A Zooarchaeology of Life

Nick Overton (University of Manchester)

The role of nonhuman animals in our archaeological accounts of the past are currently changing
in light of a range of multispecies studies and approaches that look to de-centre humans, and
explore the active role nonhumans may have played in past times and places. This paper will
present examples for Mesolithic Europe that elucidate the ways in which a multispecies
approach to archaeological data provides a strong foundation for narratives that seek to
examine how nonhumans shaped environments, human-nonhuman relationships, and humans
lives, practices and identities. Furthermore, this paper will also argue that such
‘Zooarchaeologies of Life’ are important, not just to understand life in the past, but also as
important narratives that help us reconsider our own relationship with the world around us
today, in the light of growing concerns over biodiversity loss, environmental destruction and
climate crises. Multispecies accounts of humans and nonhumans in the past, which resist
imposing modern economic conceptions of the animal in terms of calories or raw material, are
powerful tools for challenging current perceptions, and present powerful multispecies
alternatives for our futures.