About
About the Japanese Society for Zooarchaeology
Zooarchaeology is a branch of archaeology that considers the history of the relationship between humans and animals based on animal remains (mainly bones, teeth, horns, and shells) excavated from archaeological sites. Although zooarchaeology deals with animal remains, the main focus of its research is on humans, with the goal of reconstructing past human activities related to animals.
There had been various problems in the state of research on zooarchaeology. First, there were problems related to materials. Sometimes animal remains were not collected sufficiently during excavations, and even when they were collected, there were still a significant number of animal remains that were not reported. Then there was the problem of researchers. There were few researchers involved in zooarchaeology, and young researchers in particular had no place to present their research.
Against this background of research, Japanese Zoo-archaeological Society was established in 1993 and published the journal “Zooarchaeology” in order to promote a wider understanding of zooarchaeology.
This journal, “Zooarchaeology”, deals with issues related to human activities. Even if it does not deal directly with animal remains, it also covers discussions of plant food and food exchange in the sense that it is related to food, and thus includes disciplines such as archaeobotany, folklore, and ethnography.
In 2013, the Zooarchaeological Research Group celebrated its 20th anniversary and published the 30th issue of its journal, “Zooarchaeology”.
On this occasion, the name “Zooarchaeological Society” was changed to “Japanese Association for Zooarchaeology”.
1993: Japanese Zoo-archaeological Society was established.
The first issue of the journal Zooarchaeology was published.
2013: 20th anniversary of the Japanese Zoo-archaeological Society
The 30th issue of Zooarchaeology was published.
Name of the society was changed from ” Japanese Zoo-archaeological Society ” to “Japanese Society for Zooarchaeology