Zooarchaeology: Crash course and two case studies

Zooarchaeology, the study of animal remains from archaeological sites, contributes important knowledge to central themes of archaeological research. Among them are hunting strategies, animal domestication, animal management strategies, introductions/extinctions and development of breeds, socioeconomic structure and relations, mobility, ritual and symbolism, animal welfare, human and animal diet, culinary practices and many more. Insights into these themes are achieved through a wide array of methodological tools used to collect a large volume of diverse data (anatomical representation, species, age-at-death, sex, taphonomy, butchery, biometry, pathology, etc.). In addition to these data categories, a large number of auxiliary analyses from other disciplines provide further insights into past human-animal interactions. These include aDNA, stable isotope, dental microwear and many more analyses that add new dimensions and more depth to our knowledge of how humans and animals interacted in the past. Ultimately, zooarchaeology is archaeology and, as such, it focuses on revealing and understanding our own human past. Two such cases revolving around our relationship with dogs, one from Early Bronze Age Attica (Greece) and another one from late Medieval Nicosia (Cyprus). The former is a case of cynophagy, while the latter is a rarely-possible case of dog biography.