Munich hosts the 16th ASWA conference: an overview of advances in archaeozoology in the ancient Near East
The 16th International Conference of the Working Group on Archaeozoology of Southwest Asia and Adjacent Regions (ASWA[AA]) was held in Munich, Germany, marking a new chapter in the history of this series of scientific meetings. Founded at the ICAZ International Conference in Washington D.C. in 1990, the ASWA is one of the 19 Working Groups of the ICAZ. Its mission is to promote communication between researchers working on faunal remains from sites in Southwest Asia and adjacent regions, such as Northeast Africa, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and South Asia. Since its creation and its first edition in 1992 in Groningen, the ASWA has been committed to promoting the exchange of ideas and discoveries in archaeozoology through the organisation of biennial international conferences (with some exceptions). The last one took place in Tokyo in November 2022.
This year, the conference was held in the prestigious setting of the Carl Friedrich von Siemens Stiftung, close to Nymphenburg Palace, from Monday 25 May to Wednesday 28 May. The conference brought together fifty-five participants from seventeen countries over three days (Fig.1, Fig. 2). This event was made possible thanks to the commitment and hard work of the organising committee, composed of: Joris Peters, General Director of the Bavarian State Collections of Natural History; Director of the State Collection for Palaeoanatomy Munich; Chair of the Institute for Palaeoanatomy, History of Veterinary Medicine and Domestication Research, Ludwig Maximilians University; Stephanie Emra, Research assistant, State Collection for Palaeoanatomy Munich; Ptolemaios Paxinos, Research assistant, State Collection for Palaeoanatomy Munich; Nadja Pöllath, Curator at the State Collection for Palaeoanatomy Munich; and Özlem Sarıtaş, Lecturer at the Hitit Üniversitesi Çorum, Türkiye.
For the 2025 edition, the symbol chosen to represent the 16th ASWA conference is the lion of Ischl (Fig. 3). This lion, a shield ornament discovered in the tomb of an early medieval warrior dating from the 7th century AD, was unearthed between 1880 and 1890 in a gravel pit near Ischl an der Alz, in the district of Traunstein. This symbolic choice reflects the cultural importance of this animal in the history and heraldry of Bavaria, the host region of this conference. [From a personal point of view, this lion, with its open mouth, reminds me of the stone lions of Hattusa, in Anatolia, thus bringing us closer to our region of study].
The day before the conference, an excursion was organised for the participants: a two‑hour guided tour to observe Przewalski’s horses kept in semi-freedom in a forest near the city of Augsburg (Fig. 4). These horses are part of a larger biodiversity reserve aimed at protecting the environment of the Lech Valley. They play a crucial role in preserving pine forests and sparse heathland, as they graze the grass to a height of just a few centimetres, preventing bushes from growing. This visit provided an opportunity to learn more about the breeding and conservation programme for these horses. The park takes in young males from zoos, as young males must be separated from the dominant male in zoos, as is the case in the wild. These young stallions are then transferred to other zoos when a new male is needed.
The visit continued with a tour of the prehistoric site of Pestenacker, a Neolithic site located on the banks of the Loosbach River and a UNESCO listed landscape ‘Prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps’ (Fig. 5). The museum director, Lejla Hasukic, gave us a guided tour, allowing us to discover the reconstruction of the pile-dwelling village, the “Stone Age garden”, and the adjoining museum. Today, conservation issues arise between the preserved remains and the presence of beavers, a protected species.
The evening before the conference, a welcome ceremony was held at the Museum Mensch und Natur located in Nymphenburg Palace (Fig. 6). We were given a private tour by the museum director, Michael Apel. This tour allowed us to discover the history of the museum, an unusual Lederhose made from mushrooms (Fig. 7), and the activities organised by the museum to disseminate scientific data related to living organisms.
The series of presentations began with a welcome speech by Joris Peters, who expressed his delight at seeing the various participants at the conference. Here is a brief overview of the sessions; the detailed programme is available online for further information.
The conference took place entirely on site, with a vegetarian meal provided by the organisers, a detail that prevented the archaeozoologists in attendance to have a “bone” to pick with anyone! The presentation sessions were interspersed with coffee and tea breaks, allowing participants to refresh themselves and discuss. The ASWA principle is to have only one session at a time, allowing everyone to listen to all the presentations without having to choose between different simultaneous conferences. This approach fostered a collective experience and a comprehensive understanding of the advances and challenges in the field of archaeozoology in Southwest Asia.
After the welcome address (Fig. 8), the conference followed a chronological order, beginning with a first session devoted to the Palaeolithic. This included a presentation by Zohar Turgeman-Yaffe entitled “Why so Many? Tortoise Exploitation at Nesher Ramla, a Middle Palaeolithic Short-Term Campsite in Israel” and a paper by Catherine Ujma entitled “Bones from the Hearth: Spatial Taphonomy Across the Early Upper Palaeolithic Sequence of Manot Cave, Israel”. These presentations allowed us to observe two methods of study, one focusing on a particular species, the tortoise, and the other a spatial study of a cave aimed at understanding the organisation of the camp.
The second session focused on the PPNA, with Natalie Munro presenting her comparative study of the sites of Aşıklı Höyük and Balıklı in her presentation “Variability in Early Neolithic Human-Animal Interactions: A Preliminary View from Balıklı, Central Anatolia”. This was followed by two specialised presentations on the el-Hemmeh site, offering a broader view of the exploitation of the environment around the site, knowledge of local species and the seasonality of occupation. One dealt with avifauna with Linda Amos, “Avian Exploitation and Habitat Use in the PPNA: Insights from el-Hemmeh, Wadi Hasa, Jordan” and the other on squamates with Maayan Lev, “Squamate Reptiles and Faunal Intensification in the PPNA at el-Hemmeh, Southern Levant.” The in-depth study of these different taxa was all the more stimulating as it is not systematically addressed in archaeozoology.
Monday afternoon continued with a session focusing on domestication processes, still in the Neolithic period. This session began with a presentation by Cheryl Makarewicz entitled “Mass-kill Gazelle Hunting in the Badia: Evidence from Desert Kites and Settlements in the Jafr Basin (Jordan)”, which took a different approach to domestication, with a study of mass gazelle hunting using desert kites at the LPPNB, with very few sheep and goats in the settlements of the Jafr Basin. The intensification of domestication was then studied in different areas: first, in Iran with Roya Khazaeli’s “Tracing the Domestication Process in Southern Zagros, Iran: Insights from Tepe Rahmat Abad”, then, in Iraq with Hitomi Hongo’s “Animal Bone Remains from 2018-2023 Seasons at Charmo (Jarmo)”, which illustrates the possibility of conducting new studies and operations made possible by the reopening of Iraq. This session continued in the West, in Syria with presentations by Roger Alcàntara Fors, “Shaping the Herd: Evidence of Caprine Management at Tell Halula” and Ayşe Ataş Hooglugt, “Wild or Domestic? Investigating Early Cattle Management at Neolithic Bouqras”, and in Anatolia with Jesse Wolfhagen’s “Rethinking Human-Cattle Interactions at Neolithic Çatalhöyük”. These presentations used the LSI method and confirmed the importance in the reduction of the size of ungulates in understanding their domestication.
The first day ended with presentations on palaeogenetics. The domestication of dogs was explored by Laurent Frantz in “Genomic Evidence for the Widespread Presence of Dogs During the Palaeolithic in Anatolia and Europe”, which made an inspiring comparison between the oldest DNA from domestic dogs at Gough’s Cave in England and Pınarbaşı in Anatolia. Other taxa were discussed, such as sheep with Pedro Morell Miranda’s “Describing Early Domestic Genetic Diversity Using Ancient Sheep Genomes from Anatolia”, cattle with Thierry Grange’s “The Domestication of Wild Cattle: A Paleogenomics Perspective” and cats with Eva-Maria Geigl’s “New insights into the Domestication Process of the Cat Through the Analysis of Ancient Genomes”.
On Tuesday morning, multi-period analyses were first presented for Anatolia with a presentation by Özlem Sarıtaş entitled “Human-Animal Dynamics in Neolithic Anatolia: A Zooarchaeological Study of Suluin Cave in the Lakes District” and another by Pamela Crabtree entitled “Hunting in Neolithic and Chalcolithic Cappadocia: Evidence from Tepecik”. The session continued in Iraq with Jana Eger’s “Exploring Land Use and Mobility Using Multi-Isotope Analyses of Faunal Remains from Gird-i Begum (Iraqi Kurdistan)”, which raised many questions about the potential use of a large quantity of terrestrial molluscs. Satenik Mkrtchyan closed the session with a study of an Armenian Chalcolithic site, “Exploring Chalcolithic Lifeways through Zooarchaeology: Insights from the Yeghegis‑1 Rock Shelter, Southern Armenia”, which illustrated a very effective use of ZooMS.
Sites in the Levant, Iran and Anatolia were presented by Hagar Reshef, “From Neolithic Village to Bronze Age Town: Human-Animal Interactions at Ein Zippori, Lower Galilee, Israel”; Sarieh Amiri, “Surviving at the Edge of the Lut Desert: Archaeozoological Analysis of the Kale Kub, a Possible Uruk Outpost in Eastern Iran”, and Derya Silibolatlaz, “Subsistence Economy and Hare Consumption at Kültepe Kanesh During the Early Bronze Age (EBA III)”. Benjamin Arbuckle reignited the discussion on “New Social Zooarchaeology” by applying this theory in an exciting way in his presentation “Animals in the Kaska Lands: Naturecultures, Social Zooarchaeology, and Faunal Remains from Inönü Cave, NW Türkiye”.
The first afternoon session focused mainly on the Bronze Age and, to a lesser extent, on ritual practices related to funerary contexts. Emmanuelle Vila presented the case of Tomb VII at Qatna, “Food offerings in Tomb VII at Mishrifeh Qatna (Bronze Age, Syria)”, giving an example of a study in a situation where she did not have access to the material, working instead with photographs and detailed documentation provided by anthropologists. Midori Intrator looked at the offerings at Newe Efrayim, “Meals for the Dead: Evidence of Intermediate Bronze Age Animal Offerings from the Newe Efrayim Cemetery”. Nicholas Gonzalez’s presentation focused on the avifauna from the site of Ur with “Feathers in the City: Updating the Bird Assemblage from the Neighbourhoods of Ancient Ur, Southern Iraq”.
The last session on Tuesday was devoted to six short poster presentations (Fig. 9):
– “The Role of Animal Management and Domestication in 9th millennium BP Motza, Israel” by Nimrod Katzir,
– “Seasonal Herding Practice in the Neolithic of Central Anatolia: Stable Isotope Analysis of Caprine Diet and Mobility at the Site of Pınarbaşı” by Chen Wang,
– “Neolithic Bone Objects and Tools of Charmo (Jarmo) (Iraq) Investigated through Paleoproteomics (ZooMS and LC MS/MS).” by Marjan Mashkour,
– “Reconstructing Captivity and Freedom: Entheses-Based Analysis of Activity in Modern and Archaeological Sheep” by Christina Siali,
– “Tracing Avian Shifts: Insights from Zooarchaeology and Species Distribution Modelling in the Anthropocene” by Ramazan Parmaksız,
– “Investigating Pastoral Strategies and Mobility of Kura Araxes Communities in Armenia: A Multi-Method Approach” by Tim Mibord.
The final day of the conference opened with a session focusing mainly on the Iron Age, with the exception of Selena Vitezović’s presentation on Neolithic bone and deer antler objects, entitled “Dama dama as the Source of Raw Materials in the Neolithic in the Eastern Balkans”. The other presentations focused on Egypt, with Chiori Kitagawa’s “Shared life – in This World and in the Afterlife: Buried Animals from Two Prestigious Tombs of the Third Intermediate Period in Buto, Egypt” and the Levant, with Elad Ben Yehuda’s “The Faunal Remains of early Iron age Tell Qasile, Israel – Town and Temple” and Daniella Bar-Yosef’s “Cowries as Social Currency in the Iron Age Levant”.
Wednesday morning continued with presentations on the first millennium BCE. Katerina Trantalidou discussed the fauna of Kythnos in “In the Cycle of Time and Seasons: Wishing for the Fertility of the Earth and the Women” and Gerard Forstenpointner on Lycia, specifically the exploitation of goats for their fleece, the Cilicium, “On Goats and Their Hair – Considerations on Husbandry and Economy of Ancient Lycia and Adjacent Regions”. Hervé Monchot closed this session by presenting faunal results for assemblages from Saudi Arabia dating from the Neolithic to the Nabataean period, “Eating Flesh is unprovoked murder. Long-term faunal consumption in al-Bad‘ Oasis, Saudi Arabia”.
The penultimate session focused on the Islamic period. The first two presentations focused on the Levant, with Louise Martin presenting “Animal Uses at Medieval Islamic Zughar in the Bilad ash Sham” and Dariya Lokshin presenting “Feather Remains from Nahal Omer, an Early Islamic Site in the Negev Desert”. The last presentation was delivered by Lisa Yeomans and focused on the site of Volubilis in Morocco, “Animal economies of North Africa during the Islamic expansion: Patterns of Animal Consumption in Urban Centres and New Data from Volubilis, Morocco”.
The final session changed tone and presented methodological approaches for the ASWA community. Stéphanie Emra first presented a method for building a reference collection using 3D printing to compensate for the lack of reference material in the field. Each participant received two talus printed by her as a souvenir of the conference (Fig. 10). Lee Perry-Gal then presented a wildlife database initiative for the Southern Levant, “SLZoo: A Digital Gateway to the Zooarchaeological Database of the Southern Levant”. Finally, Joris Peters gave a surprise presentation, “Animal subsistence and symbolism in South-West Asia through the lens of PPNA Karahantepe” to conclude these three days of inspiring presentations.
In conclusion, the closing remarks by Hitomi Hongo and Joris Peters provided an enriching perspective on the highlights of the conference. They stressed the value of these discussions between researchers from different backgrounds in understanding the past relationship between humans and animals in the light of current environmental challenges. They also underlined the friendliness of our community and the importance of young researchers joining their ranks. The privileged setting near Nymphenburg Palace will remain a cherished memory for all (Fig. 11). The next ASWA meeting is scheduled to take place in Belgrade in 2027 and will be organized by Selena Vitezović (Institute of Archaeology). Finally, we ended this chapter on a high note with a closing dinner in an adjoining Biergarten, where we spent most of our evenings after the sessions chatting over a Bavarian beer or a sparkling Apfelschorle.
L’auteur
Tim Mibord est doctorant en archéozoologie à l’Université Lumière Lyon II et rattaché à l’UMR 5133 Archéorient (CNRS). Ses travaux portent sur les modes de subsistance au Bronze ancien en Arménie. Ils sont effectués dans le cadre de l’ANR HOMELAND (ANR-23-CE27-0022).
OpenEdition vous propose de citer ce billet de la manière suivante :
Tim Mibord (18 juillet 2025). Munich hosts the 16th ASWA conference: an overview of advances in archaeozoology in the ancient Near East. Bioarchéologies. Consulté le 14 mars 2026 à l’adresse https://doi.org/10.58079/14e0w

