Research in the spotlight

SPM researchers are involved as cooperation partners in the Taş-Tepeler project (literally: Stone Mounds Project) under the direction of Prof. Necmi Karul from Istanbul University. Several sites equipped with the enigmatic T-shaped pillars known from Göbeklitepe are excavated and analysed by multinational teams. The researchers from Munich are responsible for the archaeofaunas of Göbeklitepe, Gürcütepe […]

The transition from hunter-gathering to farming and animal raising is one of the most significant changes our species have undertaken. One of the key areas of study for this transition and the emergence of the stock-keeping of sheep, goat, cattle and pig is the Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN) (ca. 9,700 – 7,000 cal. BCE) and lies […]

Staatssammlung für Paläoanatomie München:Mitogenetic diversity of sheep did not decline in the Anatolian distribution area of wild sheep when sheep husbandry developed in the early Neolithic c. 10,000 years ago, as previously assumed. SNSB and LMU zooarchaeologist Prof. Joris Peters and collaborators could show that matrilineal diversity remained high during the first 1,000 years of […]

The new study provides deep insights into the shared past of fallow deer and humans and their role in human societies. Using DNA analyses, the researchers can show for the first time where past and present fallow deer populations originated and where they spread with human involvement and settled permanently under their protection. More than […]

Skeletal pathologies in ancient Egyptian baboon mummies suggest health problems due to inadequate nutrition and chronic lack of sunlight. An international team led by the Belgian archaeozoologist Prof. Wim van Neer from the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences examined baboon mummies from Ancient Egypt, around 3,000 years old. Apparently, the animals suffered from various […]

Birds were an important source of food for hunter-gatherer communities in Upper Mesopotamia at the beginning of the Neolithic period, around 9,000 years BCE. This is shown in a new study by SNSB and LMU archaeozoologists Dr. Nadja Pöllath and Prof. Dr. Joris Peters.

Genetic analyses by an international team involving researchers from the Bavarian State Collection for Paleoanatomy an the LMU Munich show that the Romans were the first to bring mules to Central Europe. Before horses were the only riding animals used by people there.

New research transforms our understanding of the circumstances and timing of the domestication of chickens, their spread across Asia into the west, and reveals the changing way in which they were perceived in societies over the past 3,500 years. Experts have found that an association with rice farming likely started a process that has led to chickens becoming one of the world’s most numerous animals.

The excavations on the “Marienhof” in Munich behind the city hall represent the largest archaeological procedure in the old town of Munich to date.

The Sumerians evidently used horse-like animals in their war campaigns as early as 4,500 years ago.