Animal Crackers: Exploring Zooarchaeology

Cache of animal bones (Image Source: www.phys.org)

Archaeology is the study of past peoples and cultures.  It involves the investigation of various material remains, the most notable of which is material cultural evidence (e.g. pottery, weapons, clothing, etc.), but this is an incomplete understanding of all of the aspects of archaeological investigations.  Archaeological studies focus on a variety of features, artifacts, and ecofacts that exist at the site, and today’s blog post will focus on a discussion of what zooarchaeology is, its purpose and importance to the overall study of archaeology, as well as career options for zooarchaeologists.

Zooarchaeology is a branch of archaeological research that focuses on animal remains (i.e. bones, ivory, antler, furs, and skins) that exist in the archaeological record and at archaeological sites.  This subsubdiscipline also goes by other names, including osteoarchaeology, faunal analysis, and archaeozoology.  Archaeologists can gain various insights into past cultures through the study of animal remains, specifically expanding the knowledge base concerning domestication patterns, seasonality of sites (or when sites were occupied), paleoclimate, cultural traditions around ritual and diet, trade patterns, as well as chronology of the site.  This makes zooarchaeology a very useful and dynamic field of study.

Zooarchaeologists, however, have to undergo extensive study within their subsubdisciplines.  Not only do they have to have an understanding of archaeological investigation techniques they also have to know how to identify various species of animals that exist both today as well as existed in the past.  This means that they have to be able to differentiate among mammalian, reptilian, avian, marine/riverine, etc. species.  Not only that but zooarchaeologists also must be able to identify age at death of the animals under study (albeit not to the specificity that bioarchaeologists/physical anthropologists must), as well as the bone element and side.  All of this information allows scholars to understand the details required to answer the research questions derived from the above topics, but zooarchaeologists must complete these analyses most often on fragmentary and worked bone!  Therefore zooarchaeologists must be very patient and disciplined.

Zooarchaeologists are valued members of archaeological teams.  They often acquire employment on academic as well as private archaeological teams as either excavators or lab technicians (and often times both).  They are also employed in museums and conservation organizations.  Ultimately, the possibilities are quite endless within this field, and zooarchaeologists enjoy a wide variety of career options.

Bibliography

  

Keenan, E.  2014.  “Study Animals from the Past with the Techniques of the Future.”  University of York.    https://www.york.ac.uk/archaeology/postgraduate-study/taught-postgrads/masters-courses/zooarchaeology/

  

McClelland, J.  No Date.  “What is Zooarchaeology?”  Stanley J. Olsen Laboratory of Zooarchaeology.  Comparative Vertebrate Collections.  Arizona State Museum.  http://www.statemuseum.arizona.edu/zooarch/

No Author.  No Date.  “Zooarchaeology.”  University of North Texas.  http://geography.unt.edu/sites/geography.unt.edu/files/TXT_Zooarchaeology_0.pdf

 

No Author.  No Date.  “Zooarchaeology.”  University College-London Institute of Archaeology.  University College-London.  http://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/research/tags/zooarchaeology

Schlesinger, JW.  2008.  Zooarchaeology:  The Language of Faunal Remains.  Undergraduate Thesis.