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W&L Human-Animal Relationships

Mar 24 • 9 tweets • 7 min read

1/x And now for student #zooarchaeology thread #2 for tonight's Mighty Stripes battles: #TEAMWILDCAT which should have gone last week but I told the student THAT OBVIOUSLY THEY WOULD WIN so she could wait until next week. Ooops. Thread by Taylor M. #WLCrittersClass #2023MMM

2/x My beloved combatant for #2023MMM is the wildcat (Felis silvestris silvestris) AKA the European Wildcat. It’s the FIERCEST animal of the Mighty Stripes! Archaeological evidence from Cyprus and Göbekli Tepe reveal more about their significance. #WLCrittersClass

3/x #2023MMM #WLCrittersClass The Felis genus first appeared ~3.4 million years ago. Felis sylvestris is NOT the wild ancestor of domesticated cats, which came from the African wildcat, Felis lybica. The skull below is Felis lybica (citation in AltTxt).

When hunter-gatherers became sedentary (staying in one place), Felis lybica began its relationship with humans as a commensal animal (it was tolerated b/c it fed on the rodent pests that infested the earliest stored grain). But that's NOT F. sylvestris! #2023MMM #WLCRittersClass

5?/x But F. sylvestris DOES appear archaeologically just a bit earlier! Evidence from the fascinating sight of Göbekli Tepe (9,600-8,200 BCE) reveals alongside of the monumental structures built by hunter-gathers, 21 wildcat bones (NISP) were found!
#WLCRittersClass #2023MMM

[Prof's note: Felis lybica and Felis sylvestris overlapped in the area of the earliest cat domestication in SW Asia, complicating the story of why cats were tamed & then domesticated in the first place. It would help if more research focused on this... ]
#2023MMM #WLCrittersClass

7?/x #WLCrittersClass #2023MMM
So what is significant about 21 wildcat bones excavated from Göbekli Tepe? This reveals even more insight into the special status of cats in early Neolithic societies.

8?/x Citations #2023MMM #WLCrittersClass

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W&L Human-Animal Relationships

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Mar 24

1/x #2023MMM Last up tonight for #WLCrittersClass: the #zooarchaeology of #TeamWolverine from Virginia S.!!

2/x #2023MMM #WLCrittersClass The wolverine (Gulo gulo) is found in N America & N Eurasia. Wolverines were historically found in more southern areas of Europe, but this changed due to humans, as we’ll see at the site of Dolní Věstonice I!

3/x #WLCrittersClass #2023MMM
Dolní Věstonice I is one of the most significant localities known from southern Moravia belonging to the Pavlovian culture (29-25kya), a local variant of the Upper Paleolithic Gravettian culture. Excavations began there in 1924.

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W&L Human-Animal Relationships

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Mar 24

1/? And now for our first #Zooarchaeology student thread of the night from #WLCrittersClass by Kierstyn W representing #TeamStripedDolphin! #2023MMM

2/? The striped dolphin (Stenella coeruleoalba) has the largest range of any dolphin! They live in every ocean other than the Arctic! They prefer warmer tropical waters though. #2023MMM #WLCritters #Teamstripeddolphin

3/? In the Late Bronze Age of the Mediterranean region, paintings of striped dolphins were done using special blue paint. This began with the Late Minoans at the Palace of Knossos in Crete in what is known as the “Marine Style”. #2023MMM #WLCritters #stripeddolphin

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W&L Human-Animal Relationships

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Mar 23

Tonight our second student to talk about the study of human-animal relationships from archaeological sites (#zooarchaeology) is Amanda B., who will be discussing the archaeology of...the dik dik! The following thread is her work. #WLCrittersClass #2023MMM

2/? #WLCrittersClass #2023MMM The dik-dik is a small mammal from the family Bovidae found in both south and east Africa, in small pockets of Somalia and Tanzania as well as Namibia and Angola.

3/? #WLCrittersClass #2023MMM
The dik-dik has been seen throughout archaeological history as food for communities that practice hunting and gathering in times of food insecurity and large-game overhunting.

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W&L Human-Animal Relationships

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Mar 23

And now for the #zooarchaeology of the sea otter! Thread by #WLCrittersClass student Keane C. #2023MMM

1/? #WLCrittersClass #2023MMM
Sea otters are a member of the Mustelidae family, and the only mammal that gives birth underwater. I’m going to focus on their history, ecological importance, and what we know about them due to archaeology, mainly from Alaskan indigenous Nations.

#WLCrittersClass #2023MMM
Sea Otters were endangered for a long time because they were overhunted in the 18th-20th centuries for their pelts. By 1911, sea otters were extinct from Oregon; their population was believed to be ~1500 in the world. (U.S Government 2017).