Research Interests
My research has been dedicated to examining the history of human interactions with animals in the Middle East, from the earliest domestication of animals through the development of specialized pastoral economies in early city-states. I have been interested in tracing the development of specialized pastoral economy in early urban society in Iran, Syria, Turkey, and Israel. I am also interested in the environmental impact of agriculture in semi-arid areas of the Near East. My most recent work focuses on the origins of animal domestication in the Near East. In all of this work, I have been active in developing methods of zooarchaeological analysis that allow data derived from the study of archaeological animal remains to significant problems in human pre-history.
Current Research
Animal Domestication in the Eastern Fertile Crescent
Impact of Agriculture in Northern Mesopotamia
Education and Degrees
B.A. in Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1975.
M.A. in Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1978.
Ph.D. in Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1985
Selected Publications
| In Press | A Middle Paleolithic Immature Distal Lower Limb from Shanidar Cave, Iraqi Kurdistan., (With Cowgill, L. Trinkaus, E.), Journal of Human Evolution. |
| 2006 | Central Questions in the Domestication of Plants and Animals. Evolutionary Anthropology 15:105-117. PDF |
| 2006 | Documenting Domestication: The Intersection of Genetics and Agriculture., (with Emshwiller, E.; Smith, B.D.; Bradley, D.G.), Trends in Genetics. 22:139-155. PDF |
| 2006 | Archaeological Approaches to Documenting Animal Domestication. Pp. 171-180. In Zeder, M.A., Bradley D., Emshwiller, E., and Smith, B.D (eds.). Documenting Domestication: New Genetic and Archaeological Paradigms. Berkeley: University of California Press. |
| 2006 | Archaeological Approaches to Documenting Animal Domestication. In Zeder, M.A., Bradley D., Emshwiller, E., and Smith, B.D (eds.). Documenting Domestication: New Genetic and Archaeological Paradigms. Berkeley: University of California Press: http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/10279.html |
| 2006 | A critical examination of markers of initial domestication in goats (Capra hircus). (sole author) In Zeder, M.A., Bradley D., Emshwiller, E., and Smith, B.D (eds.). Documenting Domestication: New Genetic and Archaeological Paradigms. Berkeley: University of California Press. |
| 2006 | Reconciling Rates of Long Bone Fusion and Tooth Eruption and Wear in Sheep (Ovis) and Goat (Capra). In: D. Ruscillo, ed. Ageing and Sexing Animals from Archaeological Sites. Oxford: Oxbow Press. PDF |
| 2005 | New Perspectives on Livestock Domestication in the Fertile Crescent as viewed from the Zagros Mountains, In: J.-D. Vigne, J. Peters, and D. Helmer, eds. The First Steps of Animal Domestication: New Archaeozoological Approaches. Oxford: Oxbow Press. PDF |
| 2003 | Hiding in Plain Sight: The Value of Museum Collections in the Study of the Origins of Animal Domestication. Pp. 125-138. In: Gisela Grupe and Joris Peters, eds. Documenta Archaeobiologiae 1: Deciphering Ancient Bones. The Research Potential of Bioarchaeological Collections, Yearbook of the State Collection of Anthropology and Palaeoanatomy. München, Germany. Rahden/Westf: Verlag M. Leidorf GmbH. PDF |
| 2003 | Food Provisioning in Urban Societies: A View from Northern Mesopotamia. PP. 156-183. In Monica Smith, ed. The Social Construction of Ancient Cities, Smithsonian Press. |
| 2003 | Economy and Administration at Banesh Malyan: Exploring the Potential of Faunal and Chemical Data for Understanding State Process. Pp. 121-139. In: N. Miller and K. Abdi eds. Yeki Bud, Yeki Nabud. Essays on the Archaeology of Iran in Honor of William M. Sumner. Costen Institute of Archaeology, Monograph 48. (senior author with M.J. Blackman) |
| 2001 | A Metrical Analysis of a Collection of Modern Goats (Capra hircus aegargus and Capra hircus hircus) from Iran and Iraq: Implications for the Study of Caprine Domestication, Journal of Archaeological Science, 28:61-79. PDF |
| 2000 | The Initial Domestication of Goats (Capra hircus) in the Zagros Mountains 10,000 Years Ago., (with B. Hesse), Science, 287: 2254-2257. PDF |
| 1999 | Animal Domestication in the Zagros: A Review of Past and Current Research, Paléorient, 25: 11-25. |
| 1998 | Pigs and Emergent Complexity in the Ancient Near East. In: Sarah Nelson, ed, Ancestors for the Pigs. Pp. 109-122. MASCA Research Papers in Science and Archaeology. Philadelphia: MASCA, University Museum. The American Archaeologist: A Profile. AltaMira Press, 220 pp. |
| 1994 | After the Revolution: Post-Neolithic Subsistence Strategies in Northern Mesopotamia. American Anthropologist 96(1):97-126. (winner of the American Anthropological Association Gordon R. Willey Award) |
| 1991 | Feeding Cities: Specialized Animal Economy in the Ancient Near East. Smithsonian Institution Press, Smithsonian Series in Archaeological Inquiry, 280 pp. |
Online Articles and Interviews:
How We Got Our Goats. Hear an interview with Melinda Zeder by Bob MacDonald of CBC Radio. Report from the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Quirks & Quarks on CBC Radio, February 24, 2001.
Old Goats in Transition. Natural History Highlights, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, July 2000.
Domestic Goats. Hear an interview with Melinda Zeder by Richard Harris of National Public Radio. All Things Considered, National Public Radio, March 23, 2000.
MELINDA A. ZEDER, Zederm@si.edu
Director, Archaeobiology Program
