Graduate Student, Archaeology
Thesis Title: Re-Thinking Ecological Relationships in the British Early Mesolithic
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Dr. Chantal Conneller
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About
Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, my research moves to consider the relationship between humans and animals in the Early Mesolithic of Southern Britain in a new way. Previous narratives of these relations have been predicated on the assumption that modern attitudes towards animals, as bundles of calories or raw materials, were echoed in the Mesolithic. My research questions the validity of imposing a strict modernist division between humans and animals in the Mesolithic and instead considers humans' understanding of animals not existing simply as an abstract ontology, but as evolving through interaction and engagement in daily life. Osteological analysis of faunal assemblages from the Kennet and Colne valleys in Southern England will facilitate an in-depth examination of the specific engagements between humans and individual animals or species at particular sites. The engagements and experiences identified will permit an exploration into how humans' understandings of certain animals are created and developed, how they form the basis for human action upon animals manifest in the material record, and how these relationships are intimately bound to specific people, places and times.
