International Council
for Archaeozoology

Alexandra Bolomey (Bucharest, 1932 - Hârșova, 1993) studied Zoology in Bucharest. After finishing her studies (1955) she became a researcher at the "Vasile Pârvan" Institute of Archaeology of the Romanian Academy (1956-1961 and 1969-1975), the Centre for Anthropological Research (1961-1969) and finally at the National Museum of Romanian History (1975-1993). She was one of the pioneers of Romanian archaeozoology and specialized in the study of interactions between human and animal communities, especially in the Neo-Eneolithic period, but she also studied faunal materials from Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Greco-Roman contexts. She has participated in numerous national (50) and international (10) scientific conferences and congresses. She has published, as an author and co-author, two books and over 40 studies in specialized journals. In 1983 she received the Vasile Pârvan Prize of the Romanian Academy for the book Esquisse d’une Prehistoire de la Roumanie (in collaboration with V. Dumitrescu and F. Mogoșanu).

Beginning in 1956, when she joined the staff of the BiologischArchaeologisch Instituut in Groningen, The Netherlands, Anneke’s career became increasingly dedicated to investigating interactions between humans and animals in the past. In 1967, she obtained her doctorate on Animal and Man in Holland’s Past. Visit the spring 2008 ICAZ Newsletter to read more of this commemoration contributed by Juliet Clutton-Brock as well as memories shared by ICAZ president László Bartosiewicz.

Juliet Clutton-Brock was a founding member of ICAZ and a member of the first Executive Committee nearly fifty years ago. Caroline Grigson writes: "Juliet Clutton-Brock, who has died aged 82, was a pioneer in the relatively new field of archaeozoology – the study of animal remains from archaeological sites – which aims to shed light on the relationships between people and animals in the distant past." (see the full obituary by Caroline Grigson on The Guardian's website)

Richard Cooke was a preeminent scholar of the archaeology of Panama where he resided for nearly fifty years. Archaeozoology was a primary component of a career exploring Native American sociocultural development, subsistence adaptations and survival in the lower central American isthmus, from the late Pleistocene to the present day. Cooke earned a doctoral degree in 1972 at the London University Institute of Archaeology. His PhD thesis expanded archaeological knowledge about the cultural region of Greater Coclé, already internationally known for sumptuously endowed elite burials and for an art style that gives prominence to the regional aquatic and terrestrial fauna. The well-preserved faunal remains found in Cooke’s earliest excavations (1970-1975) revealed an archaeofaunal diversity befitting the Neotropics and encouraged him to learn the identification of its hundreds of human-exploited taxa. Cooke received an invaluable intellectual stimulus and much altruistic assistance from the University of Florida’s Elizabeth Wing. By resorting to careful recovery methods from the outset, he realized that fish, amphibians, reptiles, and birds provided a large percentage of pre-Columbian human victuals. Fish bones and those of abundant white-tailed deer provided multiple raw materials for tools, weapons and ornaments. As soon as Cooke arrived in Panama, he began to set up his own collection of reference skeletons, which in 1983 was transferred by him to the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Calzada de Amador, Panama City (STRI) where it remains. The continuing input of Archaeozoology Assistant Máximo Jiménez, a Ngäbe First American biologist, has achieved a comparative fish skeleton collection currently unrivaled for the southern Central America region. Cooke demonstrated how archaeozoology does not only inform about human diet, but also addresses universal anthropological questions, such as taboos, close- and long-distance trade, cultural group, gender and life-stage identity, and ceremonial attire. Cooke became a staff archaeologist at STRI in 1983 and has since mentored dozens of students. He joined the International Council for Archaeozoology in 1993 and since 1982 participated in the ICAZ Fish Remains Working group, hosting the 9th annual meeting in Panama City, Panama, in 1997. Cooke contributed to several ICAZ publications, including two chapters on animal symbolism in art and ritual (Behavior Behind Bones, 2004) and marine catfish osteology, ecology and behavior (L’Archéologie du Poisson, 2008). International collaborations included taxonomy, ontogeny and capture frequency in a tidal fish trap with Gonzalo Tapia (Panama, 1984), marine fish amphidromy in a small tropical river with Gonzalo Tapia (Panama, 1984), actualistic studies of salting and drying fish with Irit Zohar (Israel, 1999, 2019) and Diana Carvajal (Colombia, 2010), pre-Columbian exploitation of dolphins Tom Wake (USA. 2016), taxonomy and biology of a dwarfed deer (Mazama sp.) on the Pearl Islands with Mike Buckley (UK) and María Fernanda Martínez (Colombia). US post-doctoral student Nicole Smith-Guzmán, a bioanthropologist, discovered aural exostoses in human individuals likely dedicated to diving for Spondylus used to fashion jewelry in seasonally cool upwelling marine waters in Panama Bight. Zooarchaeological samples recovered in the 1970s by Cooke revealed an undescribed species of euryhaline marine catfish, which ichthyologists Ricardo Betancur and Arturo Acero later named Arius cookei, now placed in Notariusas the false bronze sea catfish. In 2015, Jiménez realized that, amid a sample of modern marine catfish neurocrania identified by Cooke as the species Ariopsis seemanni, two belonged to a different Ariopsis species. Ratified molecularly by Ricardo Betancur, its description was entrusted to Brazilian ichthyologist Alexandre Marceniuk and given the name Ariopsis jimenezi. Panamanian freshwater fish distribution was poorly understood in the 1970s. Cooke found a common species in archaeofaunal samples in Coclé to be Cathorops tuyra whose unusual dentition belied a diet specialized on molluscs.Tolerant of completely fresh water, it attracted the attention of German theoretical ecologist, Madlen Stange, who found that this species has passed to the Atlantic watershed since the construction of the third set of locks. Cooke received several awards and honors, among them the Order of Vasco Núñez de Balboa Distinguished Member of the Sistema Nacional de Investigadores of Panama, and the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. He was elected to the ICAZ Committee of Honor in 2020.

Excerpt from ICAZ Newsletter 13(1): Angela von den Driesch, a founding member of ICAZ, was a member of the World Association for the History of Veterinary Medicine (WAHVM) and the German Society for the History of Veterinary Medicine. Her scientific merits were honoured by the Bavarian Academy of Sciences (Silver medal bene merenti), the German Archaeological Institute, Berlin (corresponding member) and the Austrian Archaeological Institute, Vienna (corresponding member). In 1991 she was awarded the degree of Profesora honoraria by the Faculty of Philosophy and Literature of the University of Granada and in 1992- 93 she was elected holder of the Sarton Chair of the History of Science at the State University Ghent. In 2000 she received the Cheiron Medal of the WAHVM for her valuable scientific contributions to the History of Veterinary Medicine. Those who had the privilege of accompanying her in the field know that these stays were more than just about counting bones. Field work included moments of bird watching, visits to every fish market within reach, adventurous expeditions to mountain tops and occasionally even a weekend trip to a spa if there were institutions in the vicinity where one could ask for new acquisitions for the reference collection. She loved the social gatherings in the evenings and fascinated young and old by her stories of travels and work. Seen from the institute’s perspective she was a driving force behind the careers of all current senior staff members and we are very grateful that this stimulating, dedicated and thoughtful person has been such an important part of our lives for so many years. Personally I will particularly treasure the memory of 20 years travelling to all kinds of digs in different places, because over the years we became partners in crime. Angela was a Grande Dame and we will miss her tremendously. View the full commemoration in ICAZ Newsletter 13(1), pp. 7-8, by Joris Peters and the team at the Institut für Paläoanatomie, Domestikationsforschung und Geschichte der Tiermedizin, Ludwig-Maximilians Universität, München.

Nils-Gustaf Gejvall (1911-1991) studied zoology in Lund, who developed an early interest in both human and animal osteology. From the 1940s, he was responsible for the osteological collections at the State Historical Museum in Stockholm. He is best known for his research into the identification of cremated human and animal remains. In 1967 he founded the Osteological Research Laboratory affiliated with Stockholm University and worked as its director until 1978. In addition to pioneering the use of computers in recording archaeozoological remains he forged international cooperation with his peers in Europe such as Don Brothwell and Joachim Boessneck. He was appointed a member of the Royal Society for the Humanities in Lund in 1977. He also edited the laboratory’s journal OSSA between 1974-1989, which has become an international forum for human and animal osteoarchaeology as well as forensic research.

Sergiu Haimovici, Professor Emeritus of the “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iasi, Romania, has died on September 15th, 2009. Sergiu Haimovici was born in Botosani, Romania, on May 13, 1929. In 1952, he graduated from the Faculty of Sciences, “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iasi. From January 1st, 1951, he was appointed as teaching assistant at Darwinism, and in the years 1952-1953 he carried on the military service. Seven years later he was promoted to Lecturer, teaching Comparative Anatomy and Histo-Embryology. In 1990 he was appointed Professor, by competition, and since the same year he led Ph.D. students in Comparative Anatomy. The first scientific publications have been completed under the guidance of Professor Olga Necrasov. In his scientific career, Sergiu Haimovici has published over 300 papers in professional journals in Romania and abroad. He participated in scientific international meetings in Moscow, Prague, Bratislava, St. Petersburg, Budapest, Liège, Konstanz. His remarkable qualities as morphologist are found in more than 50 works concerning the nervous, digestive, circulatory, respiratory, and reproductive organs. Sergiu Haimovici professor's name is strongly linked to that of Archaeozoology. Initiated in Iasi, in the fifties, by Olga Necrasov, archaeozoological research was developed especially after the sixties, by Sergiu Haimovici. He defended in 1964 the doctoral thesis with a topic of Archaeozoology (Bronze Age in Romania), led by Olga Necrasov. View the full obituary (PDF) by Luminiţa Bejenaru

Prof. Marian Kubasiewicz was born on January 25, 1921 in Chybice (Kielce).He spent his childhood and youth on Podolia, and studies at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the University and the University of Technology at Wrocław in the years 1945–1950. In 1947 he took the position of an assistant in the Department of Animal Anatomy, specializing in archaeozoology. In 1950 he obtained a doctorate in veterinary sciences. Then, in 1955, M. Kubasiewicz moved to Szczecin Agriculture Academy, where the Department of Animal Anatomy was created on his initiative, and where he served as its head until his retirement in 1991. In the Academy, he held positions from vice-dean to rector. Besides anatomy of animals and teratology, also archaeozoology was for him of great importance in research. He dealt with remains of animals from the most important medieval centers of Poland such as Wolin, Szczecin, Kołobrzeg, Gdańsk and Wrocław. M. Kubasiewicz was one of the most influential people in the development of Polish Archaeozoology in the 1960s-1970s, creating in 1955 a large archaeozoological team in Szczecin Agriculture Academy which was collecting and studying materials from Pomerania. In the 1970s, he was an initiator and member of the Joint Archaeozoological Team of Agriculture Academies in Poland. In 1959, he announced the work entitled "Early Medieval Animal Remains from Wolin", which was the basis for obtaining the habilitated doctor degree in 1961. He received the title of associate professor in 1967, and full professor in 1976. The results of many years of his experience contributed to the understanding of livestock farming and the consumption structure of animal meat in the Neolithic and Medieval Times. He died on February 23, 1997 in Szczecin.

An In Memoriam for Barbara Lawrence was published in 1997 in Archaeofauna (6:145–148) by Richard H. Meadow and contributors Linda S. Braidwood, Robert J. Braidwood, Charles P. Lyman, Maria E. Rutzmoser, Marian Thornton and William Watkins. It is available on the website of the Society of Ethnobiology, along with information about the Barbara Lawrence Award.

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Günter Nobis, one of the leading figures in archaeozoology in the twentieth century. Nobis was Curator of Vertebrates, then Director of the Zoological Institute at the Alexander Koenig Museum in Bonn, Germany. Trained in paleontology and zoology, he specialized in mammals, particularly equids. His publication Vom Wildpferd zum Hauspferd is a seminal work on horse domestication. He studied material from sites in Germany and throughout the Mediterranean, including the famous site of Carthage. Nobis was a long time member of the ICAZ Committee of Honor. View the full obituary contributed by Dirk Heinrich in Newsletter 3(2) 2002 p. 10.

Óscar J. Polaco (México) was born in Oaxaca, México, and is a biologist at the National Polytechnic Institute, the second largest university in the country. Since 1976 he has worked in the Paleozoology Laboratory at the university (now called the Archaeozoology Laboratory due to Polaco’s efforts) and entered into archaeozoological research in the 1980s. He has trained several students in archaeozoology, participated in many meetings, and is the author or co-author of more than 150 publications, several in peer-reviewed journals. He was a member of the ICAZ International Committee for several years. In 2006, Polaco was awarded the 2006 Fryxell Award for Interdisciplinary Research from the Society for American Archaeology for his efforts to promote archaeozoological research in México and throughout Latin America. In August 2006, Polaco co-organized the 10th ICAZ International Conference in México City. He was elected to the ICAZ Committee of Honor in 2006. Visit the commemorations in Newsletter 10(2) 2009 contributed by Joaquin Arroyo-Cabrales and Eduardo Corona and by Jose Ruben Guzman-Gutierrez and Felisa J. Aguilar.

François Prat est décédé à son domicile, à Pessac en Gironde à quelques centaines de mètres du Laboratoire où il a travaillé jusqu’en 1990. Il était né à Bordeaux et avait passé son enfance dans le village du Barp, au coeur de la Lande girondine. Après être entré à l’Ecole normale, il fut quelques temps instituteur. C’est au tout début des années 50 qu’il est nommé à la Faculté des Sciences de Bordeaux assistant de Georges Malvesin-Fabre (Maître de Conférence en 1950, Professeur en 1954); il exerce quelques mois en Botanique puis, en 1951, dans le Laboratoire d’Anthropologie et Préhistoire tout nouvellement créé. En 1956, il devient assistant de François Bordes qui succède à G. Malvesin-Fabre (François Bordes, alors Maître de conférences, sera nommé Professeur en 1962). Au début des années 60, François Prat devient Maître- Assistant. En 1983, nommé Professeur des Universités, il obtient la direction de l’Institut du Quaternaire, alors unité associée au CNRS n° 133. La cessation officielle de ses activités remonte à octobre 1990. François Prat a poursuivi son enseignement et ses travaux de recherche, au sein du même Institut successivement dénommé : Laboratoire d’Anthropologie et Préhistoire (1951), Laboratoire de Préhistoire (1956), Laboratoire de Géologie du Quaternaire et Préhistoire (1959), Institut du Quaternaire (1968). Le premier contrat d’association avec le CNRS date de 1969 (LA 133 CNRS) et le Laboratoire devient unité associée au CNRS en 1986 (UA 133 CNRS). (Continue reading the obituary written by Françoise Delpech, published in 2008 in Paleo vol. 20).

Charles A. Reed, zoologist and pioneer in American archaeozoology, passed away last year after a long illness. He was 88 years old. Reed grew up on a farm near the Hood river in Oregon under the shadow of the Cascade Mountains, a context that may have played an important role in his later research on agricultural origins in the hilly flanks of the Zagros Mountains of Iran and Iraq. He attended the University of Oregon and he received his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley. In his early career he held teaching posts at Reed College and the University of Arizona, before joining the faculty of the College of Pharmacy at the University of Illinois in Chicago in 1948 to teach invertebrate zoology, anatomy, and histology. There he began his life-long friendship with Bill and Priscilla Turnbull of the Field Museum of Natural History and with Robert Braidwood of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. Reed joined Braidwood's interdisciplinary team of scientists in a series of expeditions to Iran and Iraq focusing on the origins of agriculture. In the early 1960s, Reed took a post at Yale University during which time he participated in salvage work in Egypt in advance of the completion of the Aswan Dam project. Returning to Chicago in the mid-60s, Reed assumed the position of anthropologist/archaeozoologist at University of Illinois at Chicago and Research Associate at the Field Museum. He continued to travel and do research through the Middle, South and Far East and Europe. His work in helping organize a session on the origins of agriculture for the Ninth International Congress of Anthropology and Ethnological Sciences resulted in the edited volume The Origins of Agriculture in 1977. Reed wrote widely on the origins of animal domestication, the zoogeography and phylogeny of sheep and goats, and on more philosophical issues dealing with evolutionary theory. He remained active in his research well into his late 80s. He made a considerable mark on archaeozoology and his legacy will continue for many decades to come. From the p. 5 of ICAZ Newsletter 2(1) 2001.

Hans Reichstein was one of the most influential German archaeozoologists of the 20th century. Originally employed at the Institute for Domestication Research (Institut für Haustierkunde) at Kiel University as expert for micromammals, he became during the 1960s and 1970s a great innovator in archaeozoology. He developed fundamental approaches to standardized fragmentation and kill-off patterns – instructions, which have become soon international influence and are still widely used – and applied them in many partly comprehensive books and papers. During his career he analyzed dozens of archaeological sites from Mesolithic to modern time, but key site of his research was the early Medieval Viking settlement Hedeby. Using the huge bone assemblages excavated there as basis, he and his numerous students studied intensively the history of animal husbandry, particularly the development of size, stature, exploitation and distribution of the different livestock species. For further details about Hans Reichstein´s research and life see the obituary by Dirk Heinrich in ICAZ-Newsletter 17(1), 36-37. Also see Newsletter 16(1) 2015 (page 18). (Provided by Ulrich Schmölcke of the Archäologisch-Zoologische Arbeitsgruppe Schleswig (AZA).)

On February 18th 2014, Alfredo Riedel passed away in his home city, Trieste, where he was born in 1925. This was very sad news for the international zooarchaeology community. Alfredo was considered by many to be the father of modern Italian zooarchaeology. He was a one of the founders of the Associazione Italiana di Archeozoologia (AIAZ) and a long-standing member of the ICAZ Committee of Honour. See the full remembrance and photos shared by Francesco Boschin and Umberto Tecchiati, starting on page 14 of ICAZ Newsletter 15(1).

Elisabeth Schmid was Executive Committee member for many years. She has studied Geology, Zoology, Palaeontology and Prehistory. She completed her palaeontological PhD about dentition and teeth of Pleistocene and modern Felidae 1937 at the University of Freiburg/Br. in Germany. She did her habilitation (postdoctoral qualification) 1949 at the University of Freiburg (Germany) and 1951 at the University of Basel (Switzerland). Until 1962 she was teaching at both Universities. 1960 she was appointed as a.o. (extraordenary) Professor and 1972 she became a Full Professorship for Prehistory at the University of Basel. At the Basel University Prof. Schmid founded in 1953 the “laboratory for Prehistory” (today: Institute for Prehistory and Archaeological Science, IPAS). She established a new interdisciplinary course of studies for prehistoric archaeologists including archaeozoological courses and seminary. 1972 she published her well-known “Atlas of Animal Bones”. As the first woman 1976 she became dean of the science faculty of the university of Basel. Elisabeth Schmid was an outstanding scientist with an extremely strong interdisciplinary impact on archaeology and zooarchaeology. Prof. Schmid passed away in the night of 26/27 March 1994.

Eitan Tchernov, our cherished mentor, colleague and friend, passed away on December 13, 2002, after a valiant and unrelenting struggle against cancer. The character traits which most readily spring to mind when thinking of Eitan are his infinite curiosity and indefatigable enthusiasm. Eitan was born in Tel Aviv in 1935 and from an extremely early age showed a keen and active interest in natural history. So much so, that by the time he began his studies in zoology at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, his knowledge in this field was legendary. After completing his PhD at The Hebrew University he took up an academic appointment in this institution in 1966, and attained the position of Full Professor in the Faculty of Life Sciences. In 1991 he founded the Department of Evolution, Systematics and Ecology, aimed at promoting inter-disciplinary studies in these fields, and served as its first chairman. Eitan was an inspiring and popular lecturer and was successful in conveying to students his passion and enthusiasm for all areas of biology. The courses he taught ranged over a wide field, including palaeontology, faunal studies of the Near East, biogeography and evolution. The high point of many of these courses were field trips and the opportunity to spend a few days with Eitan outside the university and being able to benefit from his eclectic knowledge in informal discussions around the camp fire. At The Hebrew University, Eitan created a large and well-equipped laboratory and was successful in greatly expanding extant collections of palaeontological, archaeozoological and comparative fauna from Israel. These now comprise the most comprehensive collection of their kind for the region. The collection has attracted students and researchers from all over the world for whom the laboratory serves as a second home as well as research centre. This was largely due to Eitan’s gregarious personality and generosity, and was also evidenced in his ability to maintain long term collaborations with other scientists and former students. Notable is his life-long collaboration with archaeologist Ofer BarYosef, with whom he engaged in excavations of numerous prehistoric sites in Israel, such as Ubeidiya, Hayonim and Kebara Caves. (This is only a portion of the commemoration by Liora Horwitz, Rivka Rabinovich, and the Department of Evolution, Systematics and Ecology The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, which can be read in full in ICAZ Newsletter 4(1), pages 14-15). (Thumbnail photo by Noatcher on WikimediaCommons, shared with a Creative Commmons Attribution-ShareAlike license.)

Manfred Teichert was born in the district of Glogau, Lower Silesia, on May 5, 1928. From 1949, his scientific career was closely associated with the university Martin-Luther at Halle-Wittenberg where he studied agricultural sciences, pedagogy and zoology. From 1952 to 1953 he worked at the Agricultural Faculty as lecturer and researcher. His scientific activities focused on archaeozoological issues from the start, in particular on animal finds from early and prehistoric times in central Germany. In addition, he produced seminal contributions on methodology related to the estimation of whither’s height on single bones from pigs and sheep. Of special relevance has been his 1964 paper (also authored with J. Boessneck and HH. Müller) on the osteological features for distinguishing bones of sheep and goats. For this research Dr. Teichert made use of an assemblage of more than three hundred skeletons from both species. Teichert was a member of ICAZ since 1971 and, during several years, headed the former working group on methods. The culmination of his professional career came in 1992 with the creation of the Museum of Domestic Animals in Halle, when he also took the opportunity to hold an ICAZ symposium. (From the contribution for his 75th birthday in Newsletter 4(1) 2003, p. 5, by Hans-Hermann Müller.) The scientific work of Manfred Teichert is closely linked to the Museum für Haustierkunde Julius Kühn at the Institute for Animal Breeding at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. After his studies and doctorate in the field of agriculture (1955), Manfred Teichert was employed here to work on animal remains from archaeological excavations. His first major project concerned the find materials from the Germanic sacrificial bog and sea sanctuary of Oberdorla in Thuringia. At the museum, the skeleton collection founded by Julius Kühn (1865–1888) provided favourable conditions for such studies. M. Teichert focused his numerous analyses on the periods from the Bronze Age to the Roman Empire, with faunal assemblages from Thuringia, Saxony-Anhalt and Brandenburg being the main focus. In addition, he also wrote important methodological papers. The joint study on the differentiation of skeletal elements of sheep and goats together with J. Boessneck and H.-H. Müller, mentioned above, was followed by works on calculating the withers height from skeletal measurements in pigs and sheep. In the last years of his work until his retirement (1993), M. Teichert, who had been appointed curator of the Julius Kühn Collection in 1970, devoted himself increasingly to the reconstruction of the Kühn Museum. (Second portion of biography provided by Norbert Benecke; photo provided by Hans-Hermann Müller)

After more than 30 years of research activity, Louise van Wijngaarden-Bakker officially retired in 2010 from the scientific world of archaeozoology. She leaves behind not only a list of over a hundred publications but numerous researchers and students who have been trained by her. She was the first archaeozoologist at the University of Amsterdam, where starting from scratch with a few bags of bones she built up an archaeozoological department with an outstanding comparative collection of mammal, bird, and fish bones. It is still one of the best collections in Europe. Her specific research interests lay firstly in the Irish Mesolithic and Neolithic (she completed her Ph.D. research on the animal bones from Newgrange), but she worked on many Dutch sites from the Mesolithic until more recent times, as well as on sites from other countries such as Spitsbergen, Sabi Abyad, and Carthage. Louise has had a wide range of interests in archaeozoology, ranging from (experimental) taphonomy to environmental archaeology, bone working, and urban and historical archaeology. Two of her most characteristic and valued qualities are her critical attitude and willingness to let others access both the reference collections and her large collection of offprints. She has also stimulated interaction with related disciplines and international colleagues. One of her lasting legacies is the “Ecologendag,” a yearly event where Belgian and Dutch researchers in archaeobotany and archaeozoology meet in an informal atmosphere. Louise was always inspiring and supportive, and her legacy in the discipline is very much appreciated by colleagues and students. Elected in 2010. Contributed by Maaike Groot and Kinie Esser, ICAZ Newsletter 11(2) Fall 2010