There are a lot more animal bones found on archaeological sites than human ones, and they tell us a lot about the people who left them behind.
- How do we recover them from a site?
- How do we use them?
- Why were they deposited in the ground?
- What happened to them after they were deposited?
- What can they tell us about how people lived in the past?
- Can we link them to history?
Just a few questions for the zooarchaeologist to answer.
In our workshop you will examine archaeological animal bones to identify, measure and age them as well as looking for what the animals were used for. You will discover how animals like frogs, tortoises, mice, sheep, and deer were part of the human story in the past.
There will be an interval before the practical session and attendees are invited to bring a sweet or savoury snack to enjoy and share.
OSTEOARCHAEOLOGY WORKSHOP OUTLINE
- What does an archaeologist do?
- What does an osteoarchaeologist do?
- How are bones used?
- Feedback from groups
- Review
Four practical exercises:
Identification
Taphonomy
Measurement
Ageing
FREE for FRAG members
Speaker: Paul Clarkson
Following his teaching career Paul studied for the Advanced Diploma in the Historic Environment at Cambridge University, then an MSc in Osteoarchaeology at Bournemouth University. He has participated in many excavations.
