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Food, foe, friend: animals play all these roles, and more, in their relationship to humans, in the past as well as the present. This course will explore how zooarchaeology — the study of animal remains (bones, teeth, and shells) — allows us to reconstruct ancient human-animal-environmental interactions. We will cover a range of topics and analytical techniques, including hands-on sessions for the identification and quantification of faunal remains.

TTh 2:30-3:50

Instructor: Suzanne Pilaar Birch 

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Syllabus 

Download the PDF version here: 
Animals in Archaeology Spring 2013 Final Syllabus.pdf

ARCH 1775 Animals in Archaeology

Tuesdays & Thursdays 2:30-3:50

Instructor: Dr. Suzanne Pilaar Birch

Email: Suzanne_Birch@brown.edu

Phone: (401) 863-2306

Office Hours: Wednesdays 2-4 and by appointment

Office: Rhode Island Hall 210

TA: Thomas Leppard
Email: Thomas.Leppard@googlemail.com

Office Hours: Thursdays 12:30-2:30

 

Course Description

 

Food, foe, friend: animals play all these roles, and more, in their relationship to humans, in the past as well as the present. This course will explore how zooarchaeology — the study of animal remains (bones, teeth, and shells) — allows us to reconstruct ancient human-animal-environmental interactions. We will cover a range of topics and analytical techniques, including hands-on sessions for the identification and quantification of faunal remains.

Assessment

Assignments are diverse because this course aims to not only provide an introduction to the many roles animals played in past human societies, but also to familiarize you with the physical skeletal remains of animals, giving you practical skills for the identification of animal bones from archaeological contexts.

• Practical quizzes20% There will be 11 practical quizzesworth 100 points each. The lowest score will be dropped.
• Paper 20% A choice of paper topics will be provided during the second week of class. The paper should be 1500 words/5-6 pages long, due 21 March 2013.
• Bone report 20% You will have class time to work on a faunal dataset and prepare a short summary of your findings. The report should be 6-8 pages, including graphs and data, due 30 April 2013.
• Final exam 30% There will be a written and practical component to the exam, 10 May 2013 9:00 AM.
• Attendance and participation 10%

Regular attendance and participation in class discussions are an important component of the class and you are expected to attend all classes unless you have a valid reason.

Books and Course Materials

Only Reitz & Wing is required. Lyman and Hillson are recommended. These three books are available at the campus bookstore and all books below have been put on 24-hour reserve in the Rock. Other readings will be available on the private forum of the course wiki, [link]. 

• Reitz, E.J. & E.S. Wing. 2008. Zooarchaeology. Second Edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
• Davis, S. 1987. The Archaeology of Animals. New Haven: Yale University Press.
• Lyman, R.L. 1994. Vertebrate Taphonomy.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Hillson, S. 2005. Teeth. Second Edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Schmid, E. 1972. Atlas of Animal Bones. Amsterdam: Elsevier.

You will also need calipers and a hand lens for the practicals-these can be purchased online.

Additional Information

Student and Employee Accessibility Services Please inform me if you have a disability or other condition that might require some modification of any of these course procedures. You may speak with me after class or during office hours. For more information contact Student and Employee Accessibility Services (SEAS) at 401-863-9588 or SEAS@brown.edu

Libraries Our subject librarian is Ian Straughn (Ian_Straughn@brown.edu). You can contact him with any research or library-related questions.

Schedule

Week 1: Introduction to Animals in Archaeology

01/24 Lecture An introduction to the archaeology of animals

• Reitz & Wing Ch. 1 and 2 (pp. 1-30)

Week 2: From Life to Beyond Death: Taphonomy of Animal Remains I

01/29 Lecture Natural & cultural deposition (site formation processes)

• Reitz & Wing Ch. 5 (pp.117-152)
• Behrensmeyer, A.K. 1978. Taphonomic and ecologic information from bone weathering. Paleobiology 4: 150-162.

01/31 Practical The vertebrate skeleton

• Reitz & Wing Ch. 3 and 4 (pp. 31-116)

Week 3: From Life to Beyond Death: Taphonomy of Animal Remains II

02/05 Lecture Natural & Cultural Bone Modification

• Lyman, R.L. 1994. Vertebrate Taphonomy.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.(Chapter 8 and 10) (pp.294-353 and 404-416)
• Brain, C.K. 1976. Some principles in the interpretation of bone accumulations associated with man, in G.L. Isaac and E.R. McCown (ed.), Human Origins: Louis Leakey and the East African Evidence: 97-116. Menlo Park: W. A. Benjamin, Inc.

02/07 Practical Identifying Bone Modification

• Lyman, R.L. 1994. Vertebrate Taphonomy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.(Chapter 1, 3, and 9) (pp.1-9, 41-68, 354-402)

Week 4 Scavenging, Hunting and Husbandry: Economic Considerations

02/12 Lecture Theory, ethnoarchaeology, and practice in reconstructing foodways

• Smith, E.A. 1983. Anthropological Applications of Optimal Foraging Theory: A Critical Review. Current Anthropology24: 625-649.
• Stiner, M.C. 1993. The Place of Hominids among Predators: Interspecific Comparisons of Food Procurement and Transport, in J. Hudson (ed.), From Bones to Behavior: Ethnoarchaeological and Experimental Contributions to the Interpretation of Faunal Remains: 38-61. Carbondale: Center for Archaeological Investigations, Southern Illinois University.
• Winterhalder, B. 1993. Work, Resources, and Population in Foraging Societies. Man 28: 321-340.

02/14 Practical Identifying Wild Animals

Week 5 Gathering and Recording Faunal Data

02/19 **NO CLASS**

02/21 Practical Creating faunal datasets   

• Binford, L.R. 1981. Middle-range research and the role of actualistic studies, in Bones: Ancient Men and Modern Myths. Academic Press, New York. (Chapter 2) (pp. 21-30).

Week 6 Domestication

02/26 Lecture Domestication

• Crabtree, P.J. 1993. Early animal domestication in the Middle East and Europe, in M.B. Schiffer (ed.), Archaeological Method and Theory Volume 5: 201-245. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
• Legge, T. 1996. The beginning of caprine domestication in Southwest Asia, in D.R. Harris (ed.), The Origins and Spread of Agriculture and Pastoralism in Eurasia:238-262. London: UCL Press.
• Price, E.O. 1999. Behavioural development in animals undergoing domestication. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 65: 252-271.
• Pringle, H. 1998. Reading the signs of ancient animal domestication. Science 282: 1448-1450.

02/28 Practical Identifying Domestic Animals

• Zeder, M.A. A metrical analysis of a collection of modern goats (Capra hircus aegargus and Capra hircus hircus) from Iran and Iraq: implications for the study of caprine domestication. Journal of Archaeological Science28: 61-80.
• Zeder, M.A. & S.E. Pilaar. 2010 Assessing the reliability of criteria used to identify mandibles and mandibular teeth in sheep, Ovis, and goats, Capra. Journal of Archaeological Science. 37:225-242.
• Zeder, M.A. & H. Lapham. 2010 Assessing the reliability of criteria used to post-cranial bones in sheep, Ovis, and goats, Capra. Journal of Archaeological Science. 37: 2887-2905

Week 7 Pastoralism and Agricultural Lifestyles

03/05 Lecture Ageing and Population Structure: Meat, Milk and Secondary Products

• Willis K.J. & K.D. Bennett, 1994, The Neolithic transition-fact or fiction? Palaeocological evidence from the Balkans. The Holocene 4(3): 326-330, and comment and reply in Holocene 6:1 (1996) pp. 119-123
• Bogucki, P. 1993. Animal traction and household economies in Neolithic Europe. Antiquity 67: 492-503.
• Keswani, P.S. The social context of animal husbandry in early agricultural societies: ethnographic insights and an archaeological example from Cyprus. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 13:255-277.
• Rowley-Conwy, P. 2000. Milking caprines, hunting pigs: the Neolithic economy of Arene Candide in the West Mediterranean context, in P. Rowley-Conwy (ed.), Animal Bones, Human Societies: 124-132. Oxford: Oxbow.

03/07 Practical Ageing and Sexing Animal Bones

• Wilson, B., Grigson, C. & S. Payne (ed.) 1982. Ageing and Sexing Animal Bones from Archaeological Sites.BAR 109. Oxford: Archaeopress. Chapters 2, 8, 12 (pp.7-24, 91-108 and 155-206)
• Ruscillo, D. 2006. Recent Advances in Ageing and Sexing Animal Bones. Oxford: Oxbow. Chapters 3, 6, 8 (pp. 40-61, 87-118 and 129-144)

Week 8 Feeding Cities

03/12 Lecture Imports, exports and economics

• Zeder, M.A. 1991. Feeding cities: specialized animal economy in the ancient Near East.Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press. Chapter 1.
• Crabtree, P.J. 1990. Zooarchaeology and complex societies: some uses of faunal analysis for the study of trade, social status, and ethnicity, in M.B. Schiffer (ed.): pp. 155-205.
• Landon, D.B. 1997. Interpreting urban food supply and distribution systems from faunal assemblages: an example from colonial Massachusetts. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 7: 51-64.
• Seetah, K. 2005. Butchery as a tool for understanding the changing views of animals: Cattle in Roman Britain in Pluskowski, A. (ed), Just Skin and Bones? New Perspectives on Human Animal Relations in the Historical Past: 1-8. BAR International Series 1410. Oxford: Archaeopress.

03/14 Practical Butchery and Utility Curves

• O’Connor, T.P. Process and terminology in mammal carcass reduction. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology3:64-67.
• Marean, C.W. & C.J. Frey. 1997. Animal bones from caves to cities: reverse utility curves as methodological artifacts. American Antiquity62: 698-711
• Marshall, F. & T. Pilgram. 1991. Meat versus within-bone nutrients: another look at the meaning of body part representation in archaeological sites. Journal of Archaeological Science 18: 149-163

Week 9 Biomolecular Approaches

03/19 Lecture Zooarchaeology andStable Isotope Analyses

• Brothwell & Pollard, 2001. Handbook of Archaeological Sciences. Chichester: Wiley & Blackwell. (Chapters 16, 23, 27, 28) (pp. 191-202, 269-280, 323-350)
• Ambrose (1990). Preparation and characterization of bone and tooth collagen for isotopic analysis. Journal of Archaeological Science 17: 431-451.
• Evershed, (2008). Organic residue analysis in archaeology: the archaeological biomarker revolution. Archaeometry 50: 895-924.
• Lee-Thorp (2008). On isotopes and old bones. Archaeometry 50: 925-950.
• Ambrose (1993). Isotopic analysis of palaeodiets: methodological and interpretive considerations. Investigations of Ancient Human Tissue. ed. Sandford. Gordon & Breach Science Publishers: 59-130.
• Richards (2000). Stable isotope analysis in archaeology, The Archaeologist, 38: 19-20.
• Ambrose (1993). Isotopic analysis of palaeodiets: methodological and interpretive considerations. Investigations of Ancient Human Tissue. ed. Sandford. Gordon & Breach Science Publishers: 59-130.

03/21 Lecture Zooarchaeology and Ancient DNA

 PAPER DUE

• Zeder, M.A., Emshwiller, E., Smith, B.D. & D.G. Bradley. 2006. Documenting Domestication: the intersection of genetics and archaeology.Chapters 1, 13, 14 (pp. 1-14, 171-208)
• Bruford et al. 2003. DNA markers reveal the complexity of livestock domestication. Nature Reviews Genetics4: 900-910.
• Edwards C., Bollongino, R., Scheu, A. et al. 2007. Mitochondrial DNA analysis shows a Near Eastern Neolithic origin for domestic cattle and no indication of domestication of European aurochs. Proceedings of the Biological Sciences274:1377-1385
• Jansen, T., Forster, P., Levine, M. et al. 2002. Mitochondrial DNA and the origins of the domestic horse. PNAS 99:10905-10910
• Larson G., Albarella, U., Dobney, K. et al. 2007. Ancient DNA, pig domestication, and the spread of the Neolithic into Europe. PNAS 104: 15276-15281

Week 10 Spring Break

Week 11 Biomolecular Approaches II

04/02 Guest Lecture Speaker TBA

04/04 Practical Working with datasets/reconciling osteological and biomolecular data

Read selected articles depending on practical option (distributed in lecture):

• Barrett et al. (2001). Diet and ethnicity during the Viking colonization of northern Scotland: Evidence from fish bones and stable carbon isotopes. Antiquity 75 (287): 145-154.
• Bonsall et al. (1997). Mesolithic and Early Neolithic in the Iron Gates: a palaeodietary perspective. Journal of European Archaeology 5: 50-92.
• Lillie & Richards (2000). Stable isotope analysis and dental evidence of diet at the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in Ukraine. Journal of Archaeological Science 27: 965-972.
• Privat et al. (2002). Stable isotope analysis of human and faunal remains from the Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Berinsfield, Oxfordshire: dietary and social implications. Journal of Archaeological Science 29: 779-790.
• Richards & Schulting (2006) Touch not the fish: the Mesolithic-Neolithic change of diet and its significance. Antiquity 80:444-456. see also Milner et al article
• Milner, Craig, Bailey & Andersen (2006) Touch not the fish: the Mesolithic-Neolithic change of diet and its significance - A response to Richards and Schulting. Antiquity 80:456-458. see also Richards & Schulting article
• Ubelaker & Katzenberg (1995). Status and diet in precontact highland Ecuador. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 97: 403-411.
• White (1993) Isotopic determination of seasonality in diet and death from Nubian mummy hair. Journal of Archaeological Science 20:657-666.
• White & Schwarcz (1994). Temporal trends in stable isotopes for Nubian mummy tissues. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 93:165-187.

Week 12 Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction

04/09 Lecture Another story: the value of microfauna in zooarchaeological studies

• Butler, V.L. 1993. Natural versus cultural salmonid remains: origin of the Dalles Roadcut bones, Columbia River, Oregon, USA. Journal of Archaeological Science20:1-24.
• Van Neer, W. & A.M. Muniz. 1992. Fish Middens: anthropogenic accumulations of fish remains and their bearing of archaeoichthyological analysis. Journal of Archaeological Science 18: 579-603.
• Eastman, A. 1997. The potential of bird remains for environmental reconstruction International Journal of Osteoarchaeology7: 422-429
• Serjeantson, D. 1997. Subsistence and symbol: the interpretation of bird remains in archaeology. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 7: 255-259

04/11 Practical Small Mammals, Birds, and Fishes

Week 12 The Seasonal Round

04/16 Lecture “To Everything There is a Season”: The seasonal use of animals in prehistory and antiquity and its implications for human mobility

• Carter, R.J. 1998. Reassessment of seasonality at the early Mesolithic site of Star Carr, Yorkshire based on radiogrpahs of mandibular tooth development in red deer (Cervus elaphus). Journal of Archaeological Science25: 851-856
• Miracle, P. 1997. Early Holocene foragers in the karst of northern Istria. Porocilo o raziskovanju paleolitika, neolitika in eneolitika v Slovenji XXIV, Ljubljana pp. 43-61.
• Monks, G. G., 1981, Seasonality Studies, in M.B. Schiffer (ed):  pp. 177–240.
• Jochim, M.A. Hunter-gatherer subsistence and settlement: A predictive model. New York: Academic Press (Chapters 1 and 2)

04/18 Practical Identifying markers of seasonality

• Davis, S. 1987. The Archaeology of Animals. New Haven: Yale University Press. (Chapter 4, In what season was a site occupied?) (pp. 75-90).

Week 13 Feast and Famine

04/23 Lecture Archaeological evidence for feasting and ritual use of animals

• Miracle, P. 2001. Feast or famine? Epipalaeolithic subsistence in the northern Adriatic basin. Documenta Praehistorica28: 177-197.
• Grant, A.E. 1991. Economic or symbolic? Animals and ritual behaviour, in P. Garwood et al. (ed.), Sacred and Profane: Archaeology, Ritual, and Religion:109-114. Oxford: Oxford University Committee for Archaeology Monographs.
• Kelly, L. 2001. A case of ritual feasting at Cahokia Site, in M. Dietler & B. Hayden (ed.), Feasts: Archaeological and Ethnographic Perspectives on Food, Politics and Power: 127-147.Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press.
• Potter, J.M. Communal ritual and faunal remains: an example from the Dolores Anasazi. Journal of Field Archaeology 24: 353-364.

04/25 Practical Faunal assemblages from recovery to interpretation

04/30 Revision Session

          BONE REPORT DUE

5/10 FINAL EXAM 9AM.