Current course offerings

Please Note: Course profiles marked as not available may still be in development.

Course description

Archaeological animal remains, such as bones, teeth and shells, are a powerful means for understanding past climate and environmental change, human impacts on past environments and shifts in human behaviour. They are analysed all over the world and understanding how to identify and analyse them is an important professional skill for professional archaeologists and cultural heritage managers. This course integrates technical aspects of faunal studies with theoretical and methodological issues in archaeology, including questions of faunal assemblage formation (taphonomy), human economics and ecology, the relationship between game use and technology, and the anthropology of human-animal relationships. Class work emphasises hands-on experience with faunal remains and will teach students how to identify animal (skeletal) remains from archaeological sites. A final research project will include the identification and analysis of zooarchaeological assemblage.

Archived offerings