Synnøve Gravdal Heimvik

The Role of Animals in Early Urbanising Society: A Multiscalar Zooarchaeological Analysis of Faunal Remains from Late Chalcolithic Shakhi Kora, Iraqi-Kurdistan | AHRC DTP

Subject: Archaeology

HEI: University of Edinburgh

School: School of History, Classics and Archaeology

Supervisors: Dr Robin Bendrey, University of Edinburgh; Prof Claudia Glatz, University of Glasgow; Dr. Catriona Pickard, University of Edinburgh

Keywords: Zooarchaeology; Human-Animal Relationships; Late Chalcolithic; Mesopotamia; Uruk Period; Urbanism

Discipline+Catalyst: Archaeology & Classics

Knowledge Exchange Hub: Heritage


About Synnøve’s Research:

Animals were central to the formation of the first urbanising states in Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq), yet, in contemporary archaeological discourse, they are seen primarily as passive economic resources to be exploited. This PhD project combines qualitative and quantitative zooarchaeological approaches with a regional stable isotope analysis to understand the complex human-animal relationships that took place at Shakhi Kora (c.4000-3100 BCE), Kurdistan Region of Iraq. This multiproxy approach challenges the primacy of traditional economic models that are so deeply embedded in modern societal and archaeological perspectives, and highlights instead the active social roles of animals in the urbanising process.

SGSAH; SGSAH ResearchCONNECT WITH SYNNØVE
E: s1643943@sms.ed.ac.uk
IG: @synnoveheimvik