Dr Umberto Albarella
Telephone: 0114 22 22943
E-mail: u.albarella@sheffield.ac.uk
Research Interests and Projects
I am specialised in the study of animal bones (zooarchaeology), but my research is wide-ranging and strongly oriented towards the integration of different aspects of archaeology.
My work is predominantly based in Britain and Italy, but I have also worked in Armenia, Greece, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, France and Portugal. My main areas of zooarchaeological research include:
- The archaeology of pig domestication and early husbandry - a project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
- Ethnozooarchaeology - the study of present traditional practices of animal management as a tool to understand the past. I organised a session on this subject for the last meeting of ICAZ, which was held in Mexico City 23rd-28th August 2006. I am also studying – with Filippo Manconi - traditional practices of pig husbandry in the central Mediterranean islands of Sardinia and Corsica, a project funded by The British Academy
|
Traditional pig breeds from Corsica (France)
|
- The use of animals in late Neolithic Henge sites (Britain) - I re-analysed and re-interpreted, with Dale Serjeantson, the animal bones from Durrington Walls and am now collaborating to the Stonehenge Riverside Project led by Mike Parker Pearson.
|
Burnt pig astragali from Durrington Walls
|
- The zooarchaeology of Central England, for which I am preparing a review book with Tessa Pirnie. This will cover all evidence from Mesolithic to postmedieval times. The project is funded by English Heritage.
- The use of animals in the Bronze and Iron Age of the Fenland (eastern England), with particular attention to the assemblage of Welland Bank Quarry, which I have been studying in collaboration with Sarah Viner, Alessandra Spinetti and Daniela Marrazzo.
- Mycenaean rituals – I am in particular involved in the study of the animal bones from the Cult Centre at Mycenae (Greece) (the project is funded by the Institute for Aegean Prehistory).
|
A Mycenaean wild boar tusk helmet
|
In 2005 I was awarded an AHRC Project Fund Scheme for Higher Education Museums, Galleries and Collections that has allowed us to undertake a full re-organisation of the zooarchaeology laboratory and its reference collection. Angelos Hadjikoumis carried out most of the practical work.
I am a series co-editor of the 14 volumes of proceedings of the 9th Conference of the International Council of Archaeozoology (ICAZ), which was held in Durham 23rd-28th August 2002. The series is now fully published by Oxbow Books.
My view on zooarchaeology and its role in the research world can be read (in Spanish) in the following interview that I did for the Mexican web-based magazine "Actualidades Arqueologicas":
http://swadesh.unam.mx/actualidades/entrevista1.html
My other areas of interest and research include the integration of different archaeological disciplines, the meaning of science in archaeology and the idea of Nature and Culture in archaeology. On this subject I have edited a book entitled "Environmental Archaeology: Meaning and Purpose".
I am also an advocate of the need for archaeologists to get more involved in political and social issues – in particular those connected with the protection of the natural and cultural environment and the preservation of world peace. I am a member and co founder of "Archaeologists for Global Justice" and I organised a session entitled "An eternal conflict? Archaeology and social responsibility in the post-Iraq world" for the conference of the Theoretical Archaeology Group (TAG) that was held in Sheffield 19th-21st December 2005
I am the elected General Secretary of the International Council of Archaeozoology (ICAZ), a co-owner (with Jacqui Mulville) of the email discussion list ZOOARCH, the book review editor for the journal Environmental Archaeology and a member of the editorial board of the journal Anthropozoologica.
PhD students
- Idoia Grau (visiting research student) - Zooarchaeology of the early medieval period in northern Spain
- Angelos Hadjkoumis - The origins and evolution of pig domestication in prehistoric Spain
- Tessa Pirnie - The archaeology of duck and goose breeding in Britain
- Beatrice Vacca - Society, economy, environment and climate in the Upper Pleistocene of Southern Italy. A reconstruction based on the study of animal bone assemblages from three main sites
- Sarah Viner - The early husbandry of cattle and pigs in Britain
|
Peace-loving medieval pigs from Hereford Cathedral
|
| 
