Surf and Turf: zooarchaeometry as a tool for understanding the role of environment in shaping past risk-management systems in Croatia and Florida

 

 

Abstract: Understanding how humans navigated their environments in the past can inform modern strategies for increasing resilience and sustainability. Zooarchaeometric studies- traditional faunal analyses coupled with stable isotopic data- provide an opportunity to examine the diversity of human responses to perceived environmental risk through the lens of animal management practices. To illustrate this, I present faunal and isotopic data from two vastly different locations and time periods: the marginal mountainscape of Late Bronze Age central Croatia and a biodiverse estuary in pre-contact northeastern Florida. Zooarchaeometric analyses from these case studies highlight the complex decision-making processes that shaped these early economic systems, including concerns about intensification, centralization, and scheduling at multiple spatial and organizational scales. Moreover, while both communities undoubtedly concerned themselves with mitigating risk, analyses show that local environments were important drivers in how each group defined “risk” itself.

 

Biography: Dr. Emily Zavodny is an environmental archaeologist specializing in paleoecology, zooarchaeology, and stable isotope geochemistry. She received her MA and PhD from The Pennsylvania State University and BA from Wake Forest University. She is broadly interested in how prehistoric human and animal populations successfully adapted to uncertainty and risk posed by marginal landscapes, resource scarcity, and/or changing climate and environments. Her ongoing research examines the spread of agriculture and animal husbandry throughout southeast Europe and the long-term impact of these intensive practices on human behavior and local landscapes. Her current research focuses on the introduction and acclimatization of domesticated animals (cattle, sheep, goats, pigs) to different ecosystems in the Balkans and their enduring impact on human behavior and local landscapes. Dr. Zavodny has active field and lab projects based on her ongoing work in Croatia, and directs the Zavodny Isotope Geochemistry and ZooArchaeology Group (ZIGZAG) Lab at UCF.