Archaeozoology, Genetics, Proteomics, and Morphometrics (AGPM)
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 agreed to serve as the first official A&G Liaison to ICAZ. In October 2012, the IC approved a modification of the group's name to the Archaeozoology, Genetics and Morphometrics (AGM) working group.
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 AGM 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 AGM 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 AGM 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 AGM 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.
The 4th AGM Working Group meeting, organized by Eva-Maria Geigl, was held in August 2010 during the 11th ICAZ conference in Paris.
The 5th AGM Working Group meeting took place in Basel, Switzerland from June 4th to 6th, 2012. The meeting was attended by 60 scientists from 16 countries, with a well-balanced proportion of geneticists and osteo-archaeologists present. Details of the meeting can be found in the report (PDF). A photo of the meeting attendees has also been shared.
The 6th AGM Working Group meeting took place in Lisbon (Portugal) on March 26-28, 2014. The conference was organized by Catarina Ginja, Cleia Detry, Ana Elisabete Pires and Cristina Luis. For more information, see the meeting report.
The 7th AGM Working Group meeting (above) was held in Liverpool 13-15 October 2017.
The 8th working group meeting, organized by T. Cucchi and collaborators, took place at the Natural History Museum of Paris, 17-18 October, 2019. This meeting extended the scope of this working group to include the Proteomics. This working group has been renamed Archaeozoology, Genetics, Proteomics and Morphometrics (AGPM) in agreement with a vote of the International Committee (December 2019). To launch this new format, Prof. Matthew Collins have been invited for a Keynote intitled "Palaeoproteomics and zooarchaeology, a marriage made in heaven?"
This new format has welcomed 85 participants from 14 countries allowing the production of a high stantard scientific programme of 35 oral talks divided in 6 sessions (1: Pathogens, 2: Dispersal, mobility and migration, 3: Methods and new approachs, 4: Pleistocene Diversity, 5: Domestication, 6: Husbandry) and 20 posters. View the program and abstracts (PDF).
The 9 th AGPM working group meeting, organised by Ana-Kaisa Salmi and collaborators, took place online (hosted by the University of Oulu in Finland), on 23rd-24 th September 2021. The meeting included a keynote followed by 40 presentations. Topics covered included geometric morphometric, ancient DNA and protein studies in topic ranging from species domestication to extinctions and bone surface modifications. More information about the topics included can be found here
Following the COVID hiatus, the 10 th AGPM working group meeting took place at the Carl Friedrich von Siemens Stiftung in Munich, organised by Laurent Frantz and collaborators. Over three days (11-13 th October 2023), attendants enjoyed presentations on groundbreaking research carried out in Eurasia, Africa, the Caribbean and Oceania, including talks on methods and protocols and sedimentary DNA, in addition to the GMM, aDNA and proteomics. The PDF for the conference program can be downloaded here
The 11th AGPM working group meeting and the 20th anniversary for the group took place in Copenhagen on 14th to 17th October 2025, with the largest number of participants i.e. 110, spanning five continents (see the group photo below).
The meeting held over four days of October sunshine was kicked off by two
keynote speakers Jean-Denis Vigne (Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle,
France) and Eline Lorenzen (Globe Institute, University of Copenhagen,
Denmark), giving their perspectives on respectively the research progress of
dog domestication and interdisciplinary ways to investigate large mammal and
ecosystem interactions, followed by a panel discussion. While the sun set,
participants enjoyed beverages on the 15th floor of one of the prominent
towers and views of Copenhagen.
The meeting comprised ten sessions with 43 talks and 28 posters spanning domesticated, wild and marine species and a mix of genetics, protein-based methodologies, isotopes, and GMM. The conference dinner, held in the Royal Playhouse overlooking the harbour, took many participants on a walk through historic Copenhagen from the metro and was a crashing and unforgettable (if dramatic) success. The meeting concluded with a keynote by Mary Prendergast (Rice University, USA) on African zooarchaeology and its many opportunities and challenges.
The 12 th AGPM working group meeting will be held at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona in 2027, organised by Maria Saña Segui and Lidia Colominas Barberà.
Sofia Samper Carro is the AGM Working Group Liaison to ICAZ. Last update: January 12, 2026.
