Current ICAZ Working Groups

Archaeozoology and Genetics Working Group—

At the International Committee (IC) meeting in Durham, England, in August 2002, the IC voted to endorse a new ICAZ Working Group called Archaeozoology and Genetics (A&G). The group was proposed by Dan Bradley, Jean-Denis Vigne, and Melinda Zeder. Jean-Denis Vigne (vigne@cimrs1.mnhn.fr) has agreed to serve as the official A&G Liaison to ICAZ.

The organizers of this new Working Group pointed to the growing use of genetic analysis in archaeozoology, especially in the tracing of ancient anthropogenic transfers of wild or domestic animals. Yet they also noted the lack of understanding of both the power and limitations of these techniques among archaeozoologists, as well as the necessarily limited view of historical questions and archaeozoological constraints on the part of molecular biologists involved in this research. Without a means to bring archaeozoologists and molecular biologists closer together there is a real risk of an uncoordinated multiplication of destructive sampling, increased non-validated genetic sequences, mistaken use of DNA data, or mistaken historical or anthropological interpretations.

The A&G Working Group aims to contribute to organize the international scientific community in order to avoid these problems. Taking into account that archaeology, archaeozoology, and genetics also have their own scientific questions, potentialities, and limitations, the group also aims to promote true collaboration between these fields. The group will try to reach these goals by:

• Organizing scientific meetings in order to encourage exchanges between archaeozoologists and geneticists and to allow them to follow the evolution of their respective questions and techniques.
• Proposing general recommendations for collaborations between achaeozoologists and geneticists, for sampling protocols, for destructive analysis of museum specimens.
• Bringing these recommendations to the attention of archaeologists’, archaeozoologists’ and geneticists’ scientific communities, for example by developing binding relationships with world organizations such as UISPP and international ancient DNA conferences.
•Working toward the creation and the maintenance of a world database of all the molecular analysis of archaeological animal bones in order to centralize information and to avoid multiple sampling of the same geographic areas, chronological period and taxa.

The 1st A&G Working Group meeting, organised by Jean-Denis Vigne, was held in Paris at the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle on June 14-15, 2004. It drew nearly 50 participants from 13 countries representing both the disciplines of archaeozoology and molecular biology. Eleven papers were presented and a lot of of time was devoted to general discussions. The seven papers presented on the first day dealt with recent archaeozoological results drawn from ancient DNA (aDNA). Most of them addressed questions of the origin of domesticates or the genetic diversity of their wild progenitors, but research about the history of the European bear and Roman domestic cattle were also presented. Genetic applications to botanical issues was represented. The four papers presented on the second day tackled more general considerations and proposals.

The 2nd A&G Working Group meeting, organised by Mim Bower, Krish Seetah and their team, was held June 18-19, 2005, in Cambridge at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research. Forty-seven scientists from 11 countries gathered together to hear a wide variety of first class presentations. Sixteen papers and two posters were presented, all of a high scientific standard and most of them demonstrating strong collaborative links between archaeo(zoo)logists and geneticists. The first session was devoted to human interactions with wild species, the second one to the genetic history of domestication, and the final one was methodology oriented. Every session was characterised by free flowing and open discussion, with positive and interesting exchanges after every paper.

Because most of the papers presented at these two meetings were already published or on their way to being published, there was no need to publish the conference proceedings. The programmes and summaries of the conferences can be acquired via e-mail from the respective organizers of the meeting (Jean-Denis Vigne: vigne@mnhn.fr; Mim Bower: mab1004@cam.ac.uk).

The 3rd A&G Working Group meeting was held from 26-28 June 2008, in Tallinn, at the Institute of History of the University of Tallinn, ably organised by Lembi Lougas. Twenty-five scientists, from 8 countries gathered together to hear a variety of first-class presentations which included discussions of the genetics of wild species, domestication and the methodological challenges posed by ancient DNA. Read Jean-Denis Vigne's summary of the meeting.

This information has been contributed by Jean-Denis Vigne, A&G Working Group Liaison to ICAZ.