Theme:
5. Theories and methods in archaeology: interactions between disciplines
Session format:
Regular session
Title:
Reconstructing Faunal Exploitation Patterns, Palaeoecologies and Living Landscapes of the Pleistocene [PaM]
Content:
This session aims to explore different bioarchaeological approaches used towards understanding the complex interactions between humans and animals in the past. Changes in climate, environment, demography, and human activity all affected the behaviour and distribution of fauna, directly impacting on the subsistence strategies used by humans in the past. This is particularly pertinent when considering the Pleistocene, when fluctuating climatic conditions affected the distribution and migration patterns of wild fauna affecting the availability of prey species available, and thus hunting strategies employed by past populations. Understanding patterns of faunal exploitation, and animal behaviour in the past and how they changed in response to population and environmental pressures is crucial in being able to understand processes happening in the world today.
Alongside traditional zooarchaeological analyses, which forms the foundation for any investigation of fauna in the past, there is a vast suite of bioarchaeological methods providing additional complementary datasets. Such approaches include; Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS), bulk collagen isotopic analysis, incremental analysis of teeth, aDNA, geometric morphometrics, and behavioural modelling. Integrating these different approaches allows us to answer specific questions about the lives, behaviours, and uses of animals in the past, and the humans that exploited them.
This session welcomes contributions from researchers working in different geographical regions and chronological settings using an array of analytical approaches towards studying faunal exploitation and palaeoecologies in the past. We particularly welcome submissions from researchers that employ multiple different methodologies, and that integrate zooarchaeological, biomolecular, and environmental archaeological approaches towards reconstructing past environments, animal behaviours and hunting strategies during the Pleistocene.
Keywords:
Zooarchaeology, Pleistocene, Subsistence, Bioarchaeology, Isotopes, Palaeoecology
Session associated with MERC:
no
Session associated with CIfA:
no
Session associated with SAfA:
no
Session associated with CAA:
no
Session associated with DGUF:
no
Session associated with other:
PaM
Main organiser:
Jennifer Jones (Spain) 1
Co-organisers:
Geoffrey Smith (Germany) 2
Affiliations:
1. IIIPC, Universidad de Cantabria
2. Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
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