Students investigate the role that animals have played in past social, political and economic systems from the earliest times to the present day. We examine the importance of animals in subsistence strategies of the earliest hominids, their use by contemporary hunter-gatherers, their role as indicators of past climates, significance of animal domestication, their role in warfare/hunting, their influence as vectors of disease and the latest developments in the genetics in identifying animals. Techniques of analysis for interpreting seasonal exploitation, ageing and sex of skeletal remains will also be discussed. Quantitative techniques of faunal analysis will also be touched upon.

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