The Karashamb Animals Project is an ongoing project to analyze the faunal remains from the excavations at the Bronze Age cemetery at Karashamb (Armenia), in collaboration with with Dr. Pavel Avetisyan and Varduhi Melikian at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography. The collections from Karashamb offer an unparalleled glimpse into the role that animals played in mortuary ritual during the 3rd and 2nd millennium BC in the South Caucasus.
This research combines zooarchaeological and isotopic analysis of the animal remains found in the hundreds of burials that have been excavated from the necropolis – in order to shed light on the pre- and post-mortem social lives of animals in the ancient South Caucasus.