An Excursion into Zooarchaeology

How were bone tools made and used? Was there a specialized guild for boneworking? What are the cultural notions surrounding horsemeat? What is the Medieval Animal Database? What are the different kinds of data pertaining to animals? In this fifty minutes long interveiw, Chris Mielke talks with Alice Choyke of the Department of Medieval Studies at CEU about archaeozoology, medieval animals and the various things you can learn studying bones.Some of the topics covered include how medieval people thought about animals, what were the divisions between real and unreal animals, the role of butchers, the importance of animals in diets, the role of zooarcheology and archaeology in general related to history.  Past Perfect! is CEU Medieval Radio’s show on medieval and early modern history and culture, where Christopher Mielke casually discusses with his guests various issues from the crusades to archeo-zoology to medieval urine sampling. The discussions are made with the aim to popularize medieval and early modern studies with the help of experts such as early musicians, historians, philologists and archeologists.This episode was first recorded and broadcast in 2012.