International Council
for Archaeozoology

Umberto Albarella was awarded a first degree in Natural Sciences at the Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II (Italy), but developed an interest in archaeology already as an undergraduate student. He first participated in excavations in 1983 and began analysing animal bone assemblages of substantial sizes from urban sites in Naples. Following a study period in the Institute of Archaeology at the University College (London, England), he taught bioarchaeology at the Università degli Studi di Lecce (Italy). In 1993 he returned to Britain and was employed by English Heritage until 1995. It was at this time that he became involved with the International Council for Archaeozoology and first participated in the 1994 7th International Congress of ICAZ held in Konstanz (Germany). Subsequently, he worked at the universities of Birmingham and Durham before moving to the University of Sheffield in 2004 where he established a strong zooarchaeology laboratory that runs its own MSc programme. Umberto took an active part in organizing the 9th 2002 International Congress of ICAZ in Durham. That year, he was elected to the International Committee of ICAZ. In relation to his intensive international activity (aside from Britain and Italy, involvement in projects in Armenia, France, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Portugal and Switzerland), he founded ZOOARCH, an e-mail list on zooarchaeology in 2000 that has become an official medium of ICAZ. He was elected General Secretary of ICAZ in 2006 and served until 2012. In addition to academic output (co-author/editor of half a dozen books in addition to the 14 volume series of the Proceedings on the 9th conference of ICAZ in Durham and author of dozens of peer-reviewed articles), his scholarly activity has always been characterized by a keen sense of social responsibility that the membership of ICAZ has greatly benefited from and has made him much loved in the global community of zooarchaeologists. Elected in 2012. Contributed by László Bartosiewicz

Jesús Altuna Etxabe was born in Berástequi, Guipúzcoa, Spanish Basque Country, on July 27, 1932. He studied philosophy and theology at the seminar of Vitoria and San Sebastián, as well as Biological Sciences at the Complutense University in Madrid. Right after completing his Licenciatura, he started field work with Prof. José Miguel de Barandiarán, who suggested the study of the rich animal bone collections from many Basque sites that remained unpublished at the time. That request, along with his interest in pursuing a career in his homeland, fostered a move from a teaching position at Universidad Complutense to a post at the Seminar of San Sebastián. Right after starting to study these materials in the late 1950s, Professor Altuna realized the importance of creating and curating an osteological collection, as was done in other research centers, such as Stuttgart, Munich, and London, that he regularly visited. That collection was built by the Archaeology Lab of the Aranzadi Society, headed by Prof. Barandiarán, and later by him. By 1963, Jesús Altuna fully understood the need for a systematic program of archaeozoological studies, and that need turned into a crucial turning point for the development of archaeozoology in the Basque Country and throughout Spain in the mid-1960s. Between 1960 and 1972, Jesús Altuna took part in archaeological excavations as an anthropologist, mainly under the direction of Prof. Barandiarán, and worked in Sudanese Nubia following a request from UNESCO. Since the early 1970s, he directed excavations in Cantabria, Asturias, La Rioja, Aragón, Burgos, Guadalajara, Castellón, and the Portuguese Algarve. Starting in 1980 and until his retirement in 2002, he was appointed professor at the Basque Country University after teaching in San Sebastián for almost two decades. His main research there focused on Archaeozoological methods and practice, and on Paleolithic art and archaeological heritage. Since 1960 Professor Altuna headed the Prehistory Department at the Aranzadi Society, of which he was later elected President, and also became director of Munibe-Antropologia –Arkeologia journal. Professor Altuna is a well-known public figure in his homeland and has been the recipient of numerous research and academic awards. He currently serves as a member of ICAZ Committee of Honor.

Joaquin Arroyo-Cabrales earned a degree in Biology from the National School of Biological Sciences of the Mexican National Polytechnic Institute, and a PhD from Texas Tech University. He is Professor at the Mexico City Archaeozoology Laboratory of the National Institute for Anthropology and History. His research focuses on palaeoenvironment reconstruction in Mexico, through the study of Quaternarian mammals, and he has a special interest for bats. Joaquín has published over 200 papers in Spanish and English. He has been an ICAZ member since 1990, was elected at the IC in 1992, at the EC in 2004, and he was elected Vice-President in 2010. In 2006, he co-organized the 10th International Conference of ICAZ in Mexico and he plays a major role in the development of Latin American zooarchaeology. Elected in 2014. Contributed by Christine Lefèvre

László Bartosiewicz (Hungary) is Reader in Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh (UK) and Professor in Archaeozoology at the Loránd Eötvös University (Hungary). He holds degrees in Animal Sciences from the University of Gödöllő (Hungary: 1977) and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (1987; 1998). László’s research includes the diachronic study of animal-human relations from the Neolithic onwards in Europe (Belgium, Hungary, Scotland, Serbia, Slovenia, Switzerland), the Near East (Egypt, Israel, Turkey), and South America (Bolivia). In addition to studies on animal exploitation, cultural patters of meat consumption and cultural attitudes toward animals, his activities also focus on animal disease in archaeology. He is the author of numerous books, book chapters and peer-reviewed journal articles. He has been the the vice-president of ICAZ from 2002 to 2006, and the president from 2006 to 2014. He has contributed to all ICAZ conferences since London 1982. László has been a key player in the world of zooarchaeology for more than three decades, contributing to many different research areas. Within ICAZ he has championed internationality and the provision of equal opportunities. Elected in 2014. Contributed by Umberto Albarella

Cornelia Becker (born 1952) completed her diploma in zoology, botany and anthropology at the Christian-Albrechts-University Kiel in 1975. At the Kiel Institute for the Research of Domestic Animals (Institut für Haustierkunde) under W. Herre, she got her first training in osteology. This was considerably enlarged when she began to study the huge mammal bone assemblage from the Viking site Hedeby near Schleswig. Part of it – the pig material - was the topic of her dissertation (1977). During these years she used the comparative collection in the Archaeozoological Working Group (AZA) at the Gottorf Castle Schleswig and profited very much from the advice of experienced colleagues, namely Dirk Heinrich and Hans Reichstein. No less influential was the permanent exchange of knowledge with the excavators from Hedeby. So, very early in her professional career she developed a strong consciousness for the importance of contextual analyses and related phenomena. In the succeeding years, she worked as a freelance archaeozoologist in Switzerland and Greece, being responsible for the analysis and publication of two large faunal assemblages, one from the Neolithic lake-site of Twann (Canton Bern) and the other from Kastanas (northern Greece), dated to the Bronze and Iron Age. In 1983, she accepted a permanent position at the Institute for Pre-and Protohistory at the Free University of Berlin. That opened up a wealth of projects to her, initiated not only by the director of her home institute, but also by other archaeologists from the vast scientific community at Berlin. Over three decades, she joined 26 excavations in nine European, Near Eastern and African countries, analyzed almost any kind of faunal refuse as well as manufactured items and gained in-depth knowledge of a diversity of prehistoric and historic places, c.f. the PPNB mega-site of Basta/Jordan, a Phoenician factory off-shore Morocco (Mogador), an Assyrian city in northeastern Syria (Tell Schech Hamad) or a dump-filling from the end of the 2nd World War (Tempelhof airport/Berlin). As an all-round researcher, she loved the co-operation with and learning from specialists in archaeozoology, cross-over discussions with scientists from other disciplines and trans-disciplinary research in general. This is reflected not only from her numerous publications, it also characterized her lectures and courses, given at the Berlin University as well as in the field. Nevertheless, she always saw herself as a midfielder compared to the well-known greats in our discipline. Over 20 years Cornelia was member of the ICAZ and associated working groups. She joined the Comité de Lecture of the CNRS/ Paris for almost 10 years. In 2017 she retired and moved to a small town near the North Sea, where she takes lovely care for her very aged mother. As long as her time allows, she works on a voluntary basis in nature conservation, her passion since always. Elected in 2023

Norbert Benecke (born in 1954) studied biology at the Martin Luther University in Halle/Saale from 1974 to 1978. In 1979, he began working as a research assistant for archaeozoology at the Central Institute for Ancient History and Archaeology at the former Academy of Sciences of the GDR in Berlin. He obtained his doctorate (rer. nat.) with a thesis on animal remains from the medieval settlement of Ralswiek on the island of Rügen (1984) and habilitated with a study on the development of domestic animal husbandry in Central Europe from its beginnings to the Middle Ages (1992). After the dissolution of the Academy as a result of German reunification, Norbert Benecke moved to the German Archaeological Institute in Berlin in 1992, where he was head of the Natural Sciences Department from 2002 until his retirement in 2020. In 2002, he was appointed honorary professor at the Humboldt University of Berlin. He gave lectures, seminars and tutorials on archaeozoology for many years. His research focuses on the exploitation of fauna by prehistoric man in the various landscape zones of Eurasia (Neolithic to Iron Age), animal domestications and environmental history of Europe (Late Glacial and Holocene). Elected in 2023

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Suzanne Pilaar Birch has been a member of ICAZ since 2009 and is one of the coordinators of the Stable Isotopes in Zooarchaeology Working Group (sizwg.wordpress.com), which she started in 2012. Her research interests include the initial domestication and spread of livestock, animal migration, seasonality, and climate change adaptations. She is currently part of a number of interdisciplinary and international project collaborations. She completed her PhD in 2012 at the University of Cambridge, UK and is now an Assistant Professor (joint, Anthropology and Geography) at the University of Georgia where she also directs the Quaternary Isotope Paleoecology Lab at the Center for Applied Isotope Studies. She served as ICAZ Treasurer from 2018 to 2023. Elected in 2023

Zbigniew Bochenski received his PhD from the Jagiellonian University in Kraków in 1994. He is a professor at the Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animal of the Polish Academy of Sciences (Kraków). A specialist of osteology, paleontology and taphonomy of birds, he has published numerous works on fossil and sub-fossil birds. His books and articles on the comparative osteology of modern birds are essential to avian archaeozoologists. He is also interested in food preferences of owls and birds of prey. An ICAZ member for many years, he was elected at the IC from 2002 to 2018 and has served as Working Group Liaison Officer from 2008 to 2018. In 2001, he hosted the 4th Meeting of the ICAZ Bird Working Group in Kraków. Elected in 2018. ICAZ Newsletter 19(2)

Luis Alberto Borrero has been working in archaeozoology since 1978 and holds a PhD in archaeology (1986) from the University of Buenos Aires. He works for the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas as a researcher, and teaches archaeology at the Universidad de Buenos Aires. He has conducted extensive research in Patagonia to document the early peopling of southern South America, the extinct megamammals of the end of the Pleistocene, and archaeozoological aspects of hunter-gatherer archaeology. His pioneer works on taphonomy brought invaluable information for the archaeology of South America. His strong commitment to archaeozoology and his dedication in education have had a great importance in the development of archaeozoology in Argentina and Latin America. He has published over 200 scholarly papers, and is the author of two books and co-editor of seven books. In 2014, he received an Award for Excellence in Latin America and Corribbean Archaeology by the Society for American Archaeology. He is a member of ICAZ since 1986. He served as Vice President of the organization between 2006-2010. Elected in 2018. ICAZ Newsletter 19(2)

Virginia Butler is a Professor Emerita at Portland State University (Portland, Oregon, USA), where she has been on the faculty in the Department of Anthropology since 1995. After starting her PhD at the University of Washington in the late 1970s, she was struck by the scarcity of scholarship on fish zooarchaeology, despite the ancient and ongoing connections between people and fish and the abundance of fish remains in archaeological sites. She decided to address this gap through creating and then earning an interdisciplinary PhD in paleoichthyology, joining training and supervision from the departments of zoology, anthropology and fisheries. While still a graduate student, she developed her expertise in fish bone analysis through projects in the Pacific Northwest, Oceania and deserts of western North America, regions which she has continued to work over the past 30 years. Her topical interests include taphonomy, quantitative methods, conservation biology, human ecodynamics, and public outreach and education. Her scholarship has been published in international journals including Antiquity, Journal of World Prehistory, American Antiquity, Journal of Archaeological Science, Quaternary Research, and Ecology and Society. Her connection to ICAZ began in the late 1980s (Fish Remains Working Group - York, UK) and she has attended as many ICAZ meetings as possible since that time, greatly valuing the professional and personal relationships with international scholars that form ICAZ. She was honored to host the 2019 meeting of the Fish Remains working Group in Portland, Oregon and serve on the International Committee between 2014 and 2023. Elected in 2023

Louis Chaix is a long standing member and sup- porter of ICAZ. He is currently an honorary curator at the Natural History Museum in Geneva, Switzerland, where he worked for many years before his recent retirement, and a Professor at the University of Geneva. Chaix studied Neolithic fauna in the French region of Valais for his dissertation research and obtained his doctorate in 1976. Although he has continued to work on themes related to this initial research, his interests have broadened to include many other areas of the world. His main research interests in the Swiss Alpine area have focused on Paleolithic hunter-gatherers and the transition from hunting animals to animal husbandry. Outside Europe, Chaix has worked extensively in Africa, where he studied many different prehistoric and historic faunal assemblages from Sudan, Egypt, and Ethiopia. In 1999, he traveled to several cities in Brazil to offer seminars in archaeozoology. Chaix is a very popular colleague and a much loved teacher. He has trained several students in archaeozoology, who are now professionals themselves. Elected in 2006. ICAZ Newsletter 7(2) Fall 2006

Charles S. "Rufus" Churcher was born in Aldershot, England, 1928. He studied in South Africa, and graduated from the University of Natal, South Africa with a BSc Hons 1952, and obtained a MSc in Paleomammology, 1954. He went on to obtain his PhD in Neomammology in 1957, University of Toronto (U of T). Immediately upon obtaining his PhD, Churcher began his teaching career at the U of T in 1957 in the Department of then Zoology and now Palaeobiology, and eventually retired in 1993. During his time at U of T, he served as the Associate Chair of the Zoology Department for 4 years and for 3 years as Associate Dean of Arts and Science. His teaching career included giving courses of vertebrate morphology and courses in palaeontology and geology, inspiring generations of students. His field work foci encompassed western Canada and Africa, most particularly Egypt, Kenya, and South Africa. In 1979 Rufus Churcher was invited to become a principal investigator in the Dakhleh Oasis Project in Egypt’s Western Desert. His focus was on the archaeozoological and fossil vertebrate fauna found in the area, ranging from the palaeolithic into the Roman-Byzantine era. He continued as an active participant in the project long beyond his retirement from the U of T. During the many years that he spent walking hundreds of kilometres through the oasis, collecting modern comparatives, and excavating sites, he charted Holocene fauna, documented environmental change as evidenced by fauna, and studied the diet and economy of the inhabitants of the oasis from the Holocene (and earlier) until the advent of Islam. The Dakhleh fieldwork yielded many Cretaceous fish and reptile fossils, attesting to the Egyptian Gulf of Tethyean Ocean, the antecedent to the Mediterranean Sea. In addition to his work in Dakhleh Oasis, Dr. Churcher pursued other field work. In 1996 he discovered a Pleistocene horizon, a critical period when Homo s. sapiens evolved and exited Africa via the Sinai or Red Sea for Eurasia. He recovered a large number of fossils from a freshwater lake deposit: extinct camel, small warthog, hippopotamus, hartebeest, antelope, gazelle, buffalo, Cape Zebra, and casts of reeds, indicative of an extensive permanent lake with marshy edges. According to Dr. Churcher, this now-desert area was similar to the current Rift Valley lakes which wax and wane with the rains. In addition to his work in Africa, Rufus worked in the Americas as well. He dealt with diverse fauna from these areas: caribou remains from the Late Pleistocene in northwestern Alabama, Pleistocene insect remains from Peru, extinct camelid fossils from Alberta, and remains of a short-face bear from Alaska, to name but a few. Professor Churcher has published extensively over a hundred papers in Paleontology and other journals, edited a volume on aspects of Dakhleh Oasis, and co-authored a chapter on the geology and geomorphology of the oasis. Rufus has always been a generous colleague, sharing information and enthusiasm with colleagues and students, whose work has changed, in particular, our understanding about the climate and environment of the Egyptian Sahara. (Photo by Colin Hope)

Pam Crabtree is Professor of Anthropology at New York University and holds a PhD (1982) from the University of Pennsylvania. While most of her zooarchaeological research has focused on the early medieval period, she has also worked on Epipaleolithic, Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Hellentistic, and Roman faunal collections in Europe and the greater Near East; She served as ICAZ Treasurer from 2007 to 2018. Elected in 2018. ICAZ Newsletter 19(2)

Simon was born in 1950 in London, where he studied Zoology at University College. After that, he pursued postgraduate studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, completing a Master’s degree (1973) and a PhD on The Large Mammals of the Upper Pleistocene of Israel (1979). After his formal studies, Simon followed a research and teaching trajectory that has positively transformed the field of zooarchaeology. His scientific rigour, sharp analytical mind and sterling work all over Europe and southwest Asia, have boosted zooarchaeology’s international recognition and helped establish it as an indispensable component of archaeological research in many regions he worked in. Simon mainly worked in England, Israel, Cyprus, Greece, Iran and Portugal, and still does in some of these countries. As for his research interests, they are equally diverse and include, among others, palaeoenvironmental reconstruction through faunal analysis, animal domestication, livestock improvement in later periods, ritual use of animals and the development of osteometric and morphological methods that improve our identification of closely-related species. His rich publication record includes ground-breaking research, as well as textbook-like works such as The Archaeology of animals, one of the most widely read and translated books produced in Zooarchaeology. Beyond research, Simon taught at many universities around the world such as the Hebrew University (Israel), University College London and Reading University (UK), University of Lecce (Italy), University of Lisbon and University of Algarve (Portugal). He has also contributed significantly to the development of several laboratories and faunal collections for zooarchaeological research such as in Jerusalem (1971-1979), English Heritage (London, 1988-1999) and LARC-DGPC (Lisbon, 2000-present). He has also been a staunch ICAZ supporter, participating in many of its conferences and working for many years as a member of the International Committee. Elected in 2020. ICAZ Newsletter 21(1)

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Pierre Ducos has been a leading figure in ICAZ since its inception. He organized the 5th ICAZ International Conference in Bordeaux in 1986 and was the founder and long time chief editor and publisher of Archaeozoologica, a primary publication venue for ICAZ conference proceedings. He has been a leader in the development of new methods and original theoretical perspectives in archaeozoology, and has produced many important analyses of fauna particularly from the Middle East. He retired from his research position in the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in 2000. Elected in 2002. ICAZ Newsletter 3(1) Spring 2002

Achilles Gautier is the exception to the proverbial rule that there are no famous Belgians. Having been trained in geology and palaeontology, he became a pioneer in archaeozoology in Belgium in the 1960s. He soon put his research at Gent University on the international map by attending early ICAZ gatherings, by becoming a member of the organization’s committees, and by studying material from very different places and time periods. Not many colleagues combine Neogene freshwater molluscs from Africa, European Ice Age mammals, Middle Palaeolithic Poland, prehistoric Egypt, Libya, Sudan, Mali and Ruanda, Classical Greece and Syria, and prehistoric to medieval Belgium within the same curriculum vitae. Several characteristics unify his work, including his no-nonsense attitude, strict taphonomic interpretational framework, an understanding of the ethics of human-animal relation- ships, and the use of correct zoological nomenclature for domestic animals. Gautier retired as professor in 2002, however his non-conformist teaching style and successful laboratory continue to serve as an inspiration to students and colleagues. Elected in 2006. ICAZ Newsletter 7(2) Fall 2006

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.

Diane Gifford-Gonzalez is one of the first American archaeologists trained in zooarchaeology. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, and was an Anthropology Professor of the University of California, Santa Cruz, for many years before retiring in 2015. She has also taught in other coutries. She was President of the Society of Africanist Archaeologists and of the Society for American Archaeology, and served on governing boards of several other academic societies. Both at UC Santa Cruz and at the SAA, she helped bring historically underrepresented groups into archaeology and anthropology. For her work, Diane Gifford-Gonzalez received several awards, like the SAA President's Recognition in 1995 and 2013. Having researched in Africa and North America, she takes an international perspective. Her research interests range animal domestication and the origins and development of African pastoralism, colonial New Mexico, and Holocene Monterey Bay historical ecology, among other issues. She has authored numerous publications, including widely cited and highly influential works on zooarchaeological and taphonomic theory and method. Her 2018 textbook "An Introduction to Zooarchaeology" compiles much of her work.

An active member of ICAZ from its earliest days, Caroline Grigson is one of the rare researchers who are active in zooarchaeology and in the study of human skeletal anatomy. Her publications range widely across both specialisms. During much of her zooarchaeological carer, Caroline held curatorial posts at the Royal College of Surgeons of England, where she had particular responsibility for the Odontological Collection, a huge compilation of human and other animal specimens amassed over more than two centuries. This has given her an unparalleled knowledge of skeletal and dental anatomy and its many adaptations and pathological variants. This knowledge was shown to great effect in the revised edition that she and A.E.W. Miles produced of Colyer’s Variations and Diseases of the Teeth of Animals. Caroline’s early work in zooarchaeology focussed on cranial variation within and between species of Bos and she made important contributions to debates over the origins of African domestic cattle. She has reported on excavated assemblages principally from Great Britain, with an emphasis on the Neolithic, and from the Levant. Caroline and Juliet-Clutton-Brock brought ICAZ to London for the 1982 Conference and saw the extensive and diverse proceedings through to publication in four volumes that became standard texts in zooarchaeology. Apart from her own research, Caroline’s major contribution to the development of our discipline has been the high standards to which she has held her younger colleagues. Many of us have benefitted from being kindly, gently and precisely corrected by Caroline over the years! Since retiring, she has been able to show more of the breadth of her knowledge and interests, including Menagerie, a historical study of exotic animals in Britain, and The Life and Poems of Anne Hunter, a meticulous study of a neglected 18th-century writer. Caroline’s contributions to ICAZ and to zooarchaeology have been many and varied, and her support and friendship have been greatly appreciated by many of us. (Image credit: Tom Levy, Shiqmim Expedition, 1982)

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Dirk Heinrich is a retired Zoologist from Christian-Albrechts-University, Kiel (Schleswig-Holstein, Germany). At the Institute for the Research of Domestic Animals (Institut für Haustierkunde) he taught students in different fields of zoology, from lectures about the history of animal husbandry to curses about Central European wildlife and vertebrate identification. Over decades he also trained many students in methods and potentials of archaeozoology. His institute cooperated with the regional archaeological museum at Schloss Gottorf in nearby Schleswig by supporting the so-called Archaeological-Zoological Working Group (AZA, Archäologisch-Zoologische Arbeitsgemeinschaft). Today its comprehensive laboratory for archaeozoological research is part of the Centre for Baltic and Scandinavian Archaeology (ZBSA). Dirk Heinrich founded the AZA in the 1970s specialized in mammal and bird remains and started to build up an additional huge and well-sorted comparative collection for fish bones. As he says, such a collection is never finished, so he is still organizing further species. The analyses and interpretation of archaeological fish remains in terms of palaeoeconomy and palaeoecology is one of his main research foci, but he has also published for example about horse burials or about the distribution of wild and the use of tamed birds. Contributed by Wietske Prummel and Ulrich Schmölcke.

A Londoner by birth, Charles Higham studied Archaeology at the Universities of London and Cambridge, where he excelled as a scholar and on the rugby field. His Doctoral research on prehistoric economies in Denmark and Scandinavia led him into zooarchaeology through a detailed study of early domestic cattle and considering the ways that cattle-rearing may have affected cultural developments in the region. From Denmark, Charles’ career moved to the University of Otago, New Zealand. Here he began a major and ongoing programme of research on the prehistoric archaeology of Thailand, conducting extensive excavations on sites such as Kok Phanom Di and Ban Non Wat, and making a significant contribution to debates over the role of agricultural responses to climate change in driving early state formation. First and foremost an archaeologist in the broadest sense, Charles has always been exemplary in integrating zooarchaeology and other specialisms into the larger projects. Otago has produced a number of zooarchaeologists and other archaeological scientists under his broad-minded supervision, and his Thailand fieldwork has taken up the use of drones and Lidar. In recent years, his work has included extensive ancient DNA studies aimed at clarifying human population movements in prehistoric South-East Asia and dating bone and shell sequences from numerous sites in the region to provide a more secure chronological framework for future research. Among many other awards, Charles was in 2012 awarded the Grahame Clark medal of the British Academy for distinguished research in archaeology, appropriately for one whose research began in prehistoric Scandinavia. Now Emeritus Professor at Otago, Charles continues to be active in research and publication, though he no longer plays rugby. (Photo credit: New Zealand Government, Office of the Governor-General, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Sarah Whitcher Kansa directs the non-profit Alexandria Archive Institute (AAI), working with researchers to publish open data with Open Context. Sarah received her PhD in archaeology in 2000 (University of Edinburgh). She was Project Zooarchaeologist for Domuztepe, a late Neolithic site in southeastern Turkey for 15 years and is currently studying 55 years of faunal remains in continuing excavations at the Etruscan site of Poggio Civitate. She has been an ICAZ member since 1996. Her service to ICAZ, via her role at the AAI, includes administering the ICAZ website since 2006 and running the Junior Researcher Open Zooarchaeology Prize competition at the past five ICAZ International Conferences. She has served on the Executive and International Committees of ICAZ since 2010. She served as Vice President of ICAZ from 2014-2018 and President from 2018-2023. Elected in 2023

This award was made in recognition of Heather’s many years of service to ICAZ and in recognition of her contributions to archaeozoology through her innovative research. Heather began her tenure as ICAZ Newsletter Editor in 2000 with the publication of a redesigned biannual newsletter provided as a primary benefit to ICAZ members. Under her direction the newsletter has grown into a major outlet for information for, from, and about ICAZ members. Heather was also the organization’s first Webmaster, designing, implementing, and maintaining the organization’s website from 2000 until 2006. These two informational organs have played key roles in making ICAZ the vibrant, broad-based organization it is today. In addition to her service to ICAZ, Heather has conducted broad ranging research in archaeozoology —from tracing the impact of the deer-skin trade in early colonial America on Native American subsistence and social organization to examining the place of animal economy in early urban societies in Central México. This work, which links the careful study of animal bones to important questions about environment, economy, and society, serves as an important model for archaeozoologists everywhere. In addition, Heather has also built a respected facility at Southern Illinois University Carbondale for archaeozoological research and training. Heather joins the Committee of Honor as the youngest person ever elected to this prestigious committee, with the promise of even greater contributions to ICAZ and to archaeozoology still to come. Elected in 2010. Contributed by M. Zeder, ICAZ Newsletter 11(2) Fall 2010

Richard H. Meadow is one of the founding members of ICAZ, a member of the ICAZ Executive Committee from 1976 to the present, and ICAZ Treasurer from 1998-2006. He established the Zooarchaeology Laboratory at the Peabody Museum, Harvard University, in 1981 and has been the director ever since. Numerous students have been trained in this lab and scholars from around the world have consulted its collections. Meadow has been a member of the editorial board of several journals. He has been an active participant of numerous excavations and since 1992 he is the project director of the Harappa Archaeological Research Project in Punjab, Pakistan. Among his many honors Meadow is a Foreign Corresponding Member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres of France. Elected in 2006. ICAZ Newsletter 7(2) Fall 2006

Arturo Morales-Muñiz has contributed greatly to ICAZ over the past 25 years. He has been a member of the ICAZ Executive Committee for many years and ICAZ Secretary from 1998-2006. Morales has also been a central figure in the ICAZ Fish Remains Working Group (FRWG) since its inception and he was a driving force behind the creation of the ICAZ Bird Working Group (BWG) in 1991. That same year, he organized the 1st BWG meeting in Madrid, Spain, and in 1995 he hosted the 8th FRWG meeting. He is the founder and co-editor of the journal, Archaeofauna, which has served as a publication venue for ICAZ conference proceedings and papers dealing with archaeozoological research worldwide. Morales is the director of the Laboratorio de Arqueozoología at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, which is one of the leading centers of archaeozoological research and training in Spain. He has published widely on archaeofaunas from the Iberian Peninsula, particularly on icthyoarchaeology. Elected in 2006. ICAZ Newsletter 7(2) Fall 2006

Hanns-Hermann Müller studied biology as well as prehistory and early history at the Martin-Luther University in Halle/Saale from 1950 to 1954. From 1954 he was employed as a research assistant at the State Museum of Prehistory in Halle. During the years of his affiliation with the State Museum, Müller was mainly engaged in investigations of animal remains from Neolithic settlements in Central Germany. This work resulted in a synthetic study on the domestic animals of the Linear Pottery culture, with which he received his doctorate in 1962 and which is still one of the standard works of Neolithic research in Central Europe today. With his move to the Institute for Pre- and Early History in Berlin in 1960, his focus of work changed. In accordance with the research agenda there, the focus was now on investigations of animal remains from medieval castles and settlements. Thus, in the 1960s and 1970s, Müller analyzed numerous Slavic and early German faunal assemblages from the areas of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt and Saxony. In addition, he also worked on various find materials from the first post-Christian centuries in East Germany. Thus, Müller was for the first time able to give a summarizing account of the domestic animals of the Migration Period in the Middle Elbe-Saale area. Since his student days, Müller's particular interest has been in the development of domestic horses and horse husbandry. He systematically worked on hundreds of horse skeleton finds from graves of the post-Christian period in Slovakia (in cooperation with Cyril Ambros, Nitra) as well as from Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. A lasting testimony of Müller's activity is also the " Bibliographie zur Archäo-Zoologie und Geschichte der Haustiere ", which he has published annually since 1961 and in which newly published specialist literature from all over the world has been compiled. In the years up to 1971 it was published in hektographed form, then until 1991 as a printed brochure. The bibliography was an important working tool and was in great demand among experts. Müller retired in 1996.

Nanna Noe-Nygaard has been engaged in archaeozoological research since she began her career studying geology and archaeology. She has maintained a position at the forefront of the field with a remarkable combination of approaches to understanding past subsistence that straddles zoology, archaeology, and geology. Noe-Nygaard was a pioneer in taphonomic studies in the late 1970s, she was among the first to publish stable isotope studies of animal bones, and her work continually sets an example for superb interdisciplinary research. Her current project combines stable isotopes studies of animal bones with palaeoenvironmental data from lake bottoms, which attest to the impact climate conditions had on human subsistence and mobility. Noe-Nygaard has served as a member of the ICAZ International Committee (IC) since the inception of the organization and has organized two IC meetings in Copenhagen, Denmark, the last at the Carlsberg Academy in 2004. In 2005, Nanna celebrated her 40th anniversary of teaching at the Geological Institute, University of Copenhagen, where she is highly respected and loved by students and colleagues alike for the quality of her research and for her boundless enthusiasm and heartfelt engagement. Elected in 2006. ICAZ Newsletter 7(2) Fall 2006

Terry O'Connor fell into archaeology from a childhood interest in fossils and so a career in zooarchaeology seemed almost inevitable. He graduated BSc in Archaeology from the University of London having studied bones with I.W. Cornwall and Don Brothwell, and went on to complete a PhD with Brothwell, analysing biometrical variation in sheep from English sites. At the time (late 1970s), excavations in a number of historic towns in England were yielding large assemblages of animal bones of Roman and medieval date. Terry worked with Lincoln Archaeological Trust for a couple of years, then moved to the University of York as part of a team exploring the potential of a wide range of plant and animal remains from the city's deep waterlogged stratigraphy. The 1982 ICAZ Conference in London was important and timely, showcasing the range and complexity of the subject, in particular animal domestication and taphonomy. These two topics featured in Terry's later research, though his early career was more concerned with the economic interpretation of bone assemblages. The high point of this research was being told “You are in danger of making bone reports interesting”. In 1990, wanting to teach zooarchaeology as an integrated part of archaeology, he moved to the University of Bradford, where a generation of students who were to make major contributions to all aspects of archaeological science were training. While at Bradford, Terry took on Editorship of International Journal of Osteoarchaeology and a range of roles with Research Councils and public outreach bodies. On the retirement of Don Brothwell, Terry returned to York as Professor of Archaeological Sciences, teaching zooarchaeology and more general environmental archaeology, and encouraging the expansion of the Department of Archaeology to include lab teams working in proteomics and stable isotope research, greatly helped by European Union funding. York's tradition of discursive seminar teaching particularly suited Terry's conversational style and readiness to digress, which students regularly encouraged. Following a period on ICAZ International Committee, Terry served as President from 2014 to 2018. Since retiring, he has worked on the taphonomy of camels on the Baynunah project in Abu Dhabi and on the taphonomy of aurochs and reindeer in bone assemblages from historic cave excavations in northern England and Ireland. Elected in 2023.

Sebastian Payne, perhaps better known to most of us as “Bas,” trained in both the Natural Sciences and Archaeology and has always applied a rigorous scientific approach to archaeozoology. He has been “doing bones” since the late 1960s and is perhaps best known for a) his investigations of the effects of recovery bias, b) the creation of an easy method for recording tooth wear in caprines, and c) his biometric work on caprine bones and pig bones and teeth. He was one of the first to demonstrate the importance of wet sieving, and a failure to sieve leads to severe loss of small bones and teeth which can bias our data. His sheep/goat toothwear recording system is probably used by most archaeozoologists today. Recently he has been involved with a pioneering study of fat residues in pottery. This has revealed an early center of cow milking in western Anatolia. In the 1970s he was at the British Institute of Archaeology in Ankara where he did much of his work on caprine tooth wear and since the late 1980s has been with English Heritage (EH)—first as head of the archaeozoology branch of the Ancient Monuments Laboratory and subsequently EH Chief Scientist. He has also been a longstanding and faithful supporter of ICAZ, acting at different times as vice-president and member of the Executive Committee. He contributed to the writing of the current ICAZ constitution and has sponsored and supported for a number of years prizes for the best posters on display at ICAZ International Conferences. Elected in 2010. Contributed by Simon Davis and Chiara Cavallo, ICAZ Newsletter 11(2) Fall 2010

Ina Plug, Academic Associate at the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology University of South Africa, is credited with the establishment of archaeozoology as a scientific discipline in southern Africa. She received her archaeology degrees at the University of Pretoria. Between 1977 and 1999, she was researcher at the Transvaal Museum (now called the Ditsong National Museum of Natural History). Her accomplishments at the Department of Archaeozoology made her name inseparable from that of the department where she is now honorary curator. She joined ICAZ in Bordeaux, France (1986). Since then as a local researcher she has consistently represented South Africa (in fact, sometimes the entire continent) in ICAZ and attended all international conferences but one. She has also served on the International Committee of ICAZ. Retired since 1999, Ina keeps on pursuing her research. She has recently published a major book entitled “What bone is that? A guide to the identification of southern African mammal bones.” (Rosslyn Press, Pretoria, 2014). Elected in 2014. Contributed by László Bartosiewicz

François Poplin is the founder of the research team based at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, France— today the largest group of archaeozoologists in the country. He has been a member of ICAZ for many years, he is a prominent figure in the field of anthropozoology, and a co-founder of Anthropozoologica, the journal that published, among many other things, the proceedings of the 7th ICAZ International Conference held in Constance, Germany, in 1994. One of Poplin’s greatest contributions to archaeozoology is his study of Upper Palaeolithic faunas, but he also worked on many assemblages from later time periods. He has published intensively on theoretical issues as well, including the question of boundaries between different disciplines, such as archaeology, anthropology, history and linguistics. An expert in ivory objects, Poplin has revised and identified numerous museum items worldwide, which has provided important information about the items’ origin, trade, and manufacturing techniques. Poplin, not yet retired, is still very active in research. Elected in 2006. ICAZ Newsletter 7(2) Fall 2006

Wietske Prummel (1947) studied biology with specialisation in archaeozoology at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. She worked from 1974 to 2012, with short interruptions, at the Groninger Archaeology Institute of the University of Groningen (before 1994: Biologisch-Archeologisch Instituut), most recently as associate professor of archaeozoology. From 1984 to 1988 she also worked at the Museum für Archäologie Schloss Gottorf (Germany). Her main research projects are involved with the archaeozoology of the Netherlands, northern Germany and Greece. She is also known for her methodological publications concerning osteomorphology and excavation techniques. She lives in Zwolle, Netherlands and she is still active in research projects.

Elizabeth (Betsy) Reitz is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Georgia where she also serves as Curator of the Zooarchaeology Laboratory of the Georgia Museum of Natural History which maintains a comparative skeletal collection of more than 4,000 modern vertebrate and invertebrate specimens from Georgia, the southeastern U.S., and adjacent coastal waters. Betsy's zooarchaeological research focuses on the Late Pleistocene to Colonial archaeology of Latin America and the southeastern United States with an emphasis on ecological and environmental archaeology, and a special interest in coastal fauna and human impacts. She has numerous publications, most well-loved among them, the Zooarchaeology text co-authored with Elizabeth Wing (1999 and 2004), the Case Studies in Environmental Archaeology co-edited with Newsom and Scudder (1996) and Scarry and Scudder (2007), and the new Environmental Archaeology manual co-authored with Shackley (2012). Within ICAZ, Betsy was an International Committee member from 2002 to 2014, and an at-large Executive Committee member from 2002 to 2010, and was the task force leader in creating the ICAZ Professional Protocols for Archaeology in 2009. Elected in 2014. Contributed by Kitty Emery, October 2014. (Thumbnail photo from an image by Bpavaoz on Wikimedia Commons, shared with a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.)

Rowley-Conwy held positions at Clare Hall, Cambridge and Memorial University of Newfoundland until 1990, when he joined the Department of Archaeology at Durham University, where he became a professor in 2007. He was elected Fellow of the society of Antiquaries in 2009. Rowley-Conwy’s research focusses on archaeozoology and more specifically, on animal domestication and the transition from hunting and gathering to farming. He has published widely but not exclusively on European material. In 2000, he co-authored a book on the transition to farming at Abu Hureyra with Anthony Legge. Rowley-Conwy and Legge had previously collaborated in a very influential re-examination of the large mammal fauna of Star Carr, published in 1988. In 2000, Rowley-Conwy ran the Durham Pig Project, which examined pig domestication around the world and resulted in a major co-authored book entitled “Pigs and Humans: 10,000 Years of Interaction” (2007). In addition to his interest in early farming communities, Rowley-Conwy has collaborated in several books on hunters and gatherers and recently published a book on the history of Christian Jürgensen Thomsen's three age system (Stone Age – Bronze Age – Iron Age), and its impact on archaeology in Denmark, Britain and Ireland (2007). Elected in 2020. ICAZ Newsletter 21(1)

Jörg Schibler studied zoology and prehistory at the University of Basel, Switzerland. He became very interested in archaeozoology early on, and for his Master’s degree, he analyzed the raw material of the worked bone objects from the Neolithic lakeshore settlement of Twann (Canton Bern) (published in 1980). He then continued working on this material for his PhD thesis, which dealt with the typological analysis of the same objects (published in 1981). Both of these projects were supervised by Elisabeth Schmid. From 1988, he had teaching positions in archaeozoology at the Universities of Basel, Bern, Freiburg (Germany), Fribourg (Switzerland) and Frankfurt a.M. (Germany). He has been heavily involved in the International Council for Archaeozoology (ICAZ) throughout much of his career, and was a member of the Executive Committee from 1994-2002 and a member of the International Committee from 2006-2014. Jörg has broad research interests in archaeozoology from the Paleolithic period until the Middle Ages, with a particular focus on the Neolithic period and on worked bone. Together with Stefanie Jacomet, (archaeobotany), he supervised several large interdisciplinary projects focusing on circumalpine wetland sites, and has published extensively on this topic. In 2003, he founded Integrative Prehistory and Archaeological Science (IPAS)/ Integrative Prähistorische und Naturwissenschaftliche Archäologie (IPNA) at the University of Basel, where archaeozoologists, archaeobotanists, anthropologists, geoarchaeologists and aDNA and isotope specialists collaborate closely under one roof. In September 2020 he officially retired, but he continues to work on a number of research projects. Elected in 2020. ICAZ Newsletter 21(1)

Dale has been a leading light in the world of zooarchaeology for several decades. She studied English Literature at St. Andrews (Scotland) and then archaeology in London. Her main zooarchaeology interests have been in assemblage formation processes, diet, dairy products and the past relationship between humans and birds. In all these subjects (and more) she has published extensively. He bird bone manual (co-authored with Alan Cohen) and her book on Birds, part of the Cambridge Manuals in Archaeology series, are especially well-known. She has worked on prehistoric and medieval sites, mainly in Britain but with forays in Greece and France. Her research in Scotland, which has continued for many years, is especially noteworthy, but prominent sites she investigated also include Neolithic and Bronze Age Runnymede and medieval Winchester (both in southern England). From 1991 to 2001 she worked at the University of Southampton with a position funded by Historic England. During that decade she trained many students, some of whom have become professionals in the field. She has for many years been a staunch supporter of ICAZ, contributing to many conferences and playing a prominent role in the ICAZ Bird Working Group, whose last conference and two volumes of proceedings are dedicated to her. Elected in 2020. ICAZ Newsletter 21(1)

Hans Rudolf Stampfli (1925-1994) was a Swiss archaeozoologist. He studied at the University of Basel and finished his PhD thesis in zoology in 1949. From 1952-1990 he worked as a biology teacher at the cantonal secondary school of Solothurn, but in his free time he continued his scientific research with a main focus on the analysis of archaeozoological material, and he also worked as an osteologist at the Natural History Museum in Bern (1961-1981). He undertook important work on the Swiss Neolithic site of Burgäschisee (together with J. Boessneck and J.-P. Jéquier, 1963) which included a comprehensive study of the distinction of Bos and Bison remains, and also at the Magdalénien site of Rislisberg Cave (Stampfli and Barr 1983). During this time he was also engaged in promoting local archaeology. He was heavily involved in the establishment of the archaeological services for the canton of Solothurn and in setting up the publication series « Archäologie des Kanton Solothurn». He is well known for his wide range of interests and his efforts in bringing together zoology and archaeology. (Boessneck, J, J.-P Jéquier, and H. R Stampfli. (1963). Seeberg Burgäschisee-Süd, Teil 3: Die Tierreste. Acta Bernensia II. Bern; Stampfli, H.R and Barr, J (1983) Rislisberghöhle: Archäologie und Ökologie einer Fundstelle aus dem Spätmagdalénien bei Oensingen im Solothurner Jura. Academica Helvetica 4, Bern)

Throughout his long career at the University of Tübingen, Hans-Peter Uerpmann (Germany) has gained a wide reputation as a highly respected and influential researcher and teacher in archaeozoology. Thirty years ago, in 1976, Uerpmann played a leading role in the formal establishment of ICAZ and he has been one of its closest advisors and supporters ever since, serving on the Executive Committee and acting as Chairman for many of the council meetings. Uerpmann has a broad spectrum of research interests. He has worked with faunal material from different geographic areas and periods, but much of his research has concentrated on the archaeozoology of the Near East, especially Syria, and, more recently, the United Arabian Emirates. He is also regarded as one of the world experts in the archaeozoology of equids. Elected in 2006. ICAZ Newsletter 7(2) Fall 2006

With a back ground in natural sciences and Vertebrate paleontology, Jean-Denis Vigne has conciliated his double passion for paleontology and archaeology through archaeozoology. His meeting with François Poplin, to whom he brought a box of archaeological bones for confirming identification in 1976, was decisive. He was one of the first members of the Archaeozoology research team based at the Paris National Museum of Natural History and was the director of the lab from 2000 to 2013. Hired by the CNRS in 1987, where he is a Research Director, he was awarded the Silver Medal in 2002. His main research interests have been the dynamic interactions between human societies and animal biodiversity, with a strong focus on domestication processes in the Mediterranean area and the impact of Neolithisation on the vertebrates’ communities. He has conducted excavations in Tunisia, Corsica, and Cyprus, and has published over 500 scientific papers, book chapters and monographs. He has also trained many students and has directed numerous collaborative programs. He is one of the co-founders of the journal Anthropozoologica. He joinded ICAZ in 1982, and has been a member of the IC for many years, and a member of the EC from 2006 to 2014. He co-organized the 2010 ICAZ International conference in Paris and founded the Archaeozoology, Morphometrics and Genetics Working Group. Elected in 2020. ICAZ Newsletter 21(1)

Dr. Elizabeth S. Wing (USA) was elected to the Committee of Honor in 2002 for her leading role in archaeozoology in the Americas. Wing’s training was as a vertebrate zoologist, but she devoted much of her career to archaeozoology, founding the Zooarchaeology Laboratory at the Florida Museum of Natural History (Gainesville, Florida, USA) in 1961. Under her guidance, this evolved into the current Environmental Archaeology program, now a leading center of archaeozoological research and training. Much of her research focused on vertebrates, with particular emphasis on fish, but she encouraged work with molluscs and crustaceans as well and was a strong advocate of fine-screen recovery methods. Her research focused on the human uses of animals in southeastern North America, the origins and spread of domestic animals in the Andes, and the overexploitation of animals as well as management of captive and domestic animals in the Caribbean. Wing was an active supporter of ICAZ. She participated in the ICAZ organizational meeting in 1971 in Budapest as well as the ICAZ meeting in 1974 in Groningen when the first ICAZ statutes were drafted. She played a major role in the organization of the 6th ICAZ conference in Washington, D.C. in 1990. She was an influential member of the International Council from its inception until 2006 and was a central figure in the ICAZ Fish Working Group. She published widely on archaeofaunas in the Americas and, with Elizabeth Reitz, produced a major textbook, Zooarchaeology, originally published in 1999 and revised in 2008. She retired from her position as curator at the Florida Museum in 2001. Dr. Wing received the Society for American Archaeology’s Fryxell Award for excellence in interdisciplinary research in 1996 and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences of the United States in 2007. Elected in 2002. Contributed by Elizabeth J. Reitz, 21 May 2013 Also see the Florida Natural History Museum's feature piece Liz Wing: A portrait in persistence written by Halle Marchese (March 5, 2020). (Thumbnail photo from the Florida Natural History Museum Archives.)

Melinda Zeder (USA) has made innumerable contributions to both ICAZ and archaeozoology as a discipline. She was a driving force behind the transformation of ICAZ into a professional, mem- bership-based organization in the 1980s. In 1990, Zeder co-orga- nized the 6th ICAZ International Conference in Washington, D.C., USA, which was the first meeting to be held outside of Europe. She has served on the ICAZ International Committee for many years and, most recently, completed an eight-year term as ICAZ President (1998-2006) for which her tireless efforts and dedication to the organization will be sorely missed. Zeder is currently the Director of the Archaeobiology Program at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, in Washington. Her research focuses on several inter-related themes, including the origins of animal domestication, the development of specialized pastoral economies, and the impact of agriculture in the Near East. She has published two books, several edited volumes, and dozens of peer-reviewed journal articles. Zeder has also been an out- standing mentor and inspiration to numerous students over the years, many of whom have gone on to have their own professional careers in archaeozoology. (Photo credit: Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.) Elected in 2006. ICAZ Newsletter 7(2) Fall 2006