Current Research of
Melinda A. Zeder
Impact of Agriculture in Northern Mesopotamia
Description:
This research examines the impact of the early introduction and intensification of agriculture over a 6000 year period in the Khabur Basin of north eastern Syria. Working with more than 16 different archaeological investigations in this region and collaborating with other archaeologists, archaeobotanists, and paleo-climatologists, this work examines how the environmental and social impact of agriculture from the first introduction of domesticates into the region, around 7500 B.C. through the rise and fall of early urban society, around 3000 B.C. The work completed to date suggests that indigenous wild species survived in the region for more than 3000 years after the beginning of farming and herdin in the region. The major environmental impact on indigenous fauna seems to happen after the development of a region-wide agricultural economy servicing emergent urban centers. The work has also shed light on the development of specialized pastoral economy in the region as part of the process of urban emergence.
Publications:
| 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. |
| 2000 | Human Impact on Steppe Environments: An Archaeological Perspective. The Open Country, Winter 2000, 2: 5-17. |
| 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. |
| 1998 | Regional Patterns of Animal Exploitation in the Khabur Basin, 7000 to 1500 B.C. In:. P. Anreiter, L. Bartosiewicz, E. Jerem, and W. Meid, eds. Man and the Animal World: Studies in Archaeozoology, Archaeology, Anthropology, and Palaeolinguistics in memoriam Sándor Bökönyi. Pp. 569-582. Archaeolingua Vol 8, Budapest. |
| 1998 | Environment, Economy, and Subsistence on the Threshold of Urban Emergence in Northern Mesopotamia. In: M. Fortin and O. Aurenche, eds. Espace Naturel, Espace Habité en Syrie Nord (10e-2e millénaire av. J.-C.). Pp. 55-67. Bulletin of the Canadian Society for Mesopotamian Studies 33 and Travaux de la Maison de l'Orient 28. Québec: The Canadian Society for Mesopotamian Studies; Lyon: La Maison de l'Orient Méditerranéen. |
| 1998 | New Perspectives on Agricultural Origins in the Ancient Near East. In: Anthropology Explored: The Best of Smithsonisn AnthroNotes Pp. 119-129. R.O. Selig and M.R. London, eds. Smithsonian Press. |
| 1996 | The Role of Pigs in Near Eastern Subsistence From the Vantage Point of the Southern Levant. In: Retrieving the Past: Essays on Archaeological Research and Methodology in Honor of Gus Van Beek. Pp. 297-312. J. D. Seger, ed., Eisenbrauns/Cobb Institute of Archaeology. |
| 1995 | The Archaeobiology of the Khabur Basin. Bulletin of the Canadian Society for Mesopotamian Studies 29:21-32. |
| 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) |
Animal Domestication in the Near East
Description:
Research on the origins of animal domestication in the Eastern Fertile Crescent focuses on the study of curated collections of sheep and goat bones from archaeological sites in Iran and Iraq now housed in the Smithsonian and other museums around the world. This research has succeeded in developing a new method for constructing sex-specific harvest profiles that have proven effective in identifying the initial stages of animal management in the archaeological record. Using this technique we have been able to detect clear signs of human management of goat herds at about 10,000 years ago in the highlands of southwestern Iran. The research has been instrumental in demonstrating that signs of human management of animals can be detected 100s of years before any morphological changes in the size or shape of skeletal remains. It has been instrumental in changing our understanding of not only the markers of initial domestication in animals, as well as the timing and location of the earliest steps toward animal domestication.
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 |
| 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. |