Animals for the gods

The bone crunchers

If you like complicated puzzles with lots of different pieces you should consider a career in archaeozoology. Archaeozoologists study animal remains from archaeological sites and use the findings to reconstruct the relationship between humans and animals in the distant past.

Wim Van Neer, head of the Bioarchaeology Unit here at the museum, works mainly on animal remains from Europe, Africa and the Middle East. “Our team participates in archaeological digs all around the world, to analyse the botanical and faunal remains peserved at ancient sites”, says Wim. “The animal remains we find consist of human food refuse, but also worked bone, or complete animals used in ancient rituals.”

Veerle at work on-site beside a multiple cat burial

Wim in the field

Animal bones are not the only thing that yields valuable information; we can also learn a lot from shells, teeth, scales, skin and hair. First the excavated material is carefully sorted, cleaned and measured in the lab. This is a very detailed and daunting task. “My family calls me the bone cruncher”, laughs Veerle Linseele, one of Wim’s team of archaeozoologists and a fellow of the Catholic University of Leuven (Centre for Archaeological Sciences).

The remains are identified by comparing them with modern reference material from the Museum's collections. “And when this is done we are able to place the findings in an archaeological context”, says Veerle. “These fragments and pieces of bone tell us important information about the interaction of people and animals that lived thousands of years ago.”