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About Canan
Canan Çakirlar is an Associate Professor with ius promovendi in the Department of East-Mediterranean and West-Asian Archaeology at the Groningen Institute of Archaeology, Faculty of Arts, University of Groningen. She earned her PhD from the University of Tübingen in 2007. As Head of Zooarchaeology and Director of the GIA zooarchaeology laboratory, she leads the zooarchaeology research group. She also serves as Director of Studies for the two-year Research MA in Archaeology. Her research specializes in zooarchaeology and archaeomalacology, utilizing methods such as stable isotope analysis of biogenic carbonates and collagen, incremental growth analysis, osteomorphology, taphonomy, ZooMS, and aDNA. She examines interactions between socio-economic structures and biodiversity, covering animal domestication, origins of draught animals like oxen, systematic breeding practices, over-exploitation and intensification of harvesting, hunting-based landscape and population management, meat and dairy consumption, ritualization of over-eating, animals as diplomatic gifts, translocations of wildlife, over-exploitation for luxury goods, and animal use for power displays.
Çakirlar has conducted analyses on faunal remains from sites across Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Hellenistic, Roman, Crusader, early Turkish, Byzantine, and Colonial periods, including Kinet Höyük, Tell Atchana/Alalakh, Kilisetepe, Patara, Clazomenae, Gordion, Troy, Ulucak, Karaburun, Yeni Bademli Höyük, Kaymakçı, Fikirtepe, Yenikapı in Turkey; Swifterbant sites in the Netherlands; Halos and Athenian Agora in Greece; Tell Fadous, Tell el-Burak, Berytus in Lebanon; Tell Leilan, Dur Katlimmu in Syria; Nineveh in Iraq. She directs the NWO-funded project EDAN: Emergence of Animal Husbandry in the Netherlands, Hidden Hybrids on hybrid camels in the Ancient Near East, and contributes to SeaChanges and SNMAP on stable isotopes from Troy and Kumtepe. Key publications include "Pig domestication and human-mediated dispersal in western Eurasia revealed through ancient DNA and geometric morphometrics" (2013), "Ancient goat genomes reveal mosaic domestication in the Fertile Crescent" (2018), "Data sharing reveals complexity in the westward spread of domestic animals across Neolithic Turkey" (2014), "Fueling draught power: A multi-isotopic study of draught cattle husbandry in Bronze and Iron Age Gordion" (2026), and "Animal exploitation in Medieval Kinet Höyük: The zooarchaeology of 12th to 14th century CE deposits" (2025). She has participated in two editorials and one special issue editing, with research featured in media on prehistoric farming and ancient remains.
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