A&K n.39. This week we’re shining a light on the work of the wonderful Eric Tourigny, a friend, an exceptional researcher, and the author of a paper that is as moving as it is informative. A brilliant exploration of one of Eric’s enduring research interests. 👉 www.cambridge.org/core/journal....

We're delighted to see this paper published: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti.... It's a joint effort by Andrea Tommolini & our former Masters' and PhD student, and for ever ⭐️Veronica Aniceti! Well done, Andrea & Veronica!

Al&K helping n.38! Today we celebrate the work of a veteran member of our team - Beatrice Vacca. Beatrice did her PhD with us 2008-2012 and this paper "The hunting of large mammals in the upper palaeolithic of southern Italy: A diachronic case study from Grotta del Romito" stems from her PhD work.

Great to welcome visitors to our Zooarchaeology collection during a recent RICHeS open day! Prof. Paul Halstead, Dr Valasia Isaakidou, and Dr Olga Zagorodnia used the collection for research ranging from prehistoric Greek faunal remains to Bronze Age bone tools from Wales.

A&K is back with issue no. 37, featuring a most interesting book by another old friend of our team, Minghao Lin, currently a tenure-track associate professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. 👉 link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

Stories Written in Bone 🦴 A quick update on our buzzard. As it dried we had one of those real “wow” moments. Just look at that humerus: a transverse break, with traces of healing. Amazing attempt by the vet to repair the wing but, unfortunatelly, the bird died before it could fully heal.

A&K is back with issue n.37! Today we showcase a very interesting book by another old friend of our team - Minghao Lin, currently a tenure-track associate professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. If you are a cattle lover, this book is for you! link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

🌟 Volunteer spotlight (part 2)! Big thanks to Louise & Molly for helping with checking our bird reference collection after the move 🐦📚 First-year Zoology students and absolute stars—see you back in the lab soon!

A&K n.36 spotlights Paul Halstead, a pioneer in the ethnoarchaeology of animal husbandry, whose work helped establish Sheffield as a global hub for zooarchaeology.This volume brings together decades of research in the Mediterranean. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10....

Shoutout to one of our brilliant undergraduate volunteers 👏 Yesterday Ellis helped accession a new specimen into our zooarchaeology reference collection, a vital step in keeping our research materials organised and accessible 🦴

We’re pleased to share A&K no. 35! This issue features a key volume edited by Greg Monks on how zooarchaeology helps us understand human responses to climate change—drawing on case studies from across the globe. Enjoy 👉 link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

Lab update 🐾 ⚠️ May include images of dead animals. Latest additions to our skeletal reference collection! It’s always a strange mix of respect, curiosity, and “wow, that’s fascinating” when we do this kind of work—but every specimen helps us learn more, teach better, and support future research.

A& n.34 is here! 🥳 This post highlights a volume dedicated to our colleague Andrew Sherratt, featuring zooarchaeological work by Sarah Viner and Angelos Hadjikoumis from their PhDs in our lab.👉 www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv.... A reminder of lasting collaborations and where they can lead!

A&K n.33 is here! Today we showcase this fantastic volume by Zbigniew Bochenski and Teresa Tomek, which has allowed us great advances in the field of bird bone identification. Enjoy it here 👉 www.nhbs.com/a-key-for-th...

A&K n.32 highlights the work of Sofia Tecce, our brilliant Argentinian colleague and longtime team member. From MSc to PhD, Sofia played a key role in our research. Her PhD explored pig domestication in prehistoric Italy. You can read her paper here: eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/.../Tecce%20... ...

We're delighted to announce the publication of the latest effort of our research team! @phoebe-liu.bsky.social @umbertoalbarella.bsky.social @icaz-news.bsky.social @zig-saa.bsky.social @angeloszooarch.bsky.social @zooarch.bsky.social #zooarchaeology link.springer.com/article/10.1...

We are very pleased to share this great resource put together by our friend and colleagues from Historic England. @icaz-news.bsky.social #zooarchaeology archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archives/col...

A&K n.31 is here! 🌍 This week, we’re spotlighting an exciting intercontinental collaboration led by our brilliant colleagues Max Price and Hitomi Hongo, tackling one of the hottest topics in zooarchaeology. Curious to dive in? See link below 📄 link.springer.com/article/10.1...

🐾 Sparking curiosity with bones! At the Zooarch Lab in Sheffield, we love what we do and love sharing it! 🦴✨ We recently visited Silverdale School to introduce sixth formers to zooarchaeology. The talks got them thinking, but the hands-on session really sparked some great conversations!

Meet our newest tiny teaching legends 🐹🦴 Bubbles and Hector are being skeletonised to join our zooarchaeology reference collection, helping students and researchers identify small mammal bones. Another guinea pig will be joining them soon… stay tuned! ⚠️ Photos include deceased pets.

A&K n.30 is out! 🎉 Edited by our former Masters, PhD, and Postdoc colleague Lizzie Wright together with our great friend and collaborator Catarina Ginja, the volume brings together work from many members of the Sheffield team. www.lockwoodpress.com/product-page...

On the 25th of February we celebrated the Sheffield BIOARCH RICHeS launch 🎉 with visitors from partners, our governing body and potential users. Tours of the collections 🦴🌿 and chats about research and collaborations 🤝 made the day inspiring! Here are some pictures of the event!

With A&K No. 29 celebrates the work of our dear colleague Michael MacKinnon, whose research has helped integrate zooarchaeological and textual evidence. This paper is just one example from his extensive work on the Classical Mediterranean. www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...

In the Zooarch Lab in Sheffield, we’re giving our bird skeletons a glow-up! 🦴🪶 Adding names and photos—because bones tell a story, but feathers & colors matter too. Thanks to RICHeS for helping us! Today’s focus: Accipitriformes.

With A&K n.28 we’re celebrating one of our key team members of the past decade — Matteo Bormetti 🎉 His latest paper, based on his PhD, explores the remarkable continuity of animal husbandry in later Iron Age Britain. Enjoy! 👉 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Mr Badger update! 🦡✨ Fresh from his Zooarch spa day, Mr Badger is clean, preened, and almost ready to join his forever home in our reference collection. His bones tell their own story, with fractured ribs and femur, injury from a car encounter. Next up: guinea pigs.. so stay tuned! 🐹

A&K n.27 is out! 🎉 This issue features the work of Gerhard Forstenpointner — a pioneer in the study of animal ritual in Archaic & Classical Greece. His research on Olympian sacrifice has shaped and inspired countless studies since. Read it here: www.academia.edu/33602301/Pro...

Lovely to welcome former Osteoarchaeology student Suzanne Gee back to the lab during our RICHeS Open Day! Now working as a freelance osteoarchaeologist, she visited to refresh her zooarchaeology skills. Always proud to see our alumni thriving. Come back soon, Suzanne!

A bittersweet farewell to our brilliant colleague Stephanie Baron, forced out of our team by the University’s assault on archaeology. We’ll miss her hugely — her work keeping our collections alive has been invaluable — but we’re glad she’s found a new role in the Library. They’re lucky to have her.

A&K n.26 is out now! This post highlights the work of Chiara Corbino, a former Marie Curie Fellow with us. The featured paper was central to Chiara's fellowship project, but there’s much more to share about her work… Watch this space! www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...

🦜📚 A&K no. 25 celebrates the bird-focused books of Dale Serjeantson—essential reading for anyone studying bird bones from archaeological sites. A few years ago we were proud to honour Dale’s work with a conference in Sheffield. The proceedings will appear in a future issue of Alive & Kicking.

🦴🌱 Sheffield RICHeS Bioarchaeology Collections Open Days! 🌾 Archaeobotany: 10 & 24 Feb; 10 & 24 Mar; 14 & 28 Apr; 12 & 26 May 🦴 Zooarchaeology: 17 Feb; 3, 17 & 31 Mar; 21 Apr; 5 & 19 May To book contact us at: Archaeobotany → [email protected] Zooarchaeology → [email protected]

This was a great conference to be involved with. The stuff I talked about wasn't necessarily pleasant, but I'm glad that I had the opportunity to discuss it. Many thanks to Abu Siddiq et al. for the invitation. @zooarchlabsheff.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFJv... #zooarchaeology

📸 New kit alert! 📸 Thanks to RICHeS funding, we have added a new Leica camera and 3D analysis software to our Bioarchaeology collections 🙌 Perfect for archaeobotany imaging 🌾 but also incredibly valuable for zooarchaeological research, particularly for exploring taphonomic factors.

The much-awaited A&K no. 24 is out! 🎉 It showcases the work of Angela Trentacoste, former Sheffield PhD student and now involved in countless exciting projects. This paper builds on her PhD research 👉 doi:10.1179/1461957115Y.0000000015

The International Council of Archaeozoology www.alexandriaarchive.org/icaz/ has published a statement to condemn the Gaza genocide. You can download it here (Newsletter p.7): www.alexandriaarchive.org/icaz/publica... @archagainstaparth.bsky.social @blacktrowel.bsky.social @icaz-news.bsky.social

Really nice first day of the Mediterranean Zooarchaeology Symposium www.artuklu.edu.tr/medzooarch/a...

For A&K n.23, we are pleased to move to the Pacific Ocean for this interesting paper about mass fish capture! Check it out! 👉https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/arco.5320

Back to hands-on work after our move and reunited with a long-time freezer resident: Mr Badger 🦡 Once alive, now honoured for the contribution he’ll make to science. After a well-earned hot bath, Mr Badger will soon join our Zooarchaeology Research Collection. CW: images show a deceased animal

A&K n.22. This work comes from a collaboration between two of our former Marie Curie postdocs, Claudia Minniti and Silvia Valenzuela-Lamas, now in Rome and Barcelona. They continue to be close collaborators and played a key role in building our team. Enjoy! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

As part of our A&K series (n.21) we are keen to promote the vibrancy of zooarchaeology across the world. This is a classic paper based on South Africa and Lesotho by Ina Plug, the inspirational pioneer of African zooarchaeology. 👉https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305440396901533

🐎 Excited to share a new project led by friend and colleague Maaike Groot at Freie Universität Berlin: “Management, supply and mobility of equids in the northwestern Roman Empire” (DFG-funded). The project explores how horses and mules supported the Roman army. Congratulations Maaike!!!

The wait is over 😉 A&K no. 20 is here! Featuring Giorgos Kazantzis, former Sheffield MSc and PhD student, now researching and teaching in Greece. Still part of our team, always fondly remembered. This innovative paper from his PhD deserves far more attention: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

#EAAforDemocracy Democracy is at stake at EAA: all archaeologists should be very concerned A Special Meeting for members will take place on Jan 9th 2026 about the dysfunctioning of the current EAA leadership. See below:

A&K n.19 spotlights the work of Pam Crabtree, one of the most influential zooarchaeologists of the past few decades 🦴 Best known for her work at West Stow, this issue highlights her lesser-known but vital research on middle Saxon sites. Enjoy! eaareports.org.uk/publication/...

Congratulations to our former student and still great friend of our team, Marcos García García, for his very interesting new output! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Yesterday, as part of our RICHeS open day, we were delighted to welcome Dr Liz Quinlan from the University of Exeter 🐟 Liz’s project explores medieval to early modern freshwater and migratory fisheries, and our fish bone collection provides a valuable resource to support this exciting research.

Great to welcome a former MSc student back to the Zooarch collection today 🦴 Alex Waterman completed his MSc with us a few years ago and now works as a field archaeologist at PCAS Archaeology. He made the most of the RICHeS open days to refresh his zooarch skills. Bravo, Alex!

We’re excited to share this fantastic conference, kindly brought to our attention by our former MSc Osteo student Klaudia Kvockova, who is now pursuing her PhD 🎓 This is a brilliant opportunity to meet like-minded researchers and discover exciting projects. Don’t miss out! www.iansa.eu/cea