00:00.00 ALEX Hey everyone welcome to another episode of archaeo animals the podcast all about zoareology I'm your host Alex Fitzpatrick and with me as always and this is the second part of our latest minieries which we've. 00:10.39 S_ Granarius Simmona fallanga. 00:18.48 ALEX Titled where in the world because I'm extremely good at titles and it's finally forcing us to not talk about British stuff and actually look at the other parts of the world because it's. There's a world out there beyond the U K Shockingly I know. 00:34.61 S_ Granarius Um, what once again like dropping truth bombs within like 2 minutes 00:42.16 ALEX I know and I don't think you'll be able to even talk about the Romans in this episode. So are you gonna be okay. 00:51.31 S_ Granarius Um I don't know like ah um I'm sure I can shove them in somewhere. Yeah um, but and um, it's ah, quite good because it's giving us chance to get out of a comfort zone because we are very conscious of course both of us. 00:54.51 ALEX This is true. Yes, we we know this as a fact now. 01:10.93 S_ Granarius Being trained and living in the yeah uk we do tend to get a bit British Centric so yeah um what we've been doing sort of for this miniseries that we've broken them up into continents so we covered Europe in our last one so feel free to go check it out if you want. Um, and today we'll be looking at Africa of course disclaimer. As for all of our miniseries. You know these are roughly sort of 1 hour long episodes. So it is a very broad overview of sort of zoo archaeology in any given continent. So so please you know bear that in mind because especially you know with Africa it's a huge. Continent so we'll do our best with the time we've got. 01:49.72 ALEX Yeah, yeah, so we will be speaking a bit broadly but we'll make specifics when when and where we can and this will go for the rest of the miniseries. That said, if you're. Like these episodes and you want us to tackle say a specific country or a specific region within these continents. Let us know we love to take episode requests when they come anyway, let's start with the wild species as we have been doing in the last episode. So Africa is great because we can actually get into some really interesting species that we haven't talked about in previous episodes starting with the african elephant which technically refers to 2 separate species. The african bush elephant. 02:40.93 S_ Granarius Am I doing the species name again. Luxaant Africana 02:44.70 ALEX Every time it just sounds right when you say it. It's not gonna sound right when my american accent tries and tackles this and also I did really poorly in latin when I took it in my undergraduate. So. A little bit traumatizing for me. This is true and the other subspecies is the African Forest Elephant yeah there you go and. 03:00.69 S_ Granarius Fair I just make them all sound like Roman Generals 03:09.80 S_ Granarius Um, Loxedon Touchy cloth is. 03:17.30 ALEX Arguably the most important part of the elephant from a archaeological perspective if we're just looking at artifactual kind of remains and things like that is the ivory tusks which have actually been found as grape goods from burials of important people and leaders of the ebo. Uko in Nigeria and ivory artwork is also commonly associated with the kingdom of Congo located in the lower congo region of Africa. These also include very elaborately carved side blown horns called Olipens. And these very figurative again. Very elegantly carved scepters. So these are actually really kind of important when we look at the portuguese colonization of parts of Africa. Ah, when portuguese colonizers and missionaries actually arrived to the continent many of these kind of Avory Ivory artworks would be especially commissioned as gifts and trade leading them to be referred to by many as the afro portuguese ivories so many of them are. Um, display under that kind of name. 04:32.72 S_ Granarius And also in terms of a wide species because another sort of fairly well-known one is that of the western gorilla. But again, um, like the elephant where we do refer to 2 separate species. She have the western lowland gorilla. Gotri lagori lagola just in case, there were any doubts there. It's got left 3 times. Um and the cross river gorilla Guri Lagori led die Eli um chi away like um, we wanted to cover gorillas because it it gives us an interesting sort of moment to talk about sort of a distant cousin of. Zoo archaeology primatology. Um, which is arguably a branch of physical anthropology. Um primatology of course specifically studies non-human primates and looks are their interactions between themselves and other species their behaviors and so on their evolution over time. Um. Studies. Of course you know, been crucial to helping us better understand things such as the complexity of guerrilla societies and social groups as well as their ability to use tools and gather food more easily which is incredibly fascinated to think of from an archaeological perspective. 05:43.91 ALEX Yeah, because you know we always look at objects things that look like tools from that kind of anthropocentric perspective especially obviously places like the United Kingdom where we don't really have We don't really have Gorillas. And you know if you find something that looks like it was used as a tool. You'd be like oh you know is that some kind of warped item some kind of tool used by humans from the long past but it's interesting to think of finding objects and and for Gorillas it's mostly just kind of reworking branches and things like that. But even still. Interesting to kind of not consider them as tools in that same perspective even though they technically are. 06:26.96 S_ Granarius But is because it's an object that has been shaped to serve a particular or not necessarily been reshaped or an object has been repurposed for a a particular use with intent because you see that with ah and ah a range of sort of primates and you see that in chimpanzees as well. We're like. 06:35.37 ALEX So. 06:45.53 S_ Granarius Tools get utilized for what doesn't look like they're a pair in purpose if that makes sense. 06:50.78 ALEX Yeah, and it's It's just interesting I Guess to think of if you had say a archaeological assemblage and let's say there were a couple of branches in there that were actually used as tools by Gorillas we when one we wouldn't be able to really. No, but it's just is just funny that that would be kind of in an assemblage of items that could be used as tools and we would just not even consider it because we're very anthropocentric a lot of the times in our work. 07:23.93 S_ Granarius Yes, we but we do forget they know like um, using tools is not a human specialty I mean plenty but of fish do I mean corvids think I've been proven to use tools like said though, they'll gather sort of. 07:30.35 ALEX And yeah. 07:38.28 S_ Granarius Twigs and sticks to like help like extract insects and they'll like keep them aside reuse them later like. 07:43.69 ALEX Yeah, there was a really great um, tweet ah couple of weeks ago someone pointed out that there was a they found like ah, a bottle and a bunch of like shells like empty kind of like. Snail shells and they pointed out. Oh this is this has been used as a tool by like local birds that were like smashing the shells against the bottle this whole time and it's like the little things like that I find very very interesting, especially from a zoo archeological perspective of trying to be less anthropocentric. And I like to I like to time my brain and not sometimes I think it's fun I guess and also like I said this was a great example of primatology which we don't really talk about but is is kind of our distant zo archeological cousin. In a way. 08:38.47 S_ Granarius Yes, um, and I guess again because we tend to be very british centric and that there's um, not much in the way of primates that isn't human with with the exception now we know of the 1 monkey species in Gibraltar. 08:52.30 ALEX This is true. Yes, of course that that's the 1 exception but especially I think as an american who you know in America archeology and anthropology are very much intertwined I did a whole ah semester in primatology I realized it was not my thing. Which is I guess kind of ironic given that I went on to do zoo archeology which isn't really that different in some respects I was kind of just like all the all these monkey bones look the same I don't get it and look at me now. Guess they had the last laugh. Ah. 09:23.50 S_ Granarius With them make for a great blog post these book key posts are all the same I don't get it. 09:30.47 ALEX To be fair, the lecture was also at 9 a m on a Wednesday so I mean let's just say I did not show up most of the time. So maybe I missed some of the key classes that taught me how to differentiate between all those bones I'm a very good student anyway, moving on. The other kind of animal I think we all kind of think of when we think of Africa is the lion. 09:54.29 S_ Granarius Yes, panther and Leo. 09:56.41 ALEX Thank you but just waiting for that and it's arguably 1 of the most important animals both culturally and symbolically across many african cultures lions are pretty well represented in depictions across african artifacts which. You know makes sense. There's a lot of cultures kind of symbolized lions as being the the top of kind of hierarchies. Ah in the animal kingdom the idea of you know King of the jungle type things associating it with strength and rollership. Although I also note that in some. East african cultures in particular in East African Folklore the lion is considered a very lazy creature and is often kind of like the bit of the butt of the of some jokes in terms of being slow and lazy and kind of you know, not fussed to get up. 10:52.18 S_ Granarius Um, I mean it it kind of is. 10:54.10 ALEX And things like that. So. Well yeah, that that is the funny thing is that that's probably that's much closer to the actual realities of the lion but it's interesting to see that kind of difference across cultures and of course historically. Ah, hunting alliance is very long documented with the reasons for it also varying across cultures in ancient Egypt. For example, line hunting was mostly reserved for pharaohs and among the Masai in Kenya and Tanzania. Line hunting's actually kind of seen as a rite of passage and I believe it's still seen as that. Um, among the remaining Messai that's that I located located there. So is. It's really interesting to see the line kind of vary across cultures across the african continent. 11:45.15 S_ Granarius Um, another one that we chose in terms of wild animals is the white Rhino Um O That's a mouthful charatal Ferium simum. Ah um, it is the largest extant species of Rhino for now. 11:55.41 ALEX I Need do it. 12:03.39 ALEX Yeah. 12:05.30 S_ Granarius Alas, um, again that the trend continues. Um, which has two subspecies the Southern White Rhino and the Rarer Northern White Rhino which I think is now sort of functionally extinct I believe. 12:18.50 ALEX Yeah I Believe there's only like a handful if not like very few left in in I Believe they're um, almost all in captivity. Maybe. 12:29.92 S_ Granarius Yeah, but I guess like not enough to sort of sustain a healthy population Anyway, no that anyway, um yes, and it her I think probably gonna see a lot of that like her over like sort of all the. 12:32.88 ALEX No definitely not. It's a bit sad. 12:48.26 ALEX Yeah. 12:49.00 S_ Granarius Continents that we're going to cover in all fairness. So um, but yes, so um and now sovian age and historical african farming communities in Southern Africa has led to interpretation that rhinos were both symbolically significant and that's based on sort of artifactual evidence just clay and gold rhino figurines. But also significant on a domestic context. Ah based on eskeletal remains that were found sort of in settlements or domestic context in general. So we have um, uncovered sort of horns hide meats. You know which were likely used for food and ah goods the trade. 13:25.20 ALEX Yeah, it. It is actually really interesting because I think also as 2 people who are not connected to the african continent and have a lot more unfamiliarities in comparison to when we tackled Europe a lot of these are kind of. Uses of animals that I think neither of us would have maybe thought of immediately. Yeah and like so it's interesting I never would have thought white rhino or rno sources in general to be used for meat per se. 13:49.92 S_ Granarius Nurse. 14:02.38 ALEX And I think that speaks maybe to a kind of broader cultural difference in terms of you know, a lot of times I think when we think of animals especially african animals and again with with the disclaimer that we do not do work on the african continent. We all. I don't know about you but I always kind of think of african animals in the present tense because especially if you're thinking about the work that's done here in the Uk a lot of that work is that kind of conservation work. Ah, you know zoos things like that. 14:35.83 S_ Granarius Yeah, you tend to think of them as in now and not sort of what the explanation of the rhiner would have been in the iron age. 14:42.58 ALEX Yeah, and I think that we'll go across a lot of the other continents that we aren't necessarily as familiar with you know or don't have a familiarity with working with them in that you know because we don't think about them Archeologically it's Interesting. You kind of delve into the research that's been done or has been done on a lot of these animals and think about how you know how they're fought in the past. 15:08.51 S_ Granarius Yeah, because I think like the exception. The only time we would've seen this species would perhaps be in the roman period where animals would get a brought over sort of 2 fighting arenas which again, um yeah, um, more more happy things. 15:14.56 ALEX Now you go. 15:24.88 ALEX Well I guess this isn't really that happy. It's kind of happy maybe the but they are our last species. 15:27.56 S_ Granarius Yeah, no, ah but ah sorry like ah maybe that my sarcasm wasn't properly conveyed it all. 15:35.14 ALEX Well I mean this last species is is kind of happy. It's the spotted Hyena and it's also kind of fits into what we were just talking about with thinking about these animals in the present tense versus the past because. 15:43.90 S_ Granarius Es Crocutta crocutta. 15:53.80 ALEX We actually have evidence of the spotted Hyena in the past in the pleistocene here in the U K So I don't think we've actually covered the spotted Hyena in general though. But ah even though and. 16:03.77 S_ Granarius Um, I think we must have done because we we have a pleistocene sort of a pleistocene species episode so to be covered sort of these subspecies if you can call it that that was found throughout Europe which is could cool. the could callta spellas the cave hyena 16:10.88 ALEX Oh true. Yes. 16:21.12 ALEX Yeah, okay, yeah, now it's coming. It's coming back the way. But even though we we did cover that in a european context that was back in the pleocene but today and. Of course in in the past hyenas were actually a major taphonomic agent in Sub-saharan africa as scavengers. They actually produce very distinctive assemblages of sletal remains with identifiable gnawing and associated. You know droppings. And yeah, that's why they're terrifying to me. Is how they can really go out of bone and leave these very distinctive kind of skeletal remain assemblages and I don't want that happening to me to be honest. 17:03.57 S_ Granarius No like a thing they're in equal parts. Beautiful and terrifying like the honey badger. 17:08.82 ALEX Yes, exactly. But it is interesting to think about how you know if you have an assemblage of kind of scattered Prey Remains. You could easily think of it as oh it's the Spy Hyena And how. They transform their own kind of assemblages. 17:29.50 S_ Granarius Next that they have essentially long story short. They've got the carnassios from doom to basically I guess will be then the last premolar sort of her lower premolar and the upper first molar just bit. 17:35.18 ALEX Yeah, that's a. 17:45.71 ALEX They're pretty scary. Yeah, and as we kind of think about how scary that is I think we'll take a break and we'll move on in our next segment onto the domesticates. 17:46.37 S_ Granarius Big carnashiels. 17:52.58 S_ Granarius Um.