Wim Van Neer
Biographic Data
| ID | 83057 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Wim Van Neer |
| GIVEN NAMES | Wim |
| FAMILY NAME | Van Neer |
| SIGNATURE | VAN NEER W |
| AFFILIATIONS | Institute of Natural Sciences |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1710-3623 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 93 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 659 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 93 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1988 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 13 |
Tracking individual dietary choices in complex past food webs
Reconstructing dietary strategies in past urban environments is challenging because of the complexity of anthropogenic impacts on food webs, in which diverse local and imported resources with variable isotopic compositions limit the interpretive power of conventional bulk-collagen stable isotope analysis. We address this problem using domestic cats as dietary proxies, exploiting their opportunistic foraging behavior to track resource partitioning…
New archaeozoological analysis of baboons buried at Hierakonpolis (Upper Egypt) shows two species were imported in the Predynastic period
The earliest evidence for deformation of livestock horns
Early Byzantine fish consumption and trade revealed by archaeoichthyology and isotopic analysis at Sagalassos, Turkey
Faunal Remains from Archaeological Sites Document Human Impact on the Terrestrial and Aquatic Environment
The aim of this article is to demonstrate how animal remains from archaeological sites can contribute to a better understanding of human impact on the terrestrial and aquatic environment over time. A number of case studies, mainly from Belgium, illustrate the possible effects of deforestation, overhunting, overfishing and water pollution on wildlife. Species extinctions and introductions from the last millennium are also discussed. It is shown ho…
A natural death assemblage of fishes from an early modern archeological context in Antwerp (Belgium)
An unusual concentration of tens of thousands small fish remains discovered during rescue excavations in the town of Antwerp, Belgium, is described. The material was found in a small depression with no associated archeological material but could be dated to the first half of the 16th century based on its stratigraphic position. About 3500 freshwater fish were found in articulating position and it is shown that they died naturally during a single …
The Environment and its Exploitation Along the Lower Scheldt River During the Roman Period (Wichelen, Belgium – Late 1st to 3rd Centuries AD)
The large number of rural Roman settlements known from the Low Countries is generally characterised by a poor preservation of ecological proxies due to the absence of waterlogged contexts. The riverside site of Wijmeers (Wichelen, Belgium), a small rural settlement located in the Lower Scheldt basin, represents a rare exception to this pattern. Due to the presence of a waterlogged sequence with Roman (late 1st–3rd centuries AD) waste layers, loca…
The history of the domestic cat in Central Europe
A recent study from Central Europe has changed our perception of the cat's domestication history. The authors discuss how this has led to the development of an interdisciplinary project combining palaeogenetics, zooarchaeology and radiocarbon dating, with the aim of providing insight into the domestic cat's expansion beyond the Mediterranean
Medieval fish remains on the Newport ship identified by ZooMS collagen peptide mass fingerprinting
Fish represent a key economic, social and ecological group of species that humans have exploited for tens of thousands of years. However, as many fish stocks are going into decline and with little known about the anthropogenic impacts on the health of the marine ecosystem pre-Industrial Revolution, understanding historical and archaeological exploitation of fish species is key to accurately modelling these changes. Here, we explore the potential …
The pitfalls of diachronic comparisons
The use of vertebral measurements for body length and weight reconstruction of pike (Esox lucius) from archaeological sites
The Dispersal of the Domestic Cat
Domestication is one of the most interesting and challenging processes in human and animal evolution. The fundamental change in subsistence strategies from hunting and gathering to farming that took place for the first time in the Levant more than ten thousand years ago profoundly changed human culture and biology, and set the groundwork for population growth, migrations, the rise of civilizations, and wealth disparities (Bocquet-Appel 2011; Gign…
Fish δ13C and δ15N results from two Bronze/Iron Age sites (Tell Tweini & Sidon) along the Levantine coast
Deux millénaires d’occupations mésolithiques au bord de l’Escaut à Kerkhove (Belgique)
La fouille récente du gisement alluvial de Kerkhove (Belgique), situé dans la vallée de l’Escaut, à une vingtaine de kilomètres de la frontière française, a permis de mettre au jour 17 locus mésolithiques. D’après les données typochronologiques et les datations absolues, ces locus datent non seulement du Mésolithique ancien, mais aussi du Mésolithique moyen et récent. La première phase d’occupation de la levée alluviale, datée du 11e et 10e millé…
Have birds ever mattered? An evaluation of the contribution of avian species to the archaeozoological record of Belgium (Iron Age to recent times)
Weird Fish
Hydroclimatic conditions and fishing practices at Late Paleolithic Makhadma 4 (Egypt) inferred from stable isotope analysis of otoliths
Assessing the Radiocarbon Freshwater Reservoir Effect for a Northwest-European River System (the Schelde Basin, Belgium)
The freshwater reservoir effect (FRE) for the Schelde basin (Belgium) is assessed for the Roman, Medieval and early Post-medieval periods by comparing historical and archaeological dates from individual archaeological deposits with radiocarbon dates on the remains of freshwater fish and terrestrial mammals from those same deposits. This is the first time such an assessment has been attempted for the Schelde basin. The FRE offsets prove to be subs…
Aquatic resources in human diet in the Late Mesolithic in Northern France and Luxembourg
Preference for fish in a Neolithic hunter-gatherer community of the upper Tigris, elucidated by amino acid δ15N analysis
Beef, pork and mutton
Animal exploitation at ed‐Dur (Umm al‐Qaiwain, United Arab Emirates)
Faunal remains are described from a series of contexts excavated in the coastal site of ed‐Dur, dated between the second and fourth century AD . The more than 19,000 identified animal bones allowed a diachronic and spatial analysis. Subsistence relied heavily on domestic animals, in particular sheep and goat, and on fishing. Whereas the exploitation of terrestrial resources seems to have been quite constant throughout the period considered, the a…
Traumatism in the Wild Animals Kept and Offered at Predynastic Hierakonpolis, Upper Egypt
A description is given of the violence-related pathologies that are observed in a number of wild mammals that were buried in the predynastic cemetery HK6 at Hierakonpolis, Upper Egypt. Unlike other predynastic graveyards, where only domestic cattle, sheep, goat and dogs are interred, the elite cemetery HK6 yielded also a wide variety of wild species that were buried as part of extensive mortuary complexes surrounding the graves of the highest loc…
Diversity in pig husbandry from the Classical-Hellenistic to the Byzantine periods
Carbon and nitrogen isotopic ratios in archaeological and modern Swiss fish as possible markers for diachronic anthropogenic activity in freshwater ecosystems
Interpreting the expansion of sea fishing in medieval Europe using stable isotope analysis of archaeological cod bones
Detecting the medieval cod trade
Beyond affluence
The statement, by the eighteenth-century economist Adam Smith, that luxuries are all things that are not necessities is too simplistic an approach to be useful within the context of zooarchaeology. To start with, all animal products could be regarded as unnecessary within the human diet. Therefore, a four-part subdivision is proposed, distinguishing between foodstuffs that fulfil basic physiological needs, those that fulfil imagined needs, those …
Fish remains from archaeological sites as indicators of former trade connections in the Eastern Mediterranean
Une synthèse des données archéozoologiques sur le commerce de poissons dans la partie orientale de la Méditerranée, depuis le Chalcolithique jusqu 'au temps des croisades, est présentée. Cette revue est basée sur des données bibliographiques et sur des ensembles fauniques inédits, étudiés par les auteurs, provenant de 76 sites. Des restes de poissons provenant du Nil, de la Méditerranée et de la mer Rouge sont fréquemment rencontrés sur des sites…
The Emergence of Fishing Communities in the Eastern Mediterranean region
The present overview deals with the fish remains found at Palaeolithic to Late Bronze Age sites in the Eastern Mediterranean. Attention is focussed on both marine and continental fisheries in Anatolia, the Levant and Mesopotamia. After presenting a detailed inventory of the archaeofaunal data available in the literature, an attempt is made to document diachronic trends in marine exploitation and continental fishing of the region. The use offish i…
Evidence for Banana Cultivation and Animal Husbandry During the First Millennium bc in the Forest of Southern Cameroon
Oxygen and strontium isotopes as provenance indicators of fish at archaeological sites
Aquatic resources in human diet in the Late Mesolithic in Northern France and Luxembourg
Isotopic examination of links between diet, social differentiation, and Dish at the post‐medieval Carmelite Friary of Aalst, Belgium
Stable isotope ratios (δ 13 C and δ 15 N) were measured in human burials from the post‐medieval (16th–18th c. AD) Carmelite friary burial grounds at Aalst, a town in Flanders, Belgium. Dietary patterns of 39 adult individuals were analyzed, from a mixed monastic and lay population buried in three different locations, reflecting groups with differing social status. The data show significant variation in the consumption of perhaps meat, but certain…
Ancient breeds of domestic fowl (Gallus gallus f. domestica) distinguished on the basis of traditional observations combined with mixture analysis
Fish bones and amphorae
status: Published
On the Use of Endosteal Layers and Medullary Bone from Domestic Fowl in Archaeozoological Studies
Evolution of Prehistoric Fishing in the Nile Valley
The available data are reviewed on ichthyofaunas from prehistoric sites along the Nile in Egypt and Sudanese Nubia. Former fishing practices are reconstructed using information derived from species spectra, reconstructed fish sizes, growth increment analysis and fishing implements. It is demonstrated that fishing was initially practised exclusively on the floodplain and that it was limited to a small number of shallow water taxa during Late Palae…
Early and Middle Holocene Human Occupation of the Egyptian Eastern Desert
In this paper, we discuss human occupation during the Early and Middle Holocene in the Eastern Desert of Egypt, based mainly on the data provided by excavated deposits from the Sodmein Cave, which produced an important Holocene stratigraphic sequence. This sequence is dated by a large number of conventional and AMS 14C dates. It appears that the area was empty of human occupation during the Late Glacial Maximum (LGM) and the earliest Holocene. Wi…
New research on the Holocene settlement and environment of the Chad Basin in Nigeria
Hunting, gathering, fishing and herding
At Doel, in the lower basin of the river Scheldt, excavations have revealed camp sites of the Swifterbant culture dating back to the second half of the fifth millennium BC. They document the transition period from the Late Mesolithic to the Early Neolithic in Sandy Flanders (NW Belgium). The sites were situated on the top of sandy ridges which were covered with an alluvial hardwood forest vegetation and surrounded by wetlands. Only burnt animal r…
First archaeozoological evidence for haimation, the ‘invisible’ garum
Evidence for early cat taming in Egypt
Inter- and intraspecies variability in stable isotope ratio values of archaeological freshwater fish remains from Switzerland (11th–19th centuries AD)
Author: Häberle, Simone et al.; Genre: Journal Article; Issued: 2016; Keywords: Switzerland; Freshwater fish; Isotopic investigation; δ13C and δ15N; Aquatic ecosystems; Trophic level effect; Historic time; Title: Inter- and intraspecies variability in stable isotope ratio values of archaeological freshwater fish remains from Switzerland (11th–19th centuries AD)
Roman trade relationships at Sagalassos (Turkey) elucidated by ancient DNA of fish remains
Fish middens”
Eagle owl (Bubo bubo) pellets from Roman Sagalassos (SW Turkey)
Two concentrations of animal bones, almost exclusively from small mammals and wild birds, were found within the destruction debris of a Roman bath complex in Sagalassos (SW Turkey). The overall species spectrum, skeletal element representation, fragmentation and preservation condition of the bones indicate that they represent the prey remains of a large nocturnal avian predator, more precisely the eagle owl (Bubo bubo). Differences in skeletal el…
More evidence for cat taming at the Predynastic elite cemetery of Hierakonpolis (Upper Egypt)
Continued excavations at the Predynastic elite cemetery HK6 at Hierakonpolis have yielded new evidence for the cultural control of cats during the Naqada IC-IIB period (c. 3800–3600 BC). In the same burial ground where evidence was previously found for the keeping of jungle cat (Felis chaus), a small pit was discovered containing six cats. The animals that were buried simultaneously, are a male and a female, and four kittens belonging to two diff…
Assessing the Radiocarbon Freshwater Reservoir Effect for a Northwest-European River System (the Schelde Basin, Belgium)
The freshwater reservoir effect (FRE) for the Schelde basin (Belgium) is assessed for the Roman, Medieval and early Post-medieval periods by comparing historical and archaeological dates from individual archaeological deposits with radiocarbon dates on the remains of freshwater fish and terrestrial mammals from those same deposits. This is the first time such an assessment has been attempted for the Schelde basin. The FRE offsets prove to be subs…
Carbon and nitrogen isotopic ratios in archaeological and modern Swiss fish as possible markers for diachronic anthropogenic activity in freshwater ecosystems
New radiocarbon dates and Late Palaeolithic diet at Wadi Kubbaniya, Egypt
Vegetable remains are a rarity in Palueolithic contexts. These new determinations on material from southern Egypt establish securely the date of an intensive grass-tuber and fish economy in the Nile Valley towards 20,000 years ago
A Last Interglacial Fauna from the Eastern Sahara
Recent work on the middle Paleolithic at Bir Tarfawi, in the hyperarid Eastern Sahara (
A geological and paleontological expedition to the Sinda-Mohari region in the Western Rift Valley, eastern Zaire
A joint Japan-Zaire research expedition has been carried out in the Sinda-Mohari region, Haut-Zaire, eastern Zaire since 1989. The purposes of this expedition are to reinvestigate the geological age of the fossiliferous sites and to make clear the paleoenvironment in this region. These are the first step to investigate a possible fossiliferous area from which new evidences of hominoid evolution will emerge. The resultant fossil mammals of the two…
Fish middens”
Metapodial asymmetry in draft cattle
Traction work by oxen has been well documented in various pictorial and written sources throughout human history. Analysis of metapodial dimensions has been carried out with the aim of quantifying asymmetry related to sexual dimorphism, body size and possibly heavy duty traction work. A modern reference sample of 103 animals from Hungary and Rumania has been used for this purpose. Bone measurements were correlated with bone density and morphologi…
Limits of incremental growth in seasonality studies
An evaluation is given of the value for seasonality studies of incremental growth in the pectoral spines of the Nile catfish Clarias gariepinus. The subfossil spines used for this study are from a Byzantino-Islamic site in Syria, and probably all derive from animals captured on the floodplain during the yearly inundation of the nearby Orontes river, although only 45 per cent of the spines could be recognized as deriving from fish captured during …
Daily growth increments on fish otoliths as seasonality indicators on archaeological sites
Daily growth increments in fish otoliths have been demonstrated for the first time on Quaternary sagittae from a late palaeolithic site in Egypt and they have allowed us to establish the season of fishing. Transverse sections of tilapia sagittae studied under light-microscope demonstrate that recrystallization during diagenesis renders the majority of the margins unreadable. The well-preserved otoliths, however, all have widely spaced outer growt…
La pêche dans le Nil égyptien durant la Préhistoire
Les restes de poissons provenant de sites préhistoriques le long du Nil égyptien offrent plusieurs possibilités d’interprétation. A part la reconstitution du milieu aquatique, l’étude des restes de poissons permet d'établir de quelle manière les hommes ont exploité les eaux. L’endroit et la saison de pêche peuvent être reconstitués ainsi que les méthodes de préparation et de conservation du poisson. L’évolution des techniques de pêche peut égalem…
New archaeozoological evidence for the consumption of locally-produced fish sauce in the Northern Provinces of the Roman Empire
Las salsas de pescado fueron un importante bien de intercambio en la antigiiedad, tanto con fines culinarios como medicinales. El trabajo presenta nuevos hallazgos arqueozoológicos de un contexto romano del tercer siglo D.C. procedente de Bélgica. Este material se compone de restos de peces, principalmente pequeños clupeidos, que interpretamos como vestigios de una salsa de pescado confeccionada en algún lugar de la costa atlántica nororiental. L…
Fish remains from Late Pleistocene and Holocene archaeological sites near Khashm El Girba, Sudan
Se describen los restos de peces procedentes de yacimientos acerámicos y cerámicos a lo largo del Atbara en la región de Khashm el Girba. Las muestras, que cubren un lapso temporal comprendido entre el 10.000-3.000 B.P., no evidencian ningún tipo de evolución de las técnicas de pesca. Todas las diferencias faunísticas pueden, en cambio, explicarse en términos de la situación de cada yacimiento en relación con las masas de agua circundantes
Een postmiddeleeuwse beerput aan de Hasseltse Poort te Tongeren (prov. Limburg)
Aan de Hasseltse Poort in Tongeren, in het noordwestelijke deel van de stad, werd door het Instituut voor het Archeologisch Patrimonium (I.A.P.) een noodonderzoek uitgevoerd naar aanleiding van de bouw van kantoren en appartementen. De site bevindt zich aan de rand van de middeleeuwse stadsomwalling, op de hoek van de Hasseltsestraat en de Pliniuswal. De archeologische ploeg onder leiding van Geert Vynckier en Alain Vanderhoeven, stelde er onder …
Fish remains from the Late Neolithic site of Rzucewo (Baltic Coast, Poland)
Se describen los abundantes restos de peces recuperados en un hoyo datado en la fase inicial de la cultura Rzucewo. El material es cuantificado y se llevan a cabo reconstrucciones de talla. La interpretación se concentra sobre el momento y lugar de captura así como en los posibles tipos de técnicas de pesca practicados
Foods rules and status
Se estudian en este informe los restos de peces procedentes de cuatro contextos de la abadía benedictina de Ename. La abadía, situada en un recodo del río Scheldt, fué fundada en el siglo XI y destruída a finales del XVIII. Las colecciones presentadas proceden de finales del XII y principios del XIII hasta aproximadamente 1700 d.C. y se comparan entre sí. Especial atención se ha dedicado a los cambios diacrónicos ocurridos en las reglas monástica…
Bird Remains from Two Sites on the Red Sea Coast and some Observations on Medullary Bone
This paper discusses the bird remains found in the Roman levels of the military fort of ‘Abu Sha’ ar and of the ancient harbour of Berenike. Food procurement was essentially based on wild resources at ‘Abu Sha’ ar and this is also reflected in the bird remains. Only 28 per cent of the bird bones at the low status site of ‘Abu Sha’ ar are from domestic fowl, whereas at the commercially important town of Berenike 92 per cent were. Medullary bone wa…
New research on the Holocene settlement and environment of the Chad Basin in Nigeria
Reconstructing age distribution, season of capture and growth rate of fish from archaeological sites based on otoliths and vertebrae
Reconstructing age distribution, season of capture and growth rate of fish from archaeological sites based on otoliths and vertebrae
The growth increments of otoliths and vertebrae of plaice (Pleuronectes platessa) derived from a 15th century single depositional event at Raversijde (Belgium) are analysed with the aim of reconstructing (a) the age distribution of the population, (b) the season of capture, and (c) the growth rate. Otoliths and vertebrae give slightly different age distributions but it is possible to arrive at similar seasonality estimations in both structures wh…
Osteological evidence for the draught exploitation of cattle
Although the aetiology of bone pathologies in cattle is poorly documented, various deformations in the skeleton have been attributed to draught exploitation in the archaeozoological literature. This paper summarizes the results of an osteological study that was undertaken on the feet of modern draught oxen. This led to the definition of a series of draught-related anomalies. In an attempt to describe the pathologies in a more consistent and quant…
Evidence for Banana Cultivation and Animal Husbandry During the First Millennium bc in the Forest of Southern Cameroon
Fish Otoliths and their Relevance to Archaeology
The growth increments were investigated of late medieval, post-medieval and modern otoliths of plaice, cod and haddock from the North Sea. Thin-sectioned otoliths were used to age all the analysed individuals and to reconstruct their growth patterns. In addition, fish lengths of the archaeological specimens were calculated after the relation between otolith width and fish length was established using modern material. The age and fish length distr…
Excavations at Hierakonpolis
Friedman Renée Frances, Watrall Ethan, Jones Jana, Fahmy Ahmed G., Van Neer Wim, Linseele Veerle. Excavations at Hierakonpolis. In: Archéo-Nil. Revue de la société pour l'étude des cultures prépharaoniques de la vallée du Nil, n°12, 2002. Actualité de la recherche prédynastique : les terrains de fouilles. 1-La Haute-Egypte et les déserts. pp. 55-68
Social statuts as reflected in the food refuse form late medieval sites in Namur (Belgium)
Boone Ides, De Cupere Bea, Van Neer Wim. Social statuts as reflected in the food refuse form late medieval sites in Namur (Belgium). In: Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire, tome 80, fasc. 4, 2002. Histoire medievale, moderne et contemporaine - Middeleeuwse. moderne en hedendaagse geschiedenis. pp. 1391-1394
Fish Otoliths and their Relevance to Archaeology
The growth increments were investigated of late medieval, post-medieval and modern otoliths of plaice, cod and haddock from the North Sea. Thin-sectioned otoliths were used to age all the analysed individuals and to reconstruct their growth patterns. In addition, fish lengths of the archaeological specimens were calculated after the relation between otolith width and fish length was established using modern material. The age and fish length distr…
On the Use of Endosteal Layers and Medullary Bone from Domestic Fowl in Archaeozoological Studies
An identification key for dermal denticles of Rajidae from the North Sea
As a result of more systematic fine sieving on archaeological sites, dermal denticles and isolated teeth of rays are now more frequently recovered than before. A detailed description of the teeth is available in the literature, but no comparative study of the morphology of the dermal denticles exists that allows the identification of such elements issued from archaeological sites. A key and illustrations are provided for the identification of the…
Geography (79 works) · Archaeology (69 works) · Biology (67 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (42 works) · Fishery (39 works) · Fish (36 works) · Ecology (34 works) · Geology (22 works) · History (17 works) · Isotope Analysis in Ecology (17 works)