TAG2024

Archaeological inquiry has evolved to encompass a more holistic view of human societies, recognizing the intricate relationships between humans, animals, and their environments across time. This session seeks to explore our understanding of these relationships through a more-than-human approach, emphasizing the dynamic entanglements that have shaped both human cultures and animal ecologies.

Animals have been integral to human societies as sources of food, labour, materials for technology, and companionship. Beyond utilitarian roles, they have been subjects of symbolism, spiritual significance, and artistic expression, influencing cultural identities and belief systems worldwide. Such interactions are not one-sided but involve reciprocal influences where animals, as active agents, have impacted human behaviour and vice versa. This session invites contributions that explore how archaeological evidence illuminates these multifaceted relationships and focus on the complexities of human-animal entanglements across diverse cultural and environmental contexts.

9:00am | More-than-archaeologists: Studying rat-human interactions across disciplines  | Daan Jansen

9:20am | Anthropogenic Niche Construction and Multi-Species Entanglements: Insights from Pınarbaşı, Boncuklu Höyük, and Çatalhöyük, Anatolia   | Emma Jenkins, Michelle Feider, Paul Clarkson, Sabrina Renaud, Katerina Papayiannis, Greger Larson, Kristina Tabadda, Lisa Yeomans, Emilie A. Hardouin, Thomas Cucchi & Douglas Baird

9:40am | Evolution or revolution in the small animal world  | Paul Clarkson

10:00am | Reimagining Human-Animal Entanglements in Late Chalcolithic Mesopotamia (c. 4000-3100 BCE): Perspectives from Shakhi Kora, Kurdistan Region of Iraq.  | Synnøve Heimvik

10:20am | Multispecies interactions at an Eastern Jordanian wetland in the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene  | Lisa Yeomans, Maria Codlin, Beatrice Demarchi & Camilla Mazzucato1 

11:00am | ZooMS and Isotopic analysis of El Hammar and El Hattab II caves  | S. Iken, A. Bouzouggar & A. Grandal-d’Anglade

11:20am | Changing the lens: human-animal entanglements in Portuguese Holocene Prehistory  | Nelson J. Almeida

11:40am | The Use of Animal Resources in the Economic Model of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra  | Sergiy Taranenko, Mykhailo Kublii

12:00pm | Woolly thinking: St Kilda’s three ancient sheep races  | Andrew Fleming

12:20pm | Discussion |

Full paper abstracts available here:
https://tag2024.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/tag-2024-session-abstracts-1.pdf