Zooarchaeology
Encyclopedia
Zooarchaeology, also known as Archaeozoology, is the study of animal
Animal
Animals are a major group of multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Animalia or Metazoa. Their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later on in their life. Most animals are motile, meaning they can move spontaneously and...

 remains
Remains
Remains may refer to:* "Remains" , a 2009 song by Maurissa Tancharoen and Jed Whedon* Remains , a 2007 compilation album by punk band Alkaline Trio...

 from archaeological sites. The remains consist primarily of the hard parts of the body
Body
With regard to living things, a body is the physical body of an individual. "Body" often is used in connection with appearance, health issues and death...

 such as bone
Bone
Bones are rigid organs that constitute part of the endoskeleton of vertebrates. They support, and protect the various organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells and store minerals. Bone tissue is a type of dense connective tissue...

s, teeth, and shells. Such remains may represent the food refuse of ancient populations as well as animals used for transportation, farm or other labor or pet, or for decoration, clothing and tools and the scrap therefrom.

The study of these remains helps archaeologists understand past human subsistence strategies and economic interactions, and completes our picture of the kind of environment
Environment (biophysical)
The biophysical environment is the combined modeling of the physical environment and the biological life forms within the environment, and includes all variables, parameters as well as conditions and modes inside the Earth's biosphere. The biophysical environment can be divided into two categories:...

s humans have inhabited.

Naming the discipline

The multi-disciplinary nature of this field is reflected in the disagreements over its name. One of the first clear references to this area of study was by Lubbock (1865) who used the term zoologico-archaeologist. The modern derivatives, such as zooarchaeology, zooarcheologie, or zooarchaeologia are probably the most commonly used terms in the Americas and reflect the anthropological
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...

 perspective prevalent in their research. In Eurasia and Africa the term archaeozoology is more commonly seen, and this emphasises the biological
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...

 nature of the animal remains. Other terms that are occasionally used are osteoarchaeology, bioarchaeology
Bioarchaeology
The term bioarchaeology was first coined by British archaeologist Grahame Clark in 1972 as a reference to zooarchaeology, or the study of animal bones from archaeological sites...

(in the United States, this is generally used to refer to the analysis of human remains from archaeological sites) and ethnozoology
Ethnozoology
Ethnozoology is the study of the past and present interrelationships between human cultures and the animals in their environment. It includes classification and naming of zoological forms, cultural knowedge and use of wild and domestic animals...

. While these disputes may seem trivial, they reflect differences in the approach and perception of the same material (Reitz and Wing, 1999: 2-6).

Zooarchaeology and related fields

As can be seen from the discussion about the name that should be given to this discipline, zooarchaeology overlaps significantly with other areas of study. These include:
  • Anthropology
    Anthropology
    Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...

  • Archaeology
    Archaeology
    Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...

  • Biology
    Biology
    Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...

  • Ecology
    Ecology
    Ecology is the scientific study of the relations that living organisms have with respect to each other and their natural environment. Variables of interest to ecologists include the composition, distribution, amount , number, and changing states of organisms within and among ecosystems...

  • Ethnography
    Ethnography
    Ethnography is a qualitative method aimed to learn and understand cultural phenomena which reflect the knowledge and system of meanings guiding the life of a cultural group...

  • Paleopathology
    Paleopathology
    Paleopathology, also spelled palaeopathology, is the study of ancient diseases. It is useful in understanding the past history of diseases, and uses this understanding to predict its course in the future.- History of paleopathology :...

  • Palaeontology
  • Zoology
    Zoology
    Zoology |zoölogy]]), is the branch of biology that relates to the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct...


Primary analysis of individual assemblages

A typical report based upon a faunal assemblage will include the following information:
  • An inventory of the bones, including species
    Species
    In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

     and element, and concluding with totals such as Minimum Number of Individuals
    Minimum number of individuals
    In disciplines including forensic anthropology, bioarchaeology, osteoarchaeology and zooarchaeology Minimum number of individuals, or MNI, refers to the fewest possible number of people or animals in a skeletal assemblage...

     (MNI), Minimum Number of Elements (MNE) and Number of Identified Specimens
    Number of Identified Specimens
    The Number of Identified Specimens or Number of Individual Specimens , is used in archaeology and paleontology when counting bones from a site. NISP counts each bone and fragment as one unit...

     (NISP), although the latter two (NISP & MNE) yield incompatible results in some instances .
  • Age-establishing data, based upon epiphyseal fusion
    Epiphysis
    The epiphysis is the rounded end of a long bone, at its joint with adjacent bone. Between the epiphysis and diaphysis lies the metaphysis, including the epiphyseal plate...

    , dental eruption
    Tooth
    Teeth are small, calcified, whitish structures found in the jaws of many vertebrates that are used to break down food. Some animals, particularly carnivores, also use teeth for hunting or for defensive purposes. The roots of teeth are embedded in the Mandible bone or the Maxillary bone and are...

     and tooth wear,
  • Sexing data, based upon bone morphology,
  • Metrical data (see also ABMAP
    ABMAP
    ABMAP, also known as the Animal Bone Metrical Archive Project, consists of a collection of metric data on the main domestic animals recorded at the University of Southampton, together with the data from some other sources, in particular the Museum of London Archaeology Service . Whilst the data is...

    ),
  • Taphonomy
    Taphonomy
    Taphonomy is the study of decaying organisms over time and how they become fossilized . The term taphonomy was introduced to paleontology in 1940 by Russian scientist Ivan Efremov to describe the study of the transition of remains, parts, or products of organisms, from the biosphere, to the...

    , including weathering, gnawing, butchery, burning and related processes,
  • Paleopathology
    Paleopathology
    Paleopathology, also spelled palaeopathology, is the study of ancient diseases. It is useful in understanding the past history of diseases, and uses this understanding to predict its course in the future.- History of paleopathology :...

    .

Wider areas of study

Such analyses provide the basis by which further interpretations can be made. Topics that have been addressed by zooarchaeologists include:
  • Animal husbandry
    Animal husbandry
    Animal husbandry is the agricultural practice of breeding and raising livestock.- History :Animal husbandry has been practiced for thousands of years, since the first domestication of animals....

  • Belief systems
  • Cultural exchange
  • Diet
    Diet (nutrition)
    In nutrition, diet is the sum of food consumed by a person or other organism. Dietary habits are the habitual decisions an individual or culture makes when choosing what foods to eat. With the word diet, it is often implied the use of specific intake of nutrition for health or weight-management...

     and nutrition
    Nutrition
    Nutrition is the provision, to cells and organisms, of the materials necessary to support life. Many common health problems can be prevented or alleviated with a healthy diet....

  • Disease
    Disease
    A disease is an abnormal condition affecting the body of an organism. It is often construed to be a medical condition associated with specific symptoms and signs. It may be caused by external factors, such as infectious disease, or it may be caused by internal dysfunctions, such as autoimmune...

  • Domestication
    Domestication
    Domestication or taming is the process whereby a population of animals or plants, through a process of selection, becomes accustomed to human provision and control. In the Convention on Biological Diversity a domesticated species is defined as a 'species in which the evolutionary process has been...

  • Environment
    Environment (biophysical)
    The biophysical environment is the combined modeling of the physical environment and the biological life forms within the environment, and includes all variables, parameters as well as conditions and modes inside the Earth's biosphere. The biophysical environment can be divided into two categories:...

     and environmental change
  • Ethnicity
  • Food processing
    Food processing
    Food processing is the set of methods and techniques used to transform raw ingredients into food or to transform food into other forms for consumption by humans or animals either in the home or by the food processing industry...

  • Landscape
    Landscape
    Landscape comprises the visible features of an area of land, including the physical elements of landforms such as mountains, hills, water bodies such as rivers, lakes, ponds and the sea, living elements of land cover including indigenous vegetation, human elements including different forms of...

  • Material culture
    Material culture
    In the social sciences, material culture is a term that refers to the relationship between artifacts and social relations. Studying a culture's relationship to materiality is a lens through which social and cultural attitudes can be discussed...

  • Seasonality
    Seasonality
    In statistics, many time series exhibit cyclic variation known as seasonality, periodic variation, or periodic fluctuations. This variation can be either regular or semi regular....

  • Social status
  • Subsistence strategies
  • Technology
    Technology
    Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...


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