The first international meeting of the Archaeozoology of Southwest Asia and Adjacent Areas (ASWA) working group of the International Council for Archaeozoology (ICAZ) took place at the University of Groningen in 1992. Ever since, ASWA meetings have served as an inspiring gathering for those conducting archaeozoological research in Southwest Asia, the Eastern Mediterranean, North Africa, Central Asia and the Caucasus. This book contains sixteen papers presented at the 12th ASWA meeting hosted at its inaugural institution, the University of Groningen, Groningen Institute of Archaeology, as a continuation of the usual series and to celebrate the career of Dr. Hijlke Buitenhuis, associated member and alumnus of the institute, co-organizer of the first ASWA meeting.
Like other ASWA proceedings before it, this volume is full of novel theoretical and methodological approaches and new research results, tackling a large variety of topics, from the geometric morphometrics of sheep in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic Period to Predynastic fishing in the Upper Nile, to the biogeography of hartebeest and hemione, and covering the vast region stretching between Hungary in the west and Azerbaijan in the east. The volume also features an opening article by ASWA founding member M.A. Zeder on the future of archaeozoology in the region. In honor of Dr. Hijlke Buitenhuis, his full bibliography is featured herein.
Preface IX
Hijlke Buitenhuis and ASWA X
List of presentations XI
1. A Return to Groningen – ASWA XII and the future of archaeozoology in Southwest Asia (and Adjacent Areas) 1
Melinda A. Zeder
2. ‘Feeding cities’? – Preliminary notes on the provisioning of animal products at Tel Bet Yerah, Israel 13
Alice Berger
3. Zooarchaeology of the Pre-Pottery and Pottery Neolithic site of Qasr-e Ahmad (Iran) 27
Kamjan Safoora, Mashkour Marjan, Mohaseb F. Azadeh, Fathi Homa, Azizi Kharanaghi Hossein
4. Horse and hemione hunting at Late Neolithic/Chalcolithic Köşk Höyük, central Turkey 41
Benjamin S. Arbuckle; Aliye Öztan
5. Fishing and herding in the Nile Delta during the Predynastic (4th millennium BC) 59
Joséphine Lesur
6. Archaeozoological investigation of the site of Shengavit, Armenia (Based on the archaeological excavations of 1965-1980; 2003-2007) 73
Nina Manaseryan
7. Invisible donkeys in ancient Mesopotamia: New insights from modern studies in Sub-Saharan Africa 79
Jill Goulder
8. Kura-Araxes exploitation of animal resources in Northwestern Iran and Nakhchivan 91
Hossein Davoudi, Rémi Berthon, Azadeh Mohaseb, Shiva Sheikhi, Akbar Abedi, Marjan Mashkour
9. Unravelling the meaning of faunal assemblages in an early urban domestic neighbourhood: worked bone frequencies from the Early Bronze Age III neighbourhood at eṣ-Ṣâfi/Gath, Israel 109
Haskel J. Greenfield, Annie Brown, Itzhaq Shai, Aren M. Maeir
10. Animal exploitation at Iron Age Kinet Höyük (Turkey) between 700-550 BC 123
Canan Çakırlar, Jort Bosman, Salima Ikram
11. Hunting hartebeest (Alcelaphus buselaphus) in Sinai during Persian times (6th to 4th century BC) 143
Louis Chaix
12. Persian period dog burials of Beirut: morphology, health, mortality and mortuary practices 153
Yasha Hourani
13. Subsistence and ritual: A note on the Achaemenid faunal remains from the site of Kinik Höyük, Southern Cappadocia, Turkey 185
Pam J. Crabtree, Douglas V. Campana, Andrea Trameri, Nancy Highcock, Lorenzo d’Alfonso
14. Ottoman Turkish influences on animal exploitation in 16th-17th century Hungary 191
László Bartosiewicz, Erika Gál
15. Striking new paths – Distinguishing ancient Ovis orientalis from its modern domestic descendant (Karakul breed) applying geometric and traditional morphometric approaches to the astragalus 207
Nadja Pöllath, Paul Alibert, Renate Schafberg, Joris Peters
16. Caprine age estimations: Methodological considerations through the study of Cretan Agrimi goat mandibles (Capra aegagrus cretica) 227
Moussab Albesso
Bibliography of Dr. Hijlke Buitenhuis 241
Esther E. Scheele
