N Russell
Biographic Data
| ID | 34948 |
|---|---|
| NAME | N Russell |
| GIVEN NAMES | N |
| FAMILY NAME | Russell |
| SIGNATURE | RUSSELL N |
| AFFILIATIONS | Cornell University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7623-1364 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 45 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 613 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 45 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1992 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 16 |
Duck, Duck, Goose
Water birds, especially Anseriformes, predominate in most Early Holocene assemblages in Southwest Asia. However, the ratio of geese to ducks varies substantially. I survey Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene avian assemblages to explore whether the variability in relative proportions of geese, most of which breed far to the north and would be present only during migration and winter, was due to shifting migration and wintering patterns in respons…
Changing use of birds across the agricultural transition at Pınarbaşı, Turkey
Cattle and People
This volume originates in a conference session that took place at the 2018 International Council of Archaeozoology conference in Ankara, Turkey, entitled "Humans and Cattle: Interdisciplinary Perspectives to an Ancient Relationship." The aim of the session was to bring together zooarchaeologists and their colleagues from various other research fields working on human cattle interactions over time. The contributions in this volume reflect well the…
Severe traumatic lesions in the Late Neolithic cattle from the site of At-Vršac, Serbia
This paper aims to assess the etiology and differential diagnosis of severe pathological lesions in wild and domestic cattle from the Late Neolithic site of At-Vršac in the northeast part of the present-day Serbia. Excavations of this multilayered site revealed the remains of a Late Neolithic settlement belonging to the Vinča culture network of the Central Balkans. An aurochs metacarpal bone, two domestic cattle fragments of fused ulna and radius…
Power and Othering
I thank Christina Fredengren for this productive discussion of how to theo rize relations between humans and other animals, which raises a number of important issues. In recent years we have seen the advent of various ap proaches -multispecies ethnography/archaeology, posthumanism, entan glement, actornetwork theory, flat ontologies, symmetrical archaeology, and others -that seek to decenter humans in their interactions with other entities. As Fr…
The Domestication of Anthropology
This chapter aims to explore some of the uses of the concept of “domestication” in anthropology and archaeology, to point out some of the difficulties of the concept, and to suggest how these very ambiguities can provide fertile ground for future work. The concept and study of domestication has already provided fertile ground for communication and collaboration across disciplinary and subdisciplinary boundaries. The broadening use of domesticatio…
Feathers and talons
Response
Social Zooarchaeology
Neolithic taboos in Anatolia and southeast Europe
Spirit Birds at Neolithic Çatalhöyük
As they soar into the air and dive below the water's surface, birds inspire awe for their superhuman capacity to pass among earth, air, and water. People often see birds as spirits, or as messengers to and from the spirit world. Whereas at earlier sites in the region birds made a significant contribution to human diet, at Neolithic Çatalhöyük in Central Anatolia their nutritional significance is small. Body part distributions suggest that for the…
Horses, Hemiones, Hydruntines? Assessing the Reliability of Dental Criteria for Assigning Species to Southwest Asian Equid Remains
Many faunal assemblages across southwest Asia contain the remains of multiple wild equid species, which may reflect individual prehistoric human populations' use of different hunting and/or landscape exploitation strategies. Accurate equid species assignments are therefore important. This paper tests the extent to which zooarchaeologists agree on equid species assignments made using commonly used zooarchaeological dental identification criteria. …
Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis at Neolithic Çatalhöyük
Animals and humans in complex societies
Zooarchaeology, once largely confined to questions of subsistence and production strategies, has recently devoted much more attention to the social roles of animals in the past. Responding (belatedly) to trends in archaeological theory, on the one hand, and the growth of interdisciplinary animal studies, on the other, zooarchaeologists are now using animal remains to address a broader range of questions that are of interest to archaeologists and …
The end of the affair
Data Sharing Reveals Complexity in the Westward Spread of Domestic Animals across Neolithic Turkey
This study presents the results of a major data integration project bringing together primary archaeozoological data for over 200,000 faunal specimens excavated from seventeen sites in Turkey spanning the Epipaleolithic through Chalcolithic periods, c. 18,000-4,000 cal BC, in order to document the initial westward spread of domestic livestock across Neolithic central and western Turkey. From these shared datasets we demonstrate that the westward …
Locating Land Use at N eolithic Ç atalhöyük, T urkey
We evaluate local versus distant land‐use models at N eolithic Ç atalhöyük, central Anatolia, using strontium isotope analysis of sheep tooth enamel and charred plant remains. Interpretation of strontium in sheep tooth sequences is constrained by previous oxygen isotope work, which largely excludes summer movement to the mountains but cannot distinguish between herding on the plain and the closest upland‐zone, N eogene limestone terraces. We esta…
Sacred Killing
Social Zooarchaeology
This is the first book to provide a systematic overview of social zooarchaeology, which takes a holistic view of human-animal relations in the past. Until recently, archaeological analysis of faunal evidence has primarily focused on the role of animals in the human diet and subsistence economy. This book, however, argues that animals have always played many more roles in human societies: as wealth, companions, spirit helpers, sacrificial victims,…
Examining the Inherent Variability in ΔR
Currently, there is significant ongoing research into the temporal and spatial variability of marine radiocarbon reservoir effects (MREs) through quantification of ΔR values. In turn, MRE studies often use large changes in ΔR values as proxies for changes in ocean circulation. ΔR values are published in a variety of formats with variations in how the errors on these values are calculated, making it difficult to identify trends or to compare value…
Dogs
Species specific marine radiocarbon reservoir effect
C AMS at Suerc
In 2003, a National Electrostatics Corporation (NEC) 5MV tandem accelerator mass spectrometer was installed at SUERC, providing the radiocarbon laboratory with 14 C measurements to 4–5‰ repeatability. In 2007, a 250kV single-stage accelerator mass spectrometer (SSAMS) was added to provide additional 14 C capability and is now the preferred system for 14 C analysis. Changes to the technology and to our operations are evident in our copious quality…
High-Precision Radiocarbon Dating of the Construction Phase of Oakbank Crannog, Loch Tay, Perthshire
Many of the Loch Tay crannogs were built in the Early Iron Age and so calibration of the radiocarbon ages produces very broad calendar age ranges due to the well-documented Hallstatt plateau in the calibration curve. However, the large oak timbers that were used in the construction of some of the crannogs potentially provide a means of improving the precision of the dating through subdividing them into decadal or subdecadal increments, dating the…
Spatial Variation in the Marine Radiocarbon Reservoir Effect Throughout the Scottish Post-Roman to Late Medieval Period
The marine radiocarbon reservoir effect (MRE) occurs as a spatially and temporally dependent variable owing to localized changes in oceanic water composition. This study investigates ΔR values (deviations from the global average MRE whose ΔR = 0) during the period 500–1350 BP for the east coast of Scotland, where a complex estuarine system exists that drains into the semi-enclosed North Sea basin. Due to the availability of suitable archaeologica…
New light on early caprine herding strategies from isotope analysis
Stable Isotope Evidence of Diet at Neolithic Çatalhöyük, Turkey
Relative frequency of butchering cutmarks produced by obsidian and flint
Private pantries and celebrated surplus
In the Neolithic megasite at Çatalhöyük families lived side by side in conjoined dwellings, like a pueblo. It can be assumed that people were always in and out of each others' houses - in this case via the roof. Social mechanisms were needed to make all this run smoothly, and in a tour-de-force of botanical, faunal and spatial analysis the authors show how it worked. Families stored their own produce of grain, fruit, nuts and condiments in specia…
The Wild Side of Animal Domestication
This paper examines not the process but the concept of nonhuman animal domestication. Domestication involves both biological and cultural components. Creating a category of domestic animals means constructing and crossing the boundaries between human and animal, culture and nature. The concept of domestication thus structures the thinking both of researchers in the present and of domesticators and herders in the past. Some have argued for abandon…
Cattle Domestication at Çatalhöyük Revisited
Previous articleNext article FreeReportsCattle Domestication at Çatalhöyük Revisited1NerissaRussell, LouiseMartin, and HijlkeBuitenhuisNerissaRussellDepartment of Anthropology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, U.S.A. ([email protected]) (Russell), Institute of Archaeology, University College London, London, U.K. (Martin), Center for Archaeological Research and Consultancy, Groningen, The Netherlands. (Buitenhuis). 21 iii 05, LouiseMartinDepa…
Building memories
Russell N., Martin L. & Twiss K.C. 2009. — Building memories: commemorative deposits at Çatalhöyük. Anthropozoologica 44(1): 103-128.Neolithic Çatalhöyük, Turkey, is well known for its incorporation of animal parts into architecture: bucrania, horns in benches, etc. We examine the less visible placement of items in pits or built into remodeling inside houses to commemorate particular events. Animal parts feature prominently in these deposits, typ…
Ancient DNA analysis of 101 cattle remains
Taking the Bull by the Horns
Animal symbolism is a ubiquitous and powerful component of human ideology. Cattle were clearly the preeminent symbolic taxon in the Southwest Asian Neolithic, and archaeologists have argued that not just cattle, but specifi cally bulls, were key symbols. However, the biological attributes, including the sex, of the cattle used in Neolithic symbolic contexts remain largely unestablished. Furthermore, most of the cattle representations on which the…
Examining the Inherent Variability in ΔR
Currently, there is significant ongoing research into the temporal and spatial variability of marine radiocarbon reservoir effects (MREs) through quantification of ΔR values. In turn, MRE studies often use large changes in ΔR values as proxies for changes in ocean circulation. ΔR values are published in a variety of formats with variations in how the errors on these values are calculated, making it difficult to identify trends or to compare value…
Dance of the Cranes
In this article, the authors reveal the symbolic role of cranes at Neolithic Çatalhöyük, Turkey. Worked bones of the Common Crane (Grus grus) are interpreted as coming from a spread wing used in dances, a ritual practice perhaps connected with the celebration of marriage
Arson or Accident? The Burning of a Neolithic House at Çatalhöyük, Turkey
This paper presents the results of interdisciplinary research on the recently excavated Building 52 at the Anatolian Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük. This building provides the richest combination of faunal, botanical, and lithic assemblages of all those uncovered since work at the site was renewed in 1995. Occupation of the building ended with a high-temperature fire, after which a portion of it was emptied and reoccupied.Our research synthesizes n…
The end of the affair
Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis at Neolithic Çatalhöyük
Locating Land Use at N eolithic Ç atalhöyük, T urkey
We evaluate local versus distant land‐use models at N eolithic Ç atalhöyük, central Anatolia, using strontium isotope analysis of sheep tooth enamel and charred plant remains. Interpretation of strontium in sheep tooth sequences is constrained by previous oxygen isotope work, which largely excludes summer movement to the mountains but cannot distinguish between herding on the plain and the closest upland‐zone, N eogene limestone terraces. We esta…
Plants and Animals Together
This paper explores plant and animal distributions inside a Neolithic burned house in order to investigate domestic organization in an early farming society. We use GIS to analyze the spatial distributions of plant and animal remains found inside Building 52 at Çatalhöyük in central Anatolia. We examine how plant and animal stores, food and nonfood materials, and wild and domestic taxa were configured spatially. Results shed light on the logistic…
Species specific marine radiocarbon reservoir effect
C AMS at Suerc
In 2003, a National Electrostatics Corporation (NEC) 5MV tandem accelerator mass spectrometer was installed at SUERC, providing the radiocarbon laboratory with 14 C measurements to 4–5‰ repeatability. In 2007, a 250kV single-stage accelerator mass spectrometer (SSAMS) was added to provide additional 14 C capability and is now the preferred system for 14 C analysis. Changes to the technology and to our operations are evident in our copious quality…
Spatial Variation in the Marine Radiocarbon Reservoir Effect Throughout the Scottish Post-Roman to Late Medieval Period
The marine radiocarbon reservoir effect (MRE) occurs as a spatially and temporally dependent variable owing to localized changes in oceanic water composition. This study investigates ΔR values (deviations from the global average MRE whose ΔR = 0) during the period 500–1350 BP for the east coast of Scotland, where a complex estuarine system exists that drains into the semi-enclosed North Sea basin. Due to the availability of suitable archaeologica…
Worthy is the Lamb
Neolithic Çatalhöyük (central Anatolia) is well known for its elaborate animal symbolism. However, while sheep are the most abundant animal in the faunal assemblage at the site, they are virtually absent in the art and among the animal parts incorporated into the architecture. Thus it is striking that the first and so far only animal burial found at Çatalhöyük is a lamb placed with a human body, a sharp departure from usual human burial practice …
Feathers and talons
Navigating the Human-Animal Boundary
Animals have long figured in anthropology, but human-animal relations have come into focus in recent decades. The topic links anthropology's sub-disciplines by exploring the biological and cultural nature of both humans and animals in the past and present, as well as articulating with similar concerns in other disciplines. While anthropology is defined in terms of the separation of humans from animals, this exploration exposes the permeability of…
Excavations at Opovo, 1985-1987
Ruth Tringham, Bogdan Brukner, Timothy Kaiser, , , , Nerissa Russell, , Barbara Voytek, Excavations at Opovo, 1985-1987: Socioeconomic Change in the Balkan Neolithic, Journal of Field Archaeology, Vol. 19, No. 3 (Autumn, 1992), pp. 351-386
Spirit Birds at Neolithic Çatalhöyük
As they soar into the air and dive below the water's surface, birds inspire awe for their superhuman capacity to pass among earth, air, and water. People often see birds as spirits, or as messengers to and from the spirit world. Whereas at earlier sites in the region birds made a significant contribution to human diet, at Neolithic Çatalhöyük in Central Anatolia their nutritional significance is small. Body part distributions suggest that for the…
Excavations at Opovo, 1985–1987
This is the second preliminary report of excavations and analyses of Opovo-Ugar Bajbuk, a Neolithic settlement of the Vinča-Pločnik culture located in the lower Tamiš river valley, NE Yugoslavia. The Opovo Archaeological Project began in the summer of 1983; this report coversthe 1985–1987 field seasons. Work at Opovo has continued to reveal more about the unusual reliance placed by the site’s inhabitants on wild food resources, the apparent lack …
Excavations at Opovo, 1985–1987
This is the second preliminary report of excavations and analyses of Opovo-Ugar Bajbuk, a Neolithic settlement of the Vinča-Pločnik culture located in the lower Tamiš river valley, NE Yugoslavia. The Opovo Archaeological Project began in the summer of 1983; this report coversthe 1985–1987 field seasons. Work at Opovo has continued to reveal more about the unusual reliance placed by the site’s inhabitants on wild food resources, the apparent lack …
Excavations at Opovo, 1985-1987
Ruth Tringham, Bogdan Brukner, Timothy Kaiser, , , , Nerissa Russell, , Barbara Voytek, Excavations at Opovo, 1985-1987: Socioeconomic Change in the Balkan Neolithic, Journal of Field Archaeology, Vol. 19, No. 3 (Autumn, 1992), pp. 351-386
Ritual treatment of human and animal remains
The role of prisons in the HIV epidemic among female injecting drug users
The objective of this study was to describe factors associated with imprisonment of female injecting drug users (IDUs) and to assess if female IDUs who have been in prison have different HIV risk behaviours when compared to females IDUs who have never been incarcerated. A seroepidemiological survey was conducted of 304 female IDUs recruited in outreach and treatment programmes in Madrid, Spain. Data on sociodemographic characteristics and recent …
The Wild Side of Animal Domestication
This paper examines not the process but the concept of nonhuman animal domestication. Domestication involves both biological and cultural components. Creating a category of domestic animals means constructing and crossing the boundaries between human and animal, culture and nature. The concept of domestication thus structures the thinking both of researchers in the present and of domesticators and herders in the past. Some have argued for abandon…
Stable Isotope Evidence of Diet at Neolithic Çatalhöyük, Turkey
Dance of the Cranes
In this article, the authors reveal the symbolic role of cranes at Neolithic Çatalhöyük, Turkey. Worked bones of the Common Crane (Grus grus) are interpreted as coming from a spread wing used in dances, a ritual practice perhaps connected with the celebration of marriage
Ancient DNA analysis of 101 cattle remains
Cattle Domestication at Çatalhöyük Revisited
Previous articleNext article FreeReportsCattle Domestication at Çatalhöyük Revisited1NerissaRussell, LouiseMartin, and HijlkeBuitenhuisNerissaRussellDepartment of Anthropology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, U.S.A. ([email protected]) (Russell), Institute of Archaeology, University College London, London, U.K. (Martin), Center for Archaeological Research and Consultancy, Groningen, The Netherlands. (Buitenhuis). 21 iii 05, LouiseMartinDepa…
Relative frequency of butchering cutmarks produced by obsidian and flint
Worthy is the Lamb
Neolithic Çatalhöyük (central Anatolia) is well known for its elaborate animal symbolism. However, while sheep are the most abundant animal in the faunal assemblage at the site, they are virtually absent in the art and among the animal parts incorporated into the architecture. Thus it is striking that the first and so far only animal burial found at Çatalhöyük is a lamb placed with a human body, a sharp departure from usual human burial practice …
New light on early caprine herding strategies from isotope analysis
Radiocarbon Dating of the Crannogs of Loch Tay, Perthshire (Scotland)
Crannogs are ancient artificial islands found in Scotland and Ireland, which typically had some sort of dwelling place constructed on them that served variously as farmers' homesteads, status symbols, refuges in times of trouble, hunting and fishing stations, etc. Substantial research has been carried out for similar sites in mainland Europe, which has demonstrated that they were lakeside settlements, mostly dating to the Neolithic period and not…
The Leopard's Tale
The Leopard's Tale: Revealing the Mysteries of Çatalhöyük. Ian Hodder. New York: Thames and Hudson, 2006. 288 pp
Arson or Accident? The Burning of a Neolithic House at Çatalhöyük, Turkey
This paper presents the results of interdisciplinary research on the recently excavated Building 52 at the Anatolian Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük. This building provides the richest combination of faunal, botanical, and lithic assemblages of all those uncovered since work at the site was renewed in 1995. Occupation of the building ended with a high-temperature fire, after which a portion of it was emptied and reoccupied.Our research synthesizes n…
Taking the Bull by the Horns
Animal symbolism is a ubiquitous and powerful component of human ideology. Cattle were clearly the preeminent symbolic taxon in the Southwest Asian Neolithic, and archaeologists have argued that not just cattle, but specifi cally bulls, were key symbols. However, the biological attributes, including the sex, of the cattle used in Neolithic symbolic contexts remain largely unestablished. Furthermore, most of the cattle representations on which the…
Building memories
Russell N., Martin L. & Twiss K.C. 2009. — Building memories: commemorative deposits at Çatalhöyük. Anthropozoologica 44(1): 103-128.Neolithic Çatalhöyük, Turkey, is well known for its incorporation of animal parts into architecture: bucrania, horns in benches, etc. We examine the less visible placement of items in pits or built into remodeling inside houses to commemorate particular events. Animal parts feature prominently in these deposits, typ…
Private pantries and celebrated surplus
In the Neolithic megasite at Çatalhöyük families lived side by side in conjoined dwellings, like a pueblo. It can be assumed that people were always in and out of each others' houses - in this case via the roof. Social mechanisms were needed to make all this run smoothly, and in a tour-de-force of botanical, faunal and spatial analysis the authors show how it worked. Families stored their own produce of grain, fruit, nuts and condiments in specia…
Plants and Animals Together
This paper explores plant and animal distributions inside a Neolithic burned house in order to investigate domestic organization in an early farming society. We use GIS to analyze the spatial distributions of plant and animal remains found inside Building 52 at Çatalhöyük in central Anatolia. We examine how plant and animal stores, food and nonfood materials, and wild and domestic taxa were configured spatially. Results shed light on the logistic…
Species specific marine radiocarbon reservoir effect
C AMS at Suerc
In 2003, a National Electrostatics Corporation (NEC) 5MV tandem accelerator mass spectrometer was installed at SUERC, providing the radiocarbon laboratory with 14 C measurements to 4–5‰ repeatability. In 2007, a 250kV single-stage accelerator mass spectrometer (SSAMS) was added to provide additional 14 C capability and is now the preferred system for 14 C analysis. Changes to the technology and to our operations are evident in our copious quality…
High-Precision Radiocarbon Dating of the Construction Phase of Oakbank Crannog, Loch Tay, Perthshire
Many of the Loch Tay crannogs were built in the Early Iron Age and so calibration of the radiocarbon ages produces very broad calendar age ranges due to the well-documented Hallstatt plateau in the calibration curve. However, the large oak timbers that were used in the construction of some of the crannogs potentially provide a means of improving the precision of the dating through subdividing them into decadal or subdecadal increments, dating the…
Spatial Variation in the Marine Radiocarbon Reservoir Effect Throughout the Scottish Post-Roman to Late Medieval Period
The marine radiocarbon reservoir effect (MRE) occurs as a spatially and temporally dependent variable owing to localized changes in oceanic water composition. This study investigates ΔR values (deviations from the global average MRE whose ΔR = 0) during the period 500–1350 BP for the east coast of Scotland, where a complex estuarine system exists that drains into the semi-enclosed North Sea basin. Due to the availability of suitable archaeologica…
Navigating the Human-Animal Boundary
Animals have long figured in anthropology, but human-animal relations have come into focus in recent decades. The topic links anthropology's sub-disciplines by exploring the biological and cultural nature of both humans and animals in the past and present, as well as articulating with similar concerns in other disciplines. While anthropology is defined in terms of the separation of humans from animals, this exploration exposes the permeability of…
Social Zooarchaeology
This is the first book to provide a systematic overview of social zooarchaeology, which takes a holistic view of human-animal relations in the past. Until recently, archaeological analysis of faunal evidence has primarily focused on the role of animals in the human diet and subsistence economy. This book, however, argues that animals have always played many more roles in human societies: as wealth, companions, spirit helpers, sacrificial victims,…
Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (34 works) · Geography (30 works) · Archaeology (27 works) · Biology (18 works) · History (18 works) · Ecology (13 works) · History (13 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Ancient Near East History (9 works) · Geographies of human-animal interactions (9 works)