Canan CakirlarUniversity of Groningen | RUG · Groningen Institute of Archaeology (GIA)
Canan Cakirlar
PhD
Head of zooarchaeology research group, program chair research master's in archaeology, teaches Anthropocene.
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Introduction
Additional affiliations
September 2012 - present
January 2011 - June 2012
January 2011 - July 2012
Publications
Publications (109)
Schipluiden (3630-3380 cal BC), the earliest known year-round settlement in the Rhine-Meuse Delta in the Netherlands, is a key site for addressing the nature of Neolithic subsistence in the wetlands of northwestern Europe. A preliminary zooarchaeological study suggested that cattle husbandry was a major activity at Schipluiden. In contrast, stable...
This paper focuses on the functional analysis of Swifterbant pottery (c. 5000-3800 cal BC) in the Lower Rhine-Meuse area (the Netherlands). It examines pottery use across the transition to agriculture and aims to assess temporal changes in human-animal relations during the 5th millennium BC in the Lower Rhine-Meuse area through lipid residue analys...
Cattle were of great importance for the Neolithic farmers of southeastern Europe, in particular as farming expanded towards the well-watered regions of Džuljunica (ca. 6200–5500 cal. BCE), one of the earliest known Neolithic settlements in northeastern Bulgaria. The clear stratigraphy and the substantial Bos assemblage from Džuljunica Provided us w...
The Middle and Late Bronze Ages of western Anatolia (modern Turkey) remains poorly understood in comparison with its Mycenaean and Hittite neighbours, especially in agricultural economies and land use. Kaymakçı is the largest Middle and Late Bronze Age citadel excavated to date in western Anatolia and new archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological data...
This paper presents the results of stable carbon ( δ ¹³ C) and nitrogen ( δ ¹⁵ N) isotopic analysis of bulk bone collagen from faunal remains from the Bronze Age site of Kaymakçı in western Anatolia. We use the isotopic values in conjunction with zooarchaeological data and contextual archaeological information to examine human-environment interacti...
Historians and archaeologists have been debating the scale of animal husbandry in ancient Greece for decades. This study contributes to the debate by examining Classical and Hellenistic faunal assemblages from Magoula Plataniotki, New Halos, and Pherae through non-destructive zooarchaeological methods and a multi-isotopic (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr, δ¹³C, and δ¹⁸O...
Canan Çakırlar (Dr. Rer. Nat.)
Full CV and publications until June 2024
The nature and timing of the transition to farming north of the Linearbandkeramik zone in Europe is the subject of much debate, but our understanding of this fundamental shift in lifeways is hampered by the low resolution of available data. This article presents new multi-proxy evidence from Swifterbant( 4240–4050 BC), in the Dutch wetlands, for mo...
This study investigates pre-colonial and colonial-era pearl fisheries in Sri Lanka using archaeological data from the Gulf of Mannar (GoM). Following surface surveys, test pits were excavated in three pearl oyster middens and one coastal settlement. The archaeomalacological study of the molluscan remains from the middens confirms that the pearl oys...
Occupied between ~10,300 and 9300 years ago, the Pre-Pottery Neolithic site of Aşıklı Höyük in Central Anatolia went through early phases of sheep domestication. Analysis of 629 mitochondrial genomes from this and numerous sites in Anatolia, southwest Asia, Europe, and Africa produced a phylogenetic tree with excessive coalescences (nodes) around t...
The timing of the Holocene transition of the Black Sea from a brackish lake to a marine sea has long been debated. Here, we report on the earliest records of cetaceans in the Black Sea region as a proxy for the connection with the Mediterranean and the transition from a brackish to marine environment. We base our analysis on cetacean skeletal finds...
Over the last 10,000 y, humans have manipulated fallow deer populations with varying outcomes. Persian fallow deer ( Dama mesopotamica ) are now endangered. European fallow deer ( Dama dama ) are globally widespread and are simultaneously considered wild, domestic, endangered, invasive and are even the national animal of Barbuda and Antigua. Despit...
Anthropogenic factors have impacted the diversity and evolutionary trajectory of various species. This can be through factors such as pressure on population size or range, habitat fragmentation, or extensive manipulation and translocation. Here we use time-calibrated data to better understand the pattern and processes of evolution in the heavily ma...
Marine historical ecology provides a means to establish baselines to inform current fisheries management. Groupers (Epinephelidae) are key species for fisheries in the Mediterranean, which have been heavily overfished. Species abundance and distribution prior to the 20th century in the Mediterranean remains poorly known. To reconstruct the past bio...
The recent exploitation of marine species is relatively well documented and understood in terms of impacts on species abundance, distribution, and resource use. In contrast, ancient exploitation of marine mammals remains poorly documented; in part, because a detailed meta-analysis of their presence in the zooarchaeological record is lacking. This i...
"Protect and restore ecosystems and biodiversity" is the second official aim of the current UN Ocean Decade (2021 to 2030) calling for the identification and protection of critical marine habitats. However, data to inform policy are often lacking altogether or confined to recent times, preventing the establishment of long-term baselines. The unique...
Bulletin d'archéologie et d'architecture libanaises
This report presents the main results of the final season of excavations in 2016
at Tell Fadous-Kfarabida, located on the north Lebanese coast 2 km south of Batroun.
Excavations focused on four areas. In Area II we worked only in Squares 310/295
and parts of 305/295, where the excavations in 2015...
The Late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age (EBA) 1 are dynamic prehistoric eras, encapsulating crucial political, social and economic developments in western Anatolia and the adjacent regions. Although recent fieldwork and synthesis on this transition in western Turkey provide a general framework for this important transitional period, we still lac...
The scale of animal husbandry in ancient Greece has been debated for decades. To contribute to this debate, we examined faunal assemblages from Pherae in central Greece using non-destructive zooarchaeological methods. The results show that Pherae was involved in a caprine-oriented husbandry. The limited mobility of domesticated animals, indicated b...
Groupers (Epinephelidae) are ecologically, commercially, and culturally important carnivorous fishes found throughout the world’s tropical, subtropical, and temperate coastal marine waters. Due to various life history traits (e.g., late maturity, sequential hermaphroditism) and behavior (e.g., sedentary, small home ranges) groupers are susceptible...
Digital technologies are an increasingly pervasive medium for zooarchaeological scholarship, providing a means to document and preserve fragile zooarchaeological specimens, share primary data, address methodological questions, and spread the information to the wider public. During the last decade, a broad array of digital technologies has been wide...
Sequencing ancient DNA to high coverage is often limited by sample quality and cost. Imputing missing genotypes can potentially increase information content and quality of ancient data, but requires different computational approaches than modern DNA imputation. Ancient imputation beyond humans has not been investigated. In this study we report resu...
Cattle traction was a technological innovation that made a significant impact on production, individual and household wealth, and social organisation. Despite ongoing debates regarding the origins and extent of the harnessing of cattle power among early agropastoral societies, only a few studies have attempted at addressing this matter systematical...
Anatolia witnessed an increase in mobility and interaction during the Iron Age. Peoples from Southeastern Europe and Southwest Asia migrated into and across Anatolia. At the same time, under the influence of expanding and competing polities, trade and military mobility reinforced supra-regional networks across land and sea. Little is known about ho...
Suids (Sus sp.) played a crucial role in the transition to farming in northern Europe and, like in many regions, in the Netherlands pig husbandry became an important subsistence activity at Neolithic sites. Yet little is known about wild boar palaeoecology and hunting in the Late Mesolithic Netherlands with which to contextualize this transition. T...
Scholars have been arguing about the nature and scale of Greco-Roman economy in mainland Greece for over fifty years. In this study we investigate the faunal assemblages of Magoula Plataniotiki and New Halos, two neighbouring Classical and Hellenistic towns in Almiros (Thessaly, Greece) to scrutinize how the animal economy functioned in central Gre...
One hundred years of zooarchaeology in Groningen. In 1920, Albert Egges van Giffen founded the Biologisch-Archaeologisch Instituut. Even back in 1920, zooarchaeology was a main component of the institute’s research focus and van Giffen started a zooarchaeological reference collection. The zooarchaeology collection gradually expanded, and zooarchaeo...
Humans have been exploiting marine resources along the Levantine coast for millennia. Advances in biomolecular archaeology present novel opportunities to understand the exploitation of these taxa in antiquity. We discuss the potential insights generated by applying collagen peptide fingerprinting, ancient DNA analysis, and stable isotope analysis t...
Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) have shaped the cultures and provided livelihood to peoples of the Northern Hemisphere for thousands of years. They are still the socio‐economic cornerstone of many northern cultures. Insight into reindeer mortality patterns is important for understanding past human‐reindeer interactions and reindeer population fluctuat...
Schipluiden (3630–3380 cal BC), the earliest known year-round settlement in the Rhine-Meuse Delta in the Netherlands, is a key site for addressing the nature of Neolithic subsistence in the wetlands of northwestern Europe. A preliminary zooarchaeological study suggested that cattle husbandry was a major activity at Schipluiden. In contrast, stable...
The Epipalaeolithic and Mesolithic periods of Turkey are poorly understood. The discovery of two sites (Kocaman and Kayadibi) in the Karaburun Peninsula in coastal western Turkey opens a whole new window into our understanding of these periods in Turkey and beyond by providing the first solid evidence for pre-Neolithic foragers. This article presen...
This paper explores pig husbandry across the Aegean and Anatolia based on zooarchaeological data and ancient texts. The western Anatolian citadel of Kaymakçı is the departure point for discussion, as it sits in the Mycenaean-Hittite interaction zone and provides a uniquely large assemblage of pig bones. NISP, mortality, and biometric data from 38 a...
The two‑humped camel, which the Greeks and Romans called the Bactrian camel, is a mystery,
when it comes to its zooarchaeological record. The archaeological evidence for its pre‑domestication
biogeography, domestication centre, diffusion, and finally its hybridization with the dromedary is
extremely scarce. This situation is in great contrast with...
More than fifty years ago, Anneke T. Clason published the first English-language archaeozoological study on Dutch faunal assemblages. Inspired by the anniversary of this landmark publication, this paper presents a status overview of Dutch archaeozoology organized in twelve themes (e.g. rituals, Mesolithic-Neolithic transition, medieval period). The...
Accessibility to zooarchaeological reference materials is a key hurdle when determining species classification, particularly in cases where the differences between two species (e.g. sheep and goat) are nuanced. Bonify is a pilot platform allowing the virtual comparison between 3D virtual animal bone models and zooarchaeological specimens. Two techn...
Archaeological evidence indicates that pig domestication had
begun by ∼10,500 y before the present (BP) in the Near East,
and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) suggests that pigs arrived in
Europe alongside farmers ∼8,500 y BP. A few thousand years after
the introduction of Near Eastern pigs into Europe, however, their
characteristic mtDNA signature disapp...
Archaeological evidence indicates that pig domestication had begun by ∼10,500 y before the present (BP) in the Near East, and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) suggests that pigs arrived in Europe alongside farmers ∼8,500 y BP. A few thousand years after the introduction of Near Eastern pigs into Europe, however, their characteristic mtDNA signature disapp...
Archaeological evidence indicates that pig domestication had begun by ∼10,500 y before the present (BP) in the Near East, and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) suggests that pigs arrived in Europe alongside farmers ∼8,500 y BP. A few thousand years after the introduction of Near Eastern pigs into Europe, however, their characteristic mtDNA signature disapp...
The site of Ulucak is pivotal in exploring the Neolithic of the eastern Aegean and western Anatolia. It has an impressivestratigraphic sequence stretching from the first half of the seventh millennium BC to the first half of the sixth millennium BC.Recent zooarchaeological analyses have provided insight into the importance of animal husbandry pract...
Southern Anatolia is a highly significant area within the Mediterranean, particularly in terms of understanding how agriculture moved into Europe from neighbouring regions. This study uses pollen, palaeoclimate and archaeological evidence to investigate the relationships between demography and vegetation change, and to explore how the development o...
The Bulgarian site Džuljunica-Smărdeš, dating to 6205-5529 cal. BC, is one of the oldest Neolithic sites in Europe. Both domestic cattle and caprines are present in the zooarchaeological assemblage, but Sus, in contrast, is extremely rare. It is not known if the earliest Neolithic people in Europe did rear domestic pigs, practised some form of pig...
The Bulgarian site Džuljunica-Smărdeš, dating to 6205-5529 cal. BC, is one of the oldest Neolithic sites in Europe. Both domestic cattle and caprines are present in the zooarchaeological assemblage, but Sus, in contrast, is extremely rare. It is not known if the earliest Neolithic people in Europe did rear domestic pigs, practised some form of pig...
THIS ARTICLE IS AVAILABLE VIA AJA OPEN ACCESS AT https://www.ajaonline.org/sites/default/files/1224_Roosevelt_0.pdf WITH AN ONLINE SUPPLEMENTAL IMAGE GALLERY AT https://www.ajaonline.org/node/3774.
Current understandings of the archaeology of second-millennium B.C.E. central western Anatolia are enriched by ongoing research at Kaymakçı, located in...
Michael J. Allen, ed. Molluscs in Archaeology: Methods, Approaches and Applications (Studying Scientific Archaeology 3. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2017, 448pp., 107 illustr., 36 in colour, hbk, ISBN: 978-1-785-70608-0) - Volume 21 Issue 3 - Canan Çakirlar
How humans got their goats
Little is known regarding the location and mode of the early domestication of animals such as goats for husbandry. To investigate the history of the goat, Daly et al. sequenced mitochondrial and nuclear sequences from ancient specimens ranging from hundreds to thousands of years in age. Multiple wild populations contribut...
Digital literacy has been cited as one of the primary challenges to ensuring data reuse and increasing the value placed on open science. Incorporating published data into classrooms and training is at the core of tackling this issue. This article presents case studies in teaching with different published data platforms, in three different countries...
The ‘Karaburun Archaeological Survey’ project aims to illuminate the lifeways of Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene foragers in western Anatolia. A recently discovered, lithic-rich site on the Karaburun Peninsula offers new insights into a currently undocumented period of western Anatolian prehistory.
This paper presents biometric data from a collection of 488 dogs skulls originating from 58 (archaeological) sites in the northern Netherlands dating from the Iron Age to the Medieval Period. The crania were originally collected and documented in the early 20th century by Prof. Albert Egges van Giffen, one of the pioneers of Dutch archaeology and a...
Zooarchaeology, Archaeology,