The archaeology and ethnography of human-animal social relationships

As zooarchaeologists move away from the purely economic towards ‘social zooarchaeological’ interpretations, the consideration of articulated/associated faunal remains has become more common-place. This paper presents results from a research project which investigated the nature of these associated bone groups (ABGs). The majority of current work on these deposits has utilised Iron Age material, with ABGs becoming synonymous with certain Iron Age sites, particularly Danebury. This paper moves beyond the Iron Age and discusses their presence on sites from the Neolithic to the Medieval period. It utilises the results of a survey of published sources from southern England and Yorkshire and shows that ABGs are commonly recovered from other periods. Their composition is shown to differ between time periods and regions. Finally in light of the data presented it questions how we should view these deposits.

English Summary:


This remarkable book is the fruit of 30 years of investigations of two archaeologists, husband and wife, Maria Magdalena and Andrzej Antczak, on the pre-Hispanic archaeology of the majestic Los Roques Archipelago, Venezuela. The uniqueness of the Los Roques Archipelago within the panorama of insular pre-colonial archaeology in the Americas centers on the discovery of more than 400 human clay figurines on one small island, Dos Mosquises, along with elaborate primary ritual contexts and the remains of a gargantuan queen conch (lobatus gigas) exploitation enterprise. This book is the winner of two of the highest scientific publication awards in Venezuela (2006 & 2009).


Resumen en Español:


Desde el título de este volumen de indiscutible valor, la palabra “prometidas” aplica oportunamente a nuestro maravilloso archipiélago venezolano de Los Roques la alegoría bíblica que coloca al final de un exigente camino hermosas tierras, donde corren ríos de leche y miel. Hacia estas islas con abundantes recursos marinos, entre los cuales destaca el gran caracol marino llamado ‘botuto’, se dirigían las canoas indígenas durante al menos cuatro siglos antes de la conquista europea. Las campañas de explotación de los recursos en las islas dependían del éxito de la actividad ceremonial, testimoniada por centenares de figurinas humanas, incensarios, ocarinas y pipas cerámicas, flautas de hueso y silbatos de concha, recuperados por los arqueólogos en complejos contextos primarios.

La presencia de esta diversidad de objetos en los campamentos temporales de las pequeñas islas oceánicas es un fenómeno excepcional en la arqueología del Caribe. En este sentido, la publicación de esta monografía es el cumplimiento de un prolongado esfuerzo y de un caro anhelo por proporcionar al lector una explicación sólida y coherente de este fenómeno arqueológico único. Es también el final de una importante etapa de ese camino verdaderamente exigente de la investigación arqueológica. A través de sus páginas, con un soporte teórico documental de inusual solidez y pertinencia, se difunde el fruto de muchos años de perseverante dedicación para sus autores, María Magdalena Mackowiak de Antczak y Andrzej Antczak, arqueólogos y antropólogos vinculados desde hace tiempo con la Universidad Simón Bolívar.

Se trata, sin duda, de una obra mayor, enriquecida por 1500 ilustraciones y más de 200 tablas, que describe hallazgos arqueológicos excepcionales recuperados de manera sistemática durante más de 60 campañas de trabajo de campo, y desarrolla propuestas verdaderamente seminales para el entendimiento del significado y la valoración del legado prehispánico en Venezuela y, en especial, en sus territorios insulares.

Este volumen ha sido concebido no solamente como lectura referencial para profesionales y estudiantes de arqueología y antropología, sino también esta dirigido al lector no especializado que puede sentirse atraído por el vibrante, colorido y desconocido pasado prehispánico presentado en estas páginas. También, a través de esta monografía los autores aspiran a infundir El Orgullo por el Pasado, el lema que orienta sus trabajos de investigación y docencia.

Este vasto y complejo proyecto editorial ha sido posible gracias a la concertación de un gran equipo profesional y una venturosa alianza de nuestra Universidad con Banesco y Petrozuata, confluencias que celebramos también como promesas felizmente cumplidas.

El libro ha recibido numerosos premios nacionales incluyendo:

IV Premio Nacional del Libro 2006, Mejor Libro Científico otorgado por el Ministerio del Poder Popular para la Cultura.

2009 Premio Alterno por Mejor Investigación en Ciencias Sociales, otorgado por la ASOVAC (Asociación Venezolana para el Avance de la Ciencia).

2007 Premio Andrés Bello para la Mejor Investigación en Ciencias Sociales otorgado por la Universidad Simón Bolívar.

In traditional archaeological considerations of Iron Age and Romano-British landscapes, trackways are usually interpreted in largely normative terms, merely as means of getting from one settlement to another, or as purely functional features to assist with the herding of animals. In these somewhat static expositions, the role of trackways as places in themselves, and their long-term importance in constructions of social identity and memory, are often overlooked. So too are the complex relationships between people and animals enacted within trackways, field systems, and the wider landscape.

Recent theoretical ideas concerning relational agency and identity, materiality and movement have much to offer in terms of our archaeological understandings of these features. This paper explores the interpretative potential of such approaches using case studies of Iron Age and Romano-British trackways from Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire. Integrating theories of identity, embodiment, materiality, relationality and practice highlights the sedentarism of previous explanations, and allows for much more nuanced accounts of highly dynamic, mobile meshworks, where agency resided in complex constraints and affordances between people, animals and the materiality of the lived-in landscape.

The discipline of archaeology has long engaged with animals in a utilitarian mode, constructing animals as objects to be hunted, manipulated, domesticated, and consumed. Only recently, in tandem with the rising interest in animals in the humanities and the development of interdisciplinary animal studies research, has archaeology begun to systematically engage with animals as subjects. This article describes some of the ways in which archaeologists are reconstructing human engagements with animals in the past, focusing on relational modes of interaction documented in many hunting and gathering societies. Among the most productive lines of evidence for human-animal relations in the past are animal burials and structured deposits of animal bones. These archaeological features provide material evidence for relational ontologies in which animals, like humans, were vested with sentience and agency.

Some 2200 years ago, people belonging to the Pazyryk archaeological culture gathered together to bury their dead in mounds on high plateaus in the remote Altai Mountains in the center of Asia. Entire horses—and often groups of horses—were sacrificed at these funerals and interred with the men and women, presumed leaders and commoners alike. By employing an human-animal studies approach to these burials, in this chapter I digress from the archaeological position which views nonhuman animals as calories or constructs to one which includes animal others as impactful upon human social realities.

After grounding this approach in multidisciplinary theory, I bring into the discussion facets of horses, and of human-horse relationships, through both ethological studies of horses and an inside auto-ethnographic research strategy which uses my position within the context of those I shall term working riders: riders who live with and care for horses and possess the ability and knowledge to school them to be ridden. I touch on aspects of human-horse intersubjectivities and situate particular elements of the Pazyryk horse burials. I then attempt to phenomenologically recreate the actual killing of the Pazyryk horse from the perspective of the humans—and the horses—and suggest some mental and emotional processes that might have caused certain behaviors of both at the burial ceremony. Finally I reflect on the viability of creating relational archaeologies of human-animal interactions which allow for both essentialist and constructionist perspectives.

Over the past several decades, the anthropocentric lens through which domestication has been seen as entirely human-directed has shifted to a more ecocentric view “where domestication appears as a relation between two species” ( Noske 1997 :10; see also Boyd 2017). As this volume brings into perspective, definitions of domestication as a process wherein human subjects act upon animal objects have broadened to allow for the notion of coevolution and reciprocal adaptations between and among humans, co-domesticates and the habitats they share. We now recognize that nonhuman animals (hereafter: animals) possess agential qualities that influence humans, and that the process of domestication for any given species can neither be considered as a static point in time, nor as a fixed set of characteristics. This significant paradigm shift allows for – indeed, necessitates – a reassessment of prior interpretations which have assumed interspecies relations as unidirectional. In what follows, I suggest that for one such human-horse configuration, the Iron Age Pazyryk archaeological culture, influence between the species was bi-directional and that horses influenced not only human social structures, but also political ethos – that humans mimicked horses’ ways of being.

Prior interpretations of the tattoos of nonhuman animals etched upon the preserved human bodies from the Pazyryk archaeological culture of Inner Asia have focused on solely human-generated meanings. This article utilizes an ethnoarchaeological approach to reassess these tattoos,
by analogizing the nature and possibilities of human-ridden horse intersubjectivities in the present with those of the past. As enlightened by people who live with horses, including the author, the process of learning to ride can be seen as an interspecies apprenticeship process, where both humans and horses pass along social knowledge as thoughtful actors with defined roles. From this perspective, the horse tattoos are presented as polysemic materializations of the
bonds between particular Pazyryk horses and people, of blended identities, and of cosmological values related to time, memory, and belonging. The article concludes that exploring smaller-scale
human-nonhuman animal interactions in the present allows for fresh interpretations of similar interactions in the past and provides a means for archaeology to move beyond the objectification of animals as sets of resources or symbols.

Prior interpretations of the tattoos of nonhuman animals etched upon the preserved human bodies from the Pazyryk archaeological culture of Inner Asia have focused on solely human-generated meanings. This article utilizes an ethnoarchaeological approach to reassess these tattoos,
by analogizing the nature and possibilities of human-ridden horse intersubjectivities in the present with those of the past. As enlightened by people who live with horses, including the author, the process of learning to ride can be seen as an interspecies apprenticeship process, where both humans and horses pass along social knowledge as thoughtful actors with defined roles. From this perspective, the horse tattoos are presented as polysemic materializations of the
bonds between particular Pazyryk horses and people, of blended identities, and of cosmological values related to time, memory, and belonging. The article concludes that exploring smaller-scale
human-nonhuman animal interactions in the present allows for fresh interpretations of similar interactions in the past and provides a means for archaeology to move beyond the objectification of animals as sets of resources or symbols.

A recent field survey of the elite Middle Kingdom cemetery at Beni Hassan has revealed many unusual animal motifs, including examples of creatures that are rarely attested in the artistic record and entirely new scenes. Two case studies are presented to illustrate the rich zoological repertoire at the site and its potential to enlighten our understanding of the Egyptians’ intriguing relationship with the animal world. These are confirmation of a tame Egyptian mongoose represented in the Eleventh Dynasty tomb of Baqet I (no. 29) and a new image of a pelican in full color in the Eleventh Dynasty tomb of Baqet II (no. 33).

This paper examines the archaeological and faunal evidence from Wattle Syke near Wetherby in West Yorkshire, where developer-funded excavations revealed part of a large Late Iron Age and Romano-British settlement. The archaeological work uncovered close spatial references between features such as roundhouses and ditches, reflecting tangible links back to past households and structures. It was the prosaic practices, materials and movements of everyday life that allowed social memories to be carried forward across the generations, yet the evidence also suggests the reworking, forgetting or deliberate negation of memories and the past. The exceptionally well-preserved animal and human skeletal evidence allowed the construction of contextual biographies of depositional and ritualised practices over many centuries. Many of these acts seem to have reflected a concern with seasonality and with genealogy, and material culture, human and animal remains were strategically used to create, reinforce or even negate collective and individual identities and memories. Buildings, material culture and human and animal remains were all caught up in these meshes or networks of everyday 'memory work'.

Attempts are often made to link ethnographic information with animal remains from archaeological sites. This is
often productive where the sites excavated have historical, traditional, and/or oral links with modern populations.
Even so, the analyst must proceed with care. Such links become much more tenuous farther back in time and are
problematic to say the least. In this paper, we illustrate the uses and problems associated with ethnographic information
by way of four topics: the Central Cattle Pattern, substitute burials, divining bones and food taboos. We
compare ethnographic information with material excavated and assess the value of this information against time
and place. We demonstrate both the usefulness of ethnographic information, but also the problems associated with
applying ethnographic information to the distant and not so distant past.

In this paper, I discuss a specific type of stone tool found at Lepenski Vir: clubs or mallets - which may have been used in fishing as stunners. The significance of large fish species (especially beluga sturgeon) in the diet, settlement patterns and cosmogony of the inhabitants of the Mesolithic-Neolithic settlement of Lepenski Vir (c. 6200-5900. cal. BC) is amply manifested in the archaeological record, namely by significant quantities of sturgeon bones, the famous ‘fishlike’ sandstone sculptures and isotopic dietary signatures of humans buried at the site. Ironically, there is less evidence to suggest how exactly these great animals were caught. The massive and often ornamented stone clubs were initially interpreted as ‘magic’ and ‘ritual’ devices; however, it should be noted that the ‘ritual’ and ‘profane’ uses of an object need not exclude one another. The aim of this paper is to present the material and stylistic properties of these tools, look into and interpret their contextual provenience, and offer an understanding of them not as passive objects, but as powerful agents in dramatic encounters with the big fish.

My PhD thesis was an interpretative study of rural landscapes and communities of Nottinghamshire and South and West Yorkshire during the Iron Age and Romano-British periods. It challenged dominant narratives of the Iron Age and Romano-British periods by focusing on the regional evidence for inhabitation, evidence that was relatively unknown until the late 1970s and that consisted mainly of cropmarks of field systems and enclosures. Whilst additional aerial photography and developer-funded survey and excavation work have now significantly expanded the data available, this evidence had not been interpreted from a social perspective, and these landscapes and their inhabitants had been rarely discussed outside of the region, especially in wider syntheses of the Iron Age and Romano-British periods in Britain. This thesis was therefore a rather different account of people and places in northern England during the study period.
My PhD thesis assesses the current known extent of these enclosures and field systems within the region, and suggests reasons for their physical layout and purpose. I discuss the ways in which changing patterns of fields and enclosures affected movement through the landscape, and traditions of tenure, land use, animal husbandry and human-animal relations. This thesis explores the materiality of land divisions and settlements, the social practices involved in their construction and their possible symbolic connotations; through theoretical approaches to identity and relational agency informed by ethnographic analogies and a poetics of landscape.
This thesis also discusses changes in identity, production and consumption practices amongst these small-scale rural communities preceding and following the Roman invasion of the north; and issues concerning Roman imperialism and acculturation or ‘Romanisation’ within the region.

MA Thesis defended at Stockholm University, June 2021.

An Archaeology of Animacy. On the Mesolithic Ornamentation of the Baltic Sea.

This thesis is focused on the material known as the Mesolithic portable art. Earlier research have
interpreted the material as representative art relating to ideology, mythology, prestige, ritual practices,
and tribalism. Such interpretations are based on theoretical frameworks that build on hylomorphism
and Cartesian metaphysics. By a change of theoretical framework, to a new animistic perspective
based on a combination of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s rhizome theory, Tim Ingold’s
meshwork and Giordano Bruno’s theory of bonds in general, followed by the use of Chantal
Conneller’s method rhizomatic chaîne opératoire, I conclude that the motifs on the tools and pendants
are communications to the animated subjects that make up and inhabit the environment. Furthermore, I
conclude that the binary positions of function and ritual cannot be applied when studying the formgenerating process of this material, as the tools and pendants along with their applied motifs are a
result of what is in between these binary positions.

Keywords: Mesolithic portable art, new animism, animacy, relational ontology, hylomorphism,
rhizome theory, meshwork, rhizomatic chaîne opératoire, bone, antler, amber.

PHD DEFENCE

DATE: May 28
TIME: 13:15
ADDRESS: Humanistiska Teatern * Thunbergsvägen 3C * 752 38 Uppsala
DIRECTIONS: https://goo.gl/maps/YTBuQEVTfJiKAkyj8

FACULTY EXAMINER: Professor Elna Siv Kristoffersen (Stavanger University).

DISSERTATION: Michael Neiß: Förvandlingar i vikingatidens djurornamentik. – Del 1: En multiperspektivisk studie om figurknoppspännen av Birkatyp. (Transformations in Viking Age Animal Art – Volume 1: A multy perspective study on sculptural brooches of Birka type.) AUN  52, 340 pp.  Uppsala universitet, Uppsala. ISBN 978-91-506-2934.

LINK: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-470296 (to be activated on May 6)

ABSTRACT:
During the past 150 years, different generations of scholars have been approaching Viking Age Animal Art with queries that were as multifaceted as the materials that they studied. The focal point of this study are Birka type brooches, which are best likened to interactive sculptures that change shape as the viewer changes perspec¬tive. Sculptural brooches do not only breathe new life into traditional research questions, but raise new ones that steer us into uncharted waters. Here, we make field observations which fall outside the established paradigms of archaeology. Following the parable of the six blind men who tried to come to terms with the unknown phenome¬non ‘elephant’, this study approaches the sculptural brooch phenomenon from different angles, by combining different methods which have been developed within separate research disciplines such as archaeology, art his¬tory, cognitive science and sociosemiotics. The methodological framework for my multi-method approach is informed GT, i.e. a variant of grounded theory which uses established theories to identify distinct patterns that previously went unnoticed. Contradictions that arise from the mix of methods are not seen as a hindrance, but as a generator for progress that gives rise to a new theory. By combining dynamic typology, Panofskyan hermeneu¬tics and multimodal semiotics, my study on sculptural brooches uncovers hitherto unknown parallels between Animal Art and skaldic poetry in regards to context, cognition and imagery. As a result, one is inclined to look for a potential link between those distinct expressions of Viking Age culture. Did objects with Animal Art serve as points of reference for skaldic ekphrasis? Or was Animal Art a material anchor for the same conceptual blends that also transpired through skaldic poetry? The outcome is an empirically grounded theory which links the pictorial language of the smith to the verbal imagery of the skald, more precisely in the context of Old Norse íþrótt ideology.

Keywords: 3D laser scanning and modeling. Animal Art. Birka type brooches. Cognitive archaeology. Dynamic typology. Iconology. Informed grounded theory. Metalworking. Multimodal semiotics. Skaldic ekphrasis. Viking Studies.

Ethnographic evidence indicates that animals play complex, overlapping roles as food, sacred objects, and mythic creatures. Yet our reconstructions of animals in religions of the past tend to represent functional categories in which animals are objects to be dominated. In this chapter, I suggest that we fail to appreciate the range of roles animals played in prehistoric religions, in part because we have few modern Western analogs. This chapter
takes a critical look at our neglect of animals in past religions and advocates greater attention to animals as agents and mythic subjects.

In the early nineteenth century, members of one household of the enslaved community at Virginia’s Montpelier plantation buried their dog near the duplex they called home. This action, on its own, unfortunately does not speak directly to the broader experiences of Africans or their descendants forced into American bondage, or the specific experiences of the women and men enslaved at Montpelier. However, by contextualizing dogs in the African Atlantic and the specific landscapes of Montpelier, such narratives come into focus, allowing us to explore the roles the animal may have played in the daily life of an enslaved household.

This study utilises relational and human–animal studies approaches—a goal of both of which is to decentre the human as but one element functioning within a web of connections to create human social realities—to explored aspects of the archaeologically visible burial practices within the human–horse burials carried out by the Pazyryk Iron Age archaeological culture of Inner Asia. To do this, I bring into the discussion facets of horses, and of human–horse intersubjectivities, as enlightened by ethological studies of horses and an inside auto-ethnographic research strategy utilising my position as a lifelong horse person. I present characteristics of sociality possessed by both humans and horse—including elders, empathy and emotion—that might be seen as essential qualities impacting the ways in which individuals from the two species come together. From this standpoint, I suggest some mental and emotional processes that might have caused certain behaviours of members of both species at the burial ceremony, enlightening several previously unexplained aspects of mortuary patterning. Finally I reflect on the viability of creating relational archaeologies of human–non-human animal interactions which allow for both essentialist and constructionist perspectives.

"In 2002 a burial tumulus was excavated at Mikri Doxipara-Zoni (AD 90-120). Research yielded a great spectrum of very interesting finds, including five richly decorated wagons, each buried with two auxiliary horses, two separate horse burials, human cremation burials, altars, hearths, pottery and objects of precious stones and metals. A total of fifteen horses (predominantly mares) in the prime of their lives were killed and buried in this tumulus. Obviously, this indicates that horses were of particular importance to the four people buried with these elaborate finds. This essay explores the ritual significance and symbolism of the horse in the burial of these four humans in this specific tumulus in Greek Thrace.
"

DATE: May 28
TIME: 13:15
ADDRESS: Humanistiska Teatern * Thunbergsvägen 3C * 752 38 Uppsala
DIRECTIONS: https://goo.gl/maps/YTBuQEVTfJiKAkyj8

FACULTY EXAMINER: Professor Elna Siv Kristoffersen (Stavanger University).

DISSERTATION: Michael Neiß: Förvandlingar i vikingatidens djurornamentik. – Del 1: En multiperspektivisk studie om figurknoppspännen av Birkatyp. (Transformations in Viking Age Animal Art – Volume 1: A multy perspective study on sculptural brooches of Birka type.) AUN  52, 340 pp.  Uppsala universitet, Uppsala. ISBN 978-91-506-2934.

LINK: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-470296 (to be activated on May 6)

ABSTRACT:
During the past 150 years, different generations of scholars have been approaching Viking Age Animal Art with queries that were as multifaceted as the materials that they studied. The focal point of this study are Birka type brooches, which are best likened to interactive sculptures that change shape as the viewer changes perspec­tive. Sculptural brooches do not only breathe new life into traditional research questions, but raise new ones that steer us into uncharted waters. Here, we make field observations which fall outside the established paradigms of archaeology. Following the parable of the six blind men who tried to come to terms with the unknown phenome­non ‘elephant’, this study approaches the sculptural brooch phenomenon from different angles, by combining different methods which have been developed within separate research disciplines such as archaeology, art his­tory, cognitive science and sociosemiotics. The methodological framework for my multi-method approach is informed GT, i.e. a variant of grounded theory which uses established theories to identify distinct patterns that previously went unnoticed. Contradictions that arise from the mix of methods are not seen as a hindrance, but as a generator for progress that gives rise to a new theory. By combining dynamic typology, Panofskyan hermeneu­tics and multimodal semiotics, my study on sculptural brooches uncovers hitherto unknown parallels between Animal Art and skaldic poetry in regards to context, cognition and imagery. As a result, one is inclined to look for a potential link between those distinct expressions of Viking Age culture. Did objects with Animal Art serve as points of reference for skaldic ekphrasis? Or was Animal Art a material anchor for the same conceptual blends that also transpired through skaldic poetry? The outcome is an empirically grounded theory which links the pictorial language of the smith to the verbal imagery of the skald, more precisely in the context of Old Norse íþrótt ideology.

Keywords: 3D laser scanning and modeling. Animal Art. Birka type brooches. Cognitive archaeology. Dynamic typology. Iconology. Informed grounded theory. Metalworking. Multimodal semiotics. Skaldic ekphrasis. Viking Studies.

Among the Yukaghirs, a small group of indigenous hunters in northeastern Siberia, it is
commonly held that humans and animals can turn into each other by temporarily taking
on one another's bodies. However, this is dangerous for a hunter, because he may thus
lose sight of his original species identity and undergo an irreversible metamorphosis. He
therefore assumes the viewpoint of his prey, but not in any absolute sense, which would
mean literally becoming the animal. This article explores the mimetic practice that allows
the hunter to be similar to the animal impersonated, yet also different, giving him a
'double perspective' by which he can seduce and kill his prey.

This book provides an in-depth understanding of
human–horse relationships, interactions and the embodied
nature of equestrian sport and leisure practices. Encounters
between humans and horses are revealing about the ways
that human society is structured through intersection with
nonhuman others. Caring for, training and riding horses
are visceral, sensual experiences that require immersion of
body and mind. This results in the formation of a unique
embodied way of knowing and being in the world that
characterizes equestrian sport and leisure. This book
explores the individual and collective identities that are
performed through involvement in the horse world.

Abstract: Neighborhood relationships are one of the most important variables of solidarity and reciprocity relationships in human societies. They are essential to understand phenomena as significant as the construction of territory, or social and political structure of human groups. Through Ethnoarchaeology, it is possible to establish models of this kind of relationships, applicable to Iron Age, and to use them to explain sociopolitical evolution in north of Spain societies of this period, in every territory of this geographical framework.

Key Words: Iron Age, North of Spain, territory, neighborhood relationship, Archaeology, Ethnoarchaeology.

Before taking on the ‘folk tale’ connotations that it would later assume in the post-classical era, the motif of the man healing the lion had been one of the key arguments within the philosophical debate of the imperial age on
the moral status of animals. Within the framework of the existing Greco-roman accounts, the story of Androclus and the lion, as Apion tells it, assumes a particular relevance. This version, translated into Latin by Gellius, lacks all the ‘animalistic’ and philosophical implications added by
the subsequent accounts, thus being ready to be ‘canonized’ in the following centuries.

The Indonesian island of Sumba is known to archaeologists as the last place where megalithic burials are still commonly erected. Like the Toraja country (Sulawesi, Indonesia), where these events are a popular tourist attraction, it also arouses curiosity because of the existence of massive slaughter of buffaloes and pigs at funerals. Beyond this spectacular dimension, these sacrifices can be seen as the visible part of an original form of domestic livestock management that can broaden our perception of the relationship between humans and animals in general and thus feed the discussion on its ancient forms in the stateless societies of pre- and protohistoric Europe.

L’île indonésienne de Sumba est connue des archéologues comme le dernier endroit où l’on érige encore couramment des sépultures mégalithiques. A l’instar du pays Toraja (Sulawesi, Indonésie), où ces manifestations constituent une attraction touristique très courue, il suscite également la curiosité du fait de l’existence d’abattages massifs de buffles et de cochons à l’occasion des funérailles. Au-delà de cette dimension spectaculaire, ces sacrifices peuvent être vus comme la partie visible d’une forme originale de gestion des cheptels domestiques susceptible d’élargir notre perception de la relation homme – animal en général et d’alimenter ainsi la discussion sur ses formes anciennes dans les sociétés sans Etat de l’Europe pré- et protohistorique.

Presented paper deals with representations of dog in figural art of East Alpine Hallstatt Region, except motives of hunting scenes (those were presented in another paper). Representations from the East Alpine Hallstatt Region are compared to dogs representations from other contemporary centres of figural art. The representations are evaluated using information from the analysis of selected dog burials from presented region and also from the sources on role of dog in mythology and ancient religions.

Archaeological investigations at the late prehistoric Janey B. Goode site (11S1232) in southwestern Illinois resulted in the recovery of over 5,400 domestic dog (Canis familiaris) remains, representing over 100 individual animals. The substantial size of this well-preserved faunal assemblage allows for a detailed study of Native American dogs during the Late Woodland Patrick phase (A.D. 650-900), Terminal Late Woodland (A.D. 900-1050), and Mississippian (A.D. 1050-1400) periods in the American Bottom. One aspect of this on-going, multifaceted research project is the documentation, analysis, and interpretation of prehistoric trauma and pathologies. This article presents a preliminary summary of the dog paleopathology evidence obtained thus far from the Janey B. Goode site.

Animal bones recovered from the Mesara-type tombs have been taken as evidence for ritual deposition of the remains of funerary feasting, perhaps as food for the dead.  This paper considers whether such bones had any further significance and suggests some differences between prehistoric and contemporary perceptions of animals which may have influenced past archaeological interpretations of such material.  It touches specifically on three themes: manipulation of animal bones; anthropomorphic/animal hybrids; and a recurring gesture of touching a goat's head.

Caves are not only unique sedimentary environments with good preservation of archaeological material, but as archaeological record from caves testify – also special places where distinct activities were performed. What makes caves special? What makes them different from open air locales? How do caves act back on humans? How do humans and caves mutually constitute each other and create a sense of self and belonging in the world? This chapter touches these themes using examples from the archaeological record of the Karst in northeast Italy and western Slovenia. By exploring the ‘affordances’ that caves provide we can focus on the social and contextual role they played in the practical tasks of past people. Caves are not passive backdrops for the activities that people perform, they are not natural places, and they do not satisfy the generic needs of people such as ‘shelter’. We can understand caves as material culture where dwelling occurs. And, by focusing on the process of dwelling that they enable through the affordances they provide, they help us to challenge the dichotomies of the natural and built environment, or of the mundane and the sacred.

This paper introduces some of the invaluable aspects of, and new perspectives arising in, the field of zooarchaeology. Studying archaeological animal remains provides clear evidence of past human diet, but the contributions zooarchaeology can make to archaeological research have a much broader scope. Zooarchaeological research provides an interesting insight into the study of past environments, animal domestication, biostratigraphy, the social side of food, animal remains as clothing or even as building materials and art manifestations, amongst others. Zooarchaeology is subdivided here into environmental or physical zooarchaeology, which mainly deals with climate, seasonality and dating of a site, and social zooarchaeology, which deals with hunting techniques, animal management, social hierarchy and symbolism. This array of possibilities is illustrated through examples drawn from diverse periods and places. Some of the issues concerning zooarchaeology are analysed in more depth through the site of Cueva Negra del Estrecho del Río Quípar (Murcia, Spain). This case study provides a practical application of zooarchaeological perspectives in the study of human evolution.

The field of zooarchaeology is therefore not limited to the study of past dietary habits. Rather the study of animal remains allows a deeper understanding of complex human-animal interactions and a greater comprehension of archaeological societies and cultures.

Despite recent calls to view nonhuman animals as more than objects within archaeological studies, traditional interpretations of horses in Iron Age Inner Asian communities continue to consider them as relevant only through their functional or symbolic significance to humans. This article argues for a “relational” rather than “domination” model of human-horse interactions, and that a necessary step toward this is a more clear understanding of horses, themselves, as social beings. This is brought to light through ethological studies and the understandings of “working riders,” including the author. Using a case study of the Iron Age Pazyryk human-horse burials, it is then proposed that through this lens the outfits of the horses in the Pazyryk kurgans might be seen to reflect roles and statuses of the horses, rather than of the humans.

Dogs were commonly buried individually upon death but sometimes jointly interred with people. The oldest known example of the latter, from Bonn-Oberkassel in Germany, serves as a window for viewing this phenomenon. The common practice of regarding dogs as much like people underlies these occurrences. Joint dog- human interment took place in many regions over thousands of years. This widespread practice prompts the evaluation of specific examples. Recent information from Bonn-Oberkassel allows for a more comprehensive assessment of what took place there, though the circumstances surrounding the deaths at issue remain elusive. Collectively, this widespread practice illustrates how people not only incorporated dogs into their lives but into their own deaths as well.

The Lexi I was first introduced to was the gentlest friendliest sweetest dog part husky with a lovely brindle coat and a beautiful welcoming nature  litlle did I know  there was a whole other side to Lexi ......who was about to teach me a healthy respect  for the soverign nature of all Gods creatures  .

For every human settlement, the environment has a very important role, not just in economic aspects, but also in social and cultural life. The perception of both the natural landscape and the animal world has a notable impact on economy and culture, and the animal world has a particularly significant part in creating cosmologies and belief systems. Despite the long tradition of studying diverse ritual and symbolic aspects in prehistoric archaeology, and although there is a large amount of data from ethnography on the animal symbolism in numerous pre-modern and modern cultures all over the globe, animal symbolism in prehistoric societies is still not sufficiently explored. Despite recent advances in widening the theoretical frameworks, animals are still predominantly analysed through their economic role.
In this paper, some of the aspects of the animal symbolism in Early/ Middle Neolithic Starčevo culture will be explored, in particular those of two animal species: cattle and deer.