Adams, Wm. R. and Janis Kearney (Zooarchaeology Laboratory, Department of Anthropology,
Indiana University)
ZOOARCHAEOLOGY IN INDIANA
The identification and interpretation of archaeological faunal remains has taken
over a century to be recognized as a productive field of research in North America.
In Indiana it first received real attention in the early 1940s, a time when only
a handful of persons were conducting such studies in this country. The Zooarchaeology
Laboratory at Bloomington holds one of the larger American collections and is
continually growing, although handicapped by lack of space, laboratory help, and
fulltime researchers. Present plans, however, should correct many of these defects
over the next two to three years and thereby permit ongoing research to be completed
and published. We hope to follow the path of several foreign centers which have
pioneered quite sophisticated zooarchaeological research, particularly in regard
to domesticated species. The establishment and maintenance of such centers is
a very labor intensive and costly endeavor. Although zooarchaeology is not and
probably never can be a precise science, it can and does furnish us with much
valuable knowledge concerning prehistoric and even historic cultures. [return to 1988 abstracts menu][continue to next]