The First National Workshop of Zooarchaeology Held in the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing from 5th to 10th December, 2009. Professor Yuan Jing presided the workshop. More than 20 zooarchaeologists from Research Center for Frontier Archaeology, Jilin University, Jilin Provincial Institute of Archaeology and Cultural Relics, School of Archaeology and Museology, Peking University, Department of Exhibition, National Museum, Research Center for Oriental Archaeology, Shandong University, Henan Provincial Institute of Archaeology and Cultural Relics, Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology, School of History and Museology, Chongqing Normal University, Hubei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Hunan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, and the Institute of Archaeology, CASS participated in the meeting. Moreover, some graduate students majoring in zooarchaeology from overseas countries and China were also invited to join in the meeting.

      The workshop has four themes. First, Dr. Richard Meadow and Dr. Ajita Patel from Harvard University were invited to introduce their experiences in zooarchaeological research. Secondly, the participants introduced their research fruits and further exchanged each other. Thirdly, Operation Criterion for Collecting and Analyzing Faunal Remains from Archaeological Sites was discussed and passed. Forth, The draft of Atlas of Animal Bones from Archaeological Sites was discussed and revised.

      Dr. Richard Meadow spent one and half days to introduce the methods to collecting, refitting, and recording faunal remains and the operation of database construction, as well as the new direction of international zooarchaeology and his ideas how to do zooarchaeological research. Dr. Ajita Patel also spent one and half days to discuss the skeletal features of distinguishing goats from sheep, as well as distinguishing water buffalo from cattle (including sexual differences). Part of Chinese scholars also introduced their experiences about faunal identification. Dr. Yin-Man Lam from Department of Anthropology, Victoria University, Canada, gave a presentation about taphonomy and his case studies.   

How to investigate taphonomic issues about faunal remains from the Neolithic Age onwards has been a neglect topic in China. Dr. Lam’s presentation will contribute to our research in the future.

      When the workshop was over, Professor Yuan Jiarong made a promise that the second national meeting of zooarchaeology will be held in Changsha next year. We hope, following this workshop, to hold a nationwide meeting of zooarchaeology each year to improve the development of Chinese zooarchaeology step by step.