Bird Working Group flies to Copenhagen
The 11th ICAZ Bird Working Group meeting (BWG) took place in Copenhagen from the 5th to the 8th of June 2024. This is the first time the Bird Working Group has been back in person (with a hybrid option) since Covid, as the 10th ICAZ Bird Working Group meeting organised by Bergen (2021) happened entirely online. The BWG is an interdisciplinary group of researchers who share a common interest in birds (including zooarchaeologists, archaeologists, zoologists, ornithologists and biological scientists). Founded by Arturo Morales-Muniz in 1991, the BWG is interested in the study of bird remains and avian-associated materials recovered from archaeological sites around the world. The group aims to examine the relationships between people and birds in prehistoric, historic, and, at times, contemporary contexts. Group interests include, but are not limited to, identification of bird bones, the taphonomy of avian remains, methods of analysis and interpretation, the use of birds, and representations of birds in art.
Avian archaeology may appear as a very niche area, but the study of bird bones and wider avian information has the potential to inform upon a diverse range of topics at species, site, region, and period level. These include: fowling methods, husbandry practices, species specific profiles, population shifts, modern ecological/ornithological questions, habitat recreation, ecological niche modelling, understanding resource use, seasonality, ritual and religion, introductions and extinctions, trade and exchange, and much more. Zooarchaeology remains a cornerstone of avian studies, with developments in the biomolecular sciences and in visualisation working in tandem with traditional zooarchaeological methods. Isotope analysis, palaeoproteomics, genetics, and geometric morphometrics add resolution or new evidence to avian research, but at the same time these methods would lack context and interpretive power without traditional zooarchaeological analysis, which of course encompasses developments in avian osteoarchaeological methods. The 11th BWG explored all of these areas.

The conference was organised by Lisa Yeomans (Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, Faculty of Humanities), Pernille Bangsgaard (Department of GeoGenetics, Globe Institute, Faculty of Health) and Anne Birgitte Gotfredsen (Department of GeoGenetics, Globe Institute, Faculty of Health).
The event consisted of two days of presentations and posters, with a welcome event before and a trip option afterwards. The welcome reception took place on 5th June at the Natural History Museum of Denmark. The event afforded drinks and nibbles and a chance to catch up but also the opportunity to see lots of bones! The museum is home to the Quaternary Zoological Collections, and we had a fascinating tour through the archives (Fig. 2). These collections are currently closed to the public, so it was wonderful to be able to see everything from great auks, to whales, to extinct megafauna (Fig. 3). The collections were impressive and several of us were taking notes on what avian specimens were available that we might want to return and study. Indeed, some of the delegates had already used the collections for their work, and others were scheduled to do so. It was also interesting to learn about what archaeological collections are held there, and the wider zoological materials.

Photography : J. Best.

The meeting itself was housed in Københavns Universitet and comprised 30 oral presentations and 7 posters. The two days of presentations were divided into themes such as “North Atlantic and Baltic Case Studies”, “Methods” and “Changing human-bird relationships” allowing a diverse range of papers to be accepted and presented in relevant groupings. For me, one of the nicest things about the BWG meetings is that they are single session so that everyone can see everything. This facilitates the welcoming community feel that I’ve always associated with the BWG as everyone gets to know each other and their work, facilitating discussions across the conference. It was great to see case studies from a really broad range of geographical areas represented and everything from deep prehistory to historical contexts explored through avian zooarchaeology and comparative studies. It was also good to see an increasing number of delegates and presentations from areas such as Asia. The presentations were a diverse mix of topics and inclusive of all career stages, with opportunities for questions after each. The posters were displayed right next to the presentation room and thus it was easy to look at them during coffee breaks as well as in the designated poster session.
One of the things that is always enjoyable about the BWG is that you can generally be interested in everything. Even if a paper is outside of your particular area, the specialist nature of the event means that everything appeals to your general interests and as such, transferable methods, approaches or comparisons can be looked at. For example, I’m not currently looking at avian pathology, but I could see the applications in my own research areas. There is a reason why I affectionately dub this conference Bird Nerds Meeting in that everyone is enthusiastic, welcoming and interested. After reaching a wider audience with the exclusively online 10th meeting, this was a pleasant return to a focused but inclusive and diverse BWG for this 11th meeting. The organisers of the 10th BWG (I hasten to add) did a fantastic job under very difficult conditions and the conference was excellent, but the online format encouraged a slightly different group of attendees, which led occasionally to more challenging interactions (e.g. during questions), rather than the supportive and friendly development of all researchers that the BWG is characterised by. The 11th BWG was a great size, with around 45 delegates in person. We were missing some big names this year (or they were online) including Dale Serjeantson, Umberto Albarella and Zbigniew Bocheński, but we were pleased to welcome several new colleagues at various stages of their careers. The talks explored everything from detailed consideration of single species via zooarchaeology to large-scale regional reviews, and methodological developments such as genetics and palaeoproteomics. A full list of abstracts (including posters) can be found here along with details on the session themes.

In my opinion (as a UK-based academic) the fees for the conference were very reasonable, at €160 for researchers and €110 for students and unsalaried participants. This included lunches, coffee and cakes, and the welcome event. Following on from the Covid world, the conference was hybrid with a digital option available. Only one speaker was online (presenters were encouraged to be in person where possible but accommodated online where desired), however several online delegates were listening in from around the world (about 28 people across the event). The fee to listen online was under €8, which in particular allowed students a cheap option to listen to relevant papers without travel expenses or other costs. This is significant as it allows entry to avian archaeology for those who are not deep in the specialism but may be encountering birds in their work (I know that at least one PhD student from my own institution joined online for precisely this reason). The hybrid format ran smoothly with no tech issues, which is testament to the conference’s organisation. You can download the organisers’ piece in the ICAZ newsletter here, which includes more photos of the event.
Copenhagen was a very easy city to be in. There was plenty of accommodation for all budgets, and the transport system was simple to use and reliable. There were lots of options for delegates to have dinner or drinks after a day, and many could accommodate sizable groups making it easy to continue talking. The meeting also had a conference dinner on 6th June at Madklubben, Vesterbro. A little on the expensive side but the food was delicious and wine aplenty.
I chose to stay on after the conference for the post-meeting excursion to Roskilde. The cost for the day was €90, but this included train fair, museum entrance, and lunch. Home of the Viking Ship Museum, Roskilde was a lovely place to visit. On the way to the museum we of course detoured to look at some mallards in a park. We then had a guided tour of the museum followed by a glass of mead (or apple juice) on the Sea Stallion, the famous recreation of one of the ships which sailed from Roskilde to Dublin in 2007 after extensive sea trials. Afterwards, we had the chance to explore the shipbuilding yard where there were recreations of all the ships from the museum, and from further afield such as Faroe Islands. We had a lovely traditional Danish lunch at a restaurant in the park and then walked to the Roskilde Cathedral.


I stayed for an extra day after the conference excursion and visited the Copenhagen Zoo. Whilst in general I am not a fan of captive animals, this one had some unusual and very well thought out exhibits which included a mock island set up for puffins (Fig. 7), razorbills and guillemots – a chance to see some of my most studied species up close and non-skeletal. The city also hosts the National Museum of Denmark which includes extensive worked bone exhibits, exceptionally well-preserved organic remains, and collections from Greenland including the Herjolfsnes clothes.

At the end of the conference itself after the last talk there was time for further discussion, including of publication plans, and then calls for the next meeting location. I put forward Cardiff as a suggestion, and I’m pleased to say that it has been chosen as the next location for the 12th ICAZ Bird Working Group Meeting, which will likely take place in summer 2026 (vote on dates dependent!). It will be a tough job to follow BWG Copenhagen, and I want to take this opportunity to thank the organisers for such an excellent, well organised, and enjoyable conference. The academic environment is a challenging one to be in at the moment with many people and institutions feeling the squeeze of budget cuts and ever-increasing workloads. This conference was a blissful chance to get back to the things that interest us and to engage with colleagues. I know several of us left the conference feeling inspired and re energised for all things birds.

L’autrice / The author
Le Dr Julia Best est Senior Lecturer en Archéologie à l’Université de Cardiff (Pays de Galle, Royaume Uni).
Dr Julia Best is Senior Lecturer in Archaeology at Cardiff University (Wales, UK).
Note from the Editors
We were deeply saddened to learn of Elisabeth Barone von der Osten-Sacken’s death on 24 July. Elisabeth von der Osten-Sacken was an associate professor at the University of Marburg in Germany. She specialized in the Ancient Near East, and one of her many interests was birds in human societies. She participated in the ICAZ Bird Working Group meeting in Copenhagen.
OpenEdition vous propose de citer ce billet de la manière suivante :
Julia Best (2 octobre 2024). Bird Working Group flies to Copenhagen. Bioarchéologies. Consulté le 26 avril 2025 à l’adresse https://doi.org/10.58079/12edw