ArchaeoAnimals

On this episode of ArchaeoAnimals, (a very hungry) Alex faces one of her many nemeses: pig teeth! Learn more about pig domestication, the wealth of information you may gather from archaeological pig remains and some exciting archaeological projects featuring pigs. Simona’s fascinating insight into Roman tax law is a bonus ;) Sources: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/08/taming-pig-took-some-wil...

For this episode, Alex and Simona delve into the realm of native and introduced species. How long does a certain species have to consistently live in a geographical location to be considered native? What do introduced species tell us about past populations? What is it with the Romans introducing a horde of animals to Britain? Are squirrels real? These are but few of the questions they shall attemp...

Simona and Alex finally get to be experts in this fun episode imagining the zooarchaeologies of video games! Using the hundreds (and, if you're Alex, THOUSANDS) of hours of gaming experience, Simona and Alex go through popular video game series (The Witcher, Fallout, Dragon Age, and Skyrim) and try to reconstruct and compare some of the weirder creatures you encounter. Links and ReferencesGalinas,...

Alex and Simona attempt to make it through an entire episode of our most hated type of bone: fish bones. Listen as they talk about the difficulties of dealing with archaeological fish and why they are actually quite important! Oh, and lots of complaining. Ugh...fish bones. Bibliography Killgrove, K. (2019) Vat of Ancient Fish Sauce May Confirm Date that Pompeii Was Destroyed. Forbes. Luff, R. (198...

Alex and Simona are going ‘wild’ for this month’s episode. Tune in to find out more about wild animal remains in the archaeological record and what traces hunting and butchering may leave behind (some assumptions and biases MAY apply!). Further ReadingBinford, L.R. (1981) Bones: Ancient Men and Modern Myths. San Diego, CA: Academic Press, INC.O'Connor, T. (2000) The Archaeology of Animal Bones. Gl...

This episode is all about chickens! How to eat them. How to identify them. Different types. All things chicken. There’s even a few chicken jokes.

On today's episode of ArchaeoAnimals, we'll be talking about horse bones! Why are they so venerated in the past? How is this reflected in the way we find horse burials? And why are their bones just so large and scary?!

When identifying ritual, context is everything. In the case of zooarchaeology, the location of the remains alone has much inference on whether ritual activity is involved. A notable example is perhaps the burial of dogs (or parts thereof) at the threshold of a structure, which is seen from the Neolithic down to Iron Age, from Italy to Kazakhstan, through Sweden and Britain.

Felis catus is the domesticated form of the African wildcat Felis s. lybica. The latter is believed to have been domesticated in the Near East at the time of the Neolithic agricultural revolution, where keeping pests away from grain storage would have been paramount. It likely that, much like other domesticates, several domestication attempts would have taken place across time and geographical reg...

Modern domestic cattle descends from the aurochs (Bos primigenius). The dynamics of aurochs domestication is, as always when domestication is concerned, not well understood as of yet. They were supposedly domesticated in SW Asia some 8,000 years BP.

Today's show is a crossover special with archaeology podcast "Archaeological Fantasies"! Cryptids are creatures from fiction, folklore, and fantasy.

Simon brings on a guest Albina Hulda Palsdottir to talk about sheep vs goats - what's similar and what's different.

The skeletal remains of dogs are simultaneously very distinct in their characteristics, but also very similar to other animals. Compare a dog skull to grey seals or foxes to see what we mean!

The distinction between domestic and wild animals is sometimes difficult, especially if the domesticated species is still morphological very similar to its wild counterpart. Cat being a notorious example. Size is usually a good indicator (wild counterparts often being bigger). Differentiation is usually achieved by means of biometry, which consists of set measurements taken from the bones. Previou...

Zooarchaeology is, as the word suggests, the study of animal remains from archaeological sites. It is a relatively new discipline that has been steadily  gaining popularity since the 1970s. Zooarchaeology can provide inference on past people’s economy, dietary habits, society and culture. 

Welcome to a brand new podcast from the Archaeology Podcast Network - ArchaeoAnimals! Our hosts, Alex Fitzpatrick and Simona Falanga, will guide you through the world of animals, humans, and archaeology. This first episode will tell you what the show's about and a little about Alex and Simona.