Birds in Archaeology: New Approaches to Understanding the Diverse Roles of Birds in the Past

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Birds in Archaeology: New Approaches to Understanding the Diverse Roles of Birds in the Past" at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Recent research in social zooarchaeology has demonstrated the diverse, reciprocal nature of relationships between animals and humans in the past. Despite growing interest in avifaunal remains from archaeological contexts, birds are often understudied and undervalued compared to other classes of fauna. Birds played particularly multifaceted roles in many realms of prehistoric life. Human interaction with birds has been driven by concerns for subsistence and cuisine, economic production and trade, political legitimization and social status, decorative and artistic pursuits, and religion, ideology, and ritual practice; analysis of their remains and archaeological contexts can inform the study of almost every traditional aspect of archaeological research. The outcomes and implications of these interactions, including extinction and extirpation, effects on the environment and local bird populations, and changes in biogeography over time, extends the relevance of avifaunal studies beyond the archaeological spectrum to other social and natural sciences. The papers in this session demonstrate the wide range of research topics that avifaunal analysis can address, and the diverse ways in which birds were involved in prehistoric life. The breadth of this research demonstrates the great explanatory potential of the study of avifaunal remains and the relevance of these inquiries to a social zooarchaeology.