Old bones tell many stories.
By studying bones from archaeological sites we can learn much about our past that can not be studied by other means. The animal bones tell us about past climates and climate change, past environments, past animal distributions, human diet, the processes of domestication, herding practices, ritual use of animals and much, much more. Archaeozoology, or zooarchaeology as it also frequently referred to, takes over where palaeontology leaves off, namely from about 1.5 million years ago to as recent as the mid 20th century. Where palaeontology seldom has to deal with human culture, archaeozoology has to take human activities very much into account, as people were responsible for most of the bone accumulations the archaeozoologist studies. The expertise needed for this work covers several areas of specialisation.