B026404 - ARCHEOZOOLOGY

Italian

The discipline aims at an improved comprehension of the inter-relations between humans and animals in the past through the analysis of faunal remains preserved in archeological sites

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Bertini A. 2003. Early to Middle Pleistocene changes of the Italian flora and vegetation in the light of a chronostratigraphic framework. Il Quaternario, 16(1bis): 19-36.
Bradley, R.S. 1985. Quaternary Paleoclimatology: methods of paleoclimatic reconstruction.
Chaplin, R. E. 1971. The study of animal bones from archaeological sites. Seminar Press; London.
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Davis S.J.M. 1987. The archaeology of animals. Batsford, London.
Lyman, R. L. 1994. Vertebrate Taphonomy. Cambridge University Press.
Martin R.E. 1999. Taphonomy, a process approach. Cambridge University Press
Raffi S. & Serpagli E. 1993. Introduzione alla Paleontologia. UTET
Raup, D. M., and Stanley, S. M. 1971. Principles of Paleontology. W. H. Freeman and Company; San Fancisco.
Reitz E.J. & Wing E.S. 1999. Zooarchaeology. Cambridge University Press
Walker R. 1985. A guide to post-cranial bones of East African Animals. Hylochoerus Press
Weigelt J 1989. Recent Vertebrate Carcasses and Their Paleobiological Implications. University of Chicago Press

comparative osteological anatomy of several domestic and wild animals, vertebrate tafonomy and zooarcheology, analytical methods in these fields of research

Theoretical lectures and experiences on osteological remains

oral tests, bone determination and test on bone modifications

Evolution of human-animal interactions, of humans’ subsistence strategies and use of animals, from scavenge to hunt to domestication; origin of domestication and of livestock breeding; osteological anatomy of several domestic and wild animals; comparative osteological anatomy of the major Late Pleistocene – Holocene mammals; vertebrate taphonomy: composition of organisms, causes of death; biostratinamical processes, necrolisis of carbonates, nucelic acids, proteins, biolipids, kerogene, preservation of organic matter in deltaic, lacustrine, and terrestrial environments, burial, fossilization; multivariate analysis: assemblage data, quarry data, bone modification data; introduction to the main taphonomic indices and to the protocol of analyses aimed at the reconstruction of the history of formation of archeofaunal accumulations; techniques for the recovery of bones from archeological sites; methods of zooarcheological analysis: age assessment, analysis of mortality curves for the reconstruction of the structure of faunal communities and for finding the agents of formation of bone accumulations; assessment of body sizes and of the biomasses represented in an archeofauna; analysis of human- and non-human-derived bone modifications