Age-at-death in traditional Cypriot sheep and goat husbandry : implications for zooarchaeology

This chapter is dedicated to Tony Legge, who worked in Cyprus and was an advocate of zooarchaeologists gaining a better understanding of animal husbandry and farming practices in the present. He has left an indelible mark in the field through the high quality of his work and the large volume of archaeological knowledge that he produced. Arguably his most valuable contribution was his ability to expose cherished but unjustified assumptions and flaws in methodology. Our discipline needs more of his spirit to avoid mechanical application of methods and uncritical reproduction of knowledge

Every dog has its day: first glimpses into everyday life in Early Bronze Age Attica

Our knowledge of societies in transition from the Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age in Attica is almost non-existent on issues related to human-animal interactions. This constitutes the first study of three large faunal assemblages from southeast Attica that sheds light on a variety of previously unaddressed issues revolving around the notions of identity and social complexity. Zooarchaeological analyses reveal that the practice of cynophagy played an important role in Early Bronze Age Attica. Dogs were systematically reared and consumed as suggested by the abundance of their remains, the extensive butchery marks on them and other lines of evidence. Cynophagy occurred in Greece from as early as the Early Neolithic and there is evidence for it from various regions but the case of Koropi in Attica is perhaps currently the most characteristic example of an extensive and organized adherence to this practice in Early Bronze Age Greece. Moreover, this study produced evidence to support that cynophagy was not practiced for purely subsistence purposes and discusses the possible sociopolitical ramifications of this practice in the currently available archaeological context of Early Bronze Age Attica

A first glimpse into butchery practices in Pre-Pottery Neolithic Cyprus: Evidence on sheep and goat remains from six sites

Butchery marks have not been considered very much in Cypriot zooarchaeology. This study aims to contribute towards filling this gap through a study of butchery marks on six Pre-Pottery Neolithic sheep and goat (caprine) assemblages in Cyprus. Taking into account the preservation condition of each assemblage, the analyses of the frequency and types of butchery marks, indicated some interesting trends. Most of these corroborate other lines of archaeological evidence indicating diversity in economic and social practices, which appear to vary both chronologically and geographically. Increased occurrence of butchery marks and differentiation in their types are compatible with a scenario of economic intensification in the 7th millennium cal. BC, at least at some sites. Moreover, the detection of butchery marks on caprine carcasses deposited in the vicinity of human remains in well 133 at Mylouthkia supports the interpretation of a deliberate deposition as part of Pre-Pottery Neolithic funerary practices in Cyprus

Digital Zooarchaeology: State of the art, challenges, prospects and synergies

This is the final version. Available on open access from Elsevier via the DOI in this recordDigital technologies are an increasingly pervasive medium for zooarchaeological scholarship, providing a means to document and preserve fragile zooarchaeological specimens, share primary data, address methodological questions, and spread the information to the wider public. During the last decade, a broad array of digital technologies has been widely applied for the creation of three-dimensional images of animal bones, with a number of freely accessible collections being developed and published online. To be beneficial for academic and non-academic audiences, the creation of these collections requires careful planning, and more attention is needed in order to ensure their longevity in the web as well as their future usability. Drawing on an online workshop, organised by the Science and Technology in Archaeology and Culture Research Center of The Cyprus Institute, titled “Zooarchaeology in the Digital Era”, this article aims to provide a snapshot of the current state of art, and the methods and digital tools being employed in the digitisation of animal remains. The article also raises some of the challenges that the international zooarchaeological community is facing in the era of Linked Open Data, including management, archiving, curation, storage, dissemination and communication of digital data to the scientific world and the wider public. In addition, the paper highlights the need for a stronger collaboration between archaeologists and researchers from the Digital Humanities’ sector in order to stimulate an innovative discourse and create fertile ground for the production of new scientific knowledge.European Union Horizon 202

Animal husbandry and other human-animal interactions in Late Ubaid-Early Uruk northern Iraq: the faunal remains from the 2012 excavation season at Tell Nader

Animal husbandry and generally human-animal relationships in northern Iraq are poorly known to archaeological research. This paper presents and discusses the (predominantly) Ubaid faunal assemblage recovered in 2012 at the multi-period site of Tell Nader (Erbil, northern Iraq). Despite limitations in sample size, preservation and chronological resolution, the analyses presented shed light into several aspects of human-animal interactions at Tell Nader and more broadly in northern Mesopotamia. The importance of each species, management strategies of domestic herds, consumption of animal products and bone tool production constitute the main issues addressed in this paper. The economy of Late Ubaid/Early Uruk Tell Nader was heavily domestic and evenly balanced between sheep/goat, pig and cattle husbandry. Beyond the obvious exploitation of these taxa for their meat, there is evidence for exploitation of renewable products from some of them. The interaction with wild animals was very limited and the faunal evidence suggests that the landscape around the site was predominately open, possibly with few forested pockets. Fieldwork is ongoing at the site and it is anticipated that these preliminary and tentative results from northern Iraq will be confirmed, refuted or further refined based on larger samples

Traditional sheep and goat husbandry in Cyprus : the effects of scale and its identification in archaeological assemblages

Zooarchaeological, as any archaeological, interpretation relies on analogical reasoning. In many cases, the analogies employed as interpretative aids derive from ethnographic studies. Zooarchaeology in particular has been heavily reliant on ethnography to inform its interpretative framework, especially on animal husbandry practices. The majority of relevant studies, however, concern specialised pastoralists in large-scale systems. Medium- and small-scale animal husbandry practices, especially in mixed agro-pastoral systems, are less documented ethnographically. The scarcity of such ethnographic analogies is detrimental to zooarchaeological interpretation, as scale is a fundamental characteristic of any animal husbandry system and permeates most of its aspects. This study constitutes an effort to address this gap through an ethnozooarchaeological study of, now extinct, medium-scale traditional caprine husbandry practices in 20th-century Cyprus. Data collected through semistructured interviews with sheep and goat herders are presented to illustrate how scale shapes important aspects of caprine management. Besides providing information of practical use to zooarchaeologists working in Mediterranean environments, this study also serves as a source of analogy for the detection and interpretation of ancient medium-scale systems