The Oxford Handbook of Zooarchaeology

Umberto Albarella is a Reader in Zooarchaeology at the University of Sheffield. He obtained his PhD from the University of Durham, having first become interested in anthropology and then archaeology as an undergraduate student, and worked at the Universities of Lecce, Birmingham, and Durham before moving to the University of Sheffield in 2004. Specializing in the study of animal bones from archaeological sites, his main areas of research are wide-ranging and include animal domestication and husbandry intensification, ethnoarchaeology, the ritual use of animals, husbandry evidence of Romanization, animals and medieval life, integration in archaeology, and archaeology and politics. He is widely published in these fields and has previously served as Secretary of the International Council of Archaeozoology (ICAZ) from 2006 until 2012.

Mauro Rizzetto is a PhD student at the University of Sheffield whose research concerns the development of animal husbandry during the late Roman to early medieval transition in Britain and the lower Rhine region, with particular regard to biometrical changes. He has also been working at a number of archaeological sites in Italy, Britain, France, Greece, and Spain, dating from the Neolithic to the post-medieval period. He previously obtained an undergraduate degree in Archaeological Science in 2013 and a Master's degree in Osteoarchaeology in 2015, both at the University of Sheffield.


Hannah Russ is a Post-Excavation Manager at Northern Archaeological Associates and an Honorary Research fellow at the Universities of Sheffield and Wales, Trinity Saint David. She is a zooarchaeologist specializing in the study of aquatic animals, including fish, molluscs, and crustaceans, and has worked on remains from five UNESCO World Heritage sites, as well as other sites in Western Europe and the Middle East dating from the Upper Palaeolithic through to the post-medieval period. Hannah completed her PhD in Archaeological Sciences in 2011 at the University of Bradford and subsequently held positions at the University of Sheffield and Oxford Brookes University before taking up her current role at Northern Archaeological Associates.


Kim Vickers is an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Sheffield and specializes in zooarchaeology and the reconstruction of ancient environments. After completing her PhD on the palaeoentomology of the North Atlantic islands in 2007, her research has focused on the environmental impact of medieval human settlement and activity in Iceland, Greenland, and the Faroe islands, and on the nature of resource use and contact between Norse and Inuit cultures in Greenland, while her other research interests include the Iron Age to Roman transition in Britain and the effects of the Roman invasion of Britain on farming practices and animal husbandry in the early first millennium AD.

Sarah Viner-Daniels is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Sheffield. After completing her PhD at Sheffield she was subsequently appointed as a Research Associate to the Feeding Stonehenge project. Her main areas of interest include animal exploitation in Mesolithic and Neolithic Britain and the application of isotopic analysis (using strontium and oxygen) to the understanding of prehistoric livestock mobility.

Animals have played a fundamental role in shaping human history, and the study of their remains from archaeological sites - zooarchaeology - has gradually been emerging as a powerful discipline and crucible for forging an understanding of our past. The Oxford Handbook of Zooarchaeology offers a cutting-edge compendium of zooarchaeology the world over that transcends environmental, economic, and social approaches, seeking instead to provide a holistic view of the roles played by animals in past human cultures.

Incisive chapters written by leading scholars in the field incorporate case studies from across five continents, from Iceland to New Zealand and from Japan to Egypt and Ecuador, providing a sense of the dynamism of the discipline, the many approaches and methods adopted by different schools and traditions, and an idea of the huge range of interactions that have occurred between people and animals throughout the world and its history. Adaptations of human-animal relationships in environments as varied as the Arctic, temperate forests, deserts, the tropics, and the sea are discussed, while studies of hunter-gatherers, farmers, herders, fishermen, and even traders and urban dwellers highlight the importance that animals have had in all forms of human societies. With an introduction that clearly contextualizes the current practice of zooarchaeology in relation to both its history and the challenges and opportunities that can be expected for the future, and a methodological glossary illuminating the way in which zooarchaeologists approach the study of their material, this Handbook will be invaluable not only for specialists in the field, but for anybody who has an interest in our past and the role that animals have played in forging it.

The Oxford Handbook of Zooarchaeology offers a cutting-edge compendium of zooarchaeology the world over that seeks to provide a holistic view of the role played by animals in shaping human history, with case studies from five continents examining human-animal relationships across a range of geographical, historical, and cultural contexts.