Waste management, animals and society

Animal bones are often found as waste-related material in archaeological excavations. This book explores the ways in which archaeological animal bones can be used to discuss cultural implications of waste management. How waste is handled reflects several aspects of society, from socio-spatial organization and normative practices to material classification and perceptions of value and risk. In this book, animal bones found at the Bronze Age settlement Asine, Greece, make up the case study for the application and evaluation of a zooarchaeological waste management perspective, and are thus used to shed new light on the prehistoric society at the site.

Stella Macheridis is a zooarchaeologist interested in the social aspects of human-animal relations. This book is her doctoral thesis in Historical Osteology.