Pitt-Rivers Archaeological Science Seminar - On the wing: Morphological variation in the osteology of Anatidae (excluding Anserinae) of the Levant

Fri 1 December 2023

McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research

Dr. Ashleigh Haruda (University of Oxford) is an zooarchaeologist with a speciality in geometric morphometric methods. Her research focuses upon detecting domestic animal breeds in the archaeological record in order to evaluate the impact of ecology, connectivity and cultural integration upon human economy and subsistence over the longue durée. Her talk will present her new work identifying waterfowl in archaeological assemblages using new geometric morphometric methods.

Abstract: Accurate identification of waterfowl in archaeological assemblages of the Levant has potential to unlock new methods of environmental reconstruction. Different species have differing habitat preference and migration patterns altered by environmental shifts to a greater or lesser degree. Additionally, understanding the changing seasonal abundance of avian resources exploited by people in the past is key to addressing how people responded to climatic and environmental realignments. However, identification of osteological remains of ducks is notoriously challenging, even to tribal level. We present here new geometric morphometric (GMM) protocols on wing elements from over twenty Palaeoartic species that migrate across Europe, the Levant and Africa to improve identification of waterfowl. This is an ideal starting point to expand utilisation of GMM in avifaunal research and test applicability to a notoriously difficult taxonomic group.

Cost: Free