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Zooarchaeology and Taphonomy

Unit Coordinator: Dr. Rosa Huguet

The main objective of the Zooarchaeology and Taphonomy Unit is to establish the relationships between human groups and animal resources in the environment. These relationships provide significant data to characterize the subsistence strategies of these groups during the Pleistocene and Holocene, and to identify the cultural features of each period. In addition, we work to identify the depositional and fossilization processes of archaeological sites to establish scenarios in which human groups performed their various activities.

Our main lines of research are:
- Subsistence strategies of early human occupations in Europe and Africa
- Middle Pleistocene subsistence strategies
- Occupational patterns during the Pleistocene
- Cannibalism
- Pleistocene hominid-carnivore interactions
- Neanderthal palaeoeconomy
- Macromammals and micromammals
- Taphonomy
- Experimental archaeology and actualism
- Small prey consumption during the Palaeolithic
- Animal exploitation during the Holocene
- The last hunter-gatherers and first productive societies in South America
- Site formation processes