) determining the suitability of data integration in any particular case, and (2) carrying out an integrated qualitative or quantitative approach.

Zooarchaeological research has great potential to investigate areas of interest to other archaeologists, such as diet, trade, ritual, spatial usage, rubbish disposal, production, specialisation, land use, and more. Contributions to this volume cover North and South America, the Near East, Great Britain and Continental Europe, over a period from c.19,000 bp to ad 1778, and explore such themes as hunter/gatherers, early farming, Bronze Age and Iron Age societies, Classical civilisations, the medieval world, New World explorers and the American War of Independence.

In recent years, scholars have emphasized the need for more holistic subsistence analyses, and collaborative publications towards this endeavor have become more numerous in the literature. However, there are relatively few attempts to qualitatively integrate zooarchaeological (animal) and paleoethnobotanical (plant) data, and even fewer attempts to quantitatively integrate these two types of subsistence evidence. Given the vastly different methods used in recovering and quantifying these data, not to mention their different preservational histories, it is no wonder that so few have undertaken this problem. Integrating Zooarchaeology and Paleoethnobotany takes the lead in tackling this important issue by addressing the methodological limitations of data integration, proposing new methods and innovative ways of using established methods, and highlighting case studies that successfully employ these methods to shed new light on ancient foodways. The volume challenges the perception that plant and animal foodways are distinct and contends that the separation of the analysis of archaeological plant and animal remains sets up a false dichotomy between these portions of the diet. In advocating qualitative and quantitative data integration, the volume establishes a clear set of methods for (1) determining the suitability of data integration in any particular case, and (2) carrying out an integrated qualitative or quantitative approach.

In recent years, scholars have emphasized the need for more holistic subsistence analyses, and collaborative publications towards this endeavor have become more numerous in the literature. However, there are relatively few attempts to qualitatively integrate zooarchaeological (animal) and paleoethnobotanical (plant) data, and even fewer attempts to quantitatively integrate these two types of subsistence evidence. Given the vastly different methods used in recovering and quantifying these data, not to mention their different preservational histories, it is no wonder that so few have undertaken this problem. Integrating Zooarchaeology and Paleoethnobotany takes the lead in tackling this important issue by addressing the methodological limitations of data integration, proposing new methods and innovative ways of using established methods, and highlighting case studies that successfully employ these methods to shed new light on ancient foodways. The volume challenges the perception that plant and animal foodways are distinct and contends that the separation of the analysis of archaeological plant and animal remains sets up a false dichotomy between these portions of the diet. In advocating qualitative and quantitative data integration, the volume establishes a clear set of methods for (1) determining the suitability of data integration in any particular case, and (2) carrying out an integrated qualitative or quantitative approach.

Zooarchaeological research has great potential to investigate areas of interest to other archaeologists, such as diet, trade, ritual, spatial usage, rubbish disposal, production, specialisation, land use, and more. Contributions to this volume cover North and South America, the Near East, Great Britain and Continental Europe, over a period from c.19,000 bp to ad 1778, and explore such themes as hunter/gatherers, early farming, Bronze Age and Iron Age societies, Classical civilisations, the medieval world, New World explorers and the American War of Independence.

Animals have played a fundamental role in shaping human history, and the study of their remains from archaeological sites - zooarchaeology - has gradually been emerging as a powerful discipline and crucible for forging an understanding of our past. The Oxford Handbook of Zooarchaeology offers a cutting-edge compendium of zooarchaeology the world over that transcends environmental, economic, and social approaches, seeking instead to provide a holistic view of the roles played by animals in past human cultures. Incisive chapters written by leading scholars in the field incorporate case studies from across five continents, from Iceland to New Zealand and from Japan to Egypt and Ecuador, providing a sense of the dynamism of the discipline, the many approaches and methods adopted by different schools and traditions, and an idea of the huge range of interactions that have occurred between people and animals throughout the world and its history. Adaptations of human-animal relationships in environments as varied as the Arctic, temperate forests, deserts, the tropics, and the sea are discussed, while studies of hunter-gatherers, farmers, herders, fishermen, and even traders and urban dwellers highlight the importance that animals have had in all forms of human societies. With an introduction that clearly contextualizes the current practice of zooarchaeology in relation to both its history and the challenges and opportunities that can be expected for the future, and a methodological glossary illuminating the way in which zooarchaeologists approach the study of their material, this Handbook will be invaluable not only for specialists in the field, but for anybody who has an interest in our past and the role that animals have played in forging it.

Zooarchaeology in Practice unites depth of treatment with broad topical coverage to advance methodological discussion and development in archaeofaunal analysis. Through case studies, historical accounts, and technical reviews authored by leading figures in the field, the volume examines how zooarchaeological data and interpretation are shaped by its methods of practice and explores the impact of these effects at varying levels of investigation. Contributing authors draw on geographically and taxonomically diverse datasets, providing instructive approaches to problems in traditional and emerging areas of methodological concern. Readers, from specialists to students, will gain an extensive, sophisticated look at important disciplinary issues that are sure to provoke critical reflection on the nature and importance of sound methodology. With implications for how archaeologists reconstruct human behavior and paleoecology, and broader relevance to fields such as paleontology and conservation biology, Zooarchaeology in Practice makes an enduring contribution to the methodological advancement of the discipline.

During the last two decades, zooarchaeologists have increasingly focused aspects of their work on conservation biology. Zooarchaeological data represent an empirical record of past human-animal interactions, which provides conservation with a deep temporal perspective. There are many challenges that face the archaeologist as conservation biologist, however, that have little to do with deep time, faunal remains, and zooarchaeological method and theory. In this book we use a series of case studies with which each of the authors has relevant personal experience to explore the types of interdisciplinary challenges that zooarchaeologists face when crossing into the world of environmental management and animal conservation. Never has there been a greater need for multi-vocal perspectives in conservation biology. This book shows zooarchaeologists how to use zooarchaeological perspectives to help meet those needs, while crossing traditional academic disciplinary boundaries.