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. By the end of the course, students will be able to identify every bone in the mammalian skeleton and distinguish between the bones of common non-mammalian taxa. Additional topics will include ancient DNA in zooarchaeology, bone stable isotope analyses, human-caused extinctions, animal domestication, bone artifact production, and animal sacrifice. |