Research Outline

Zooarchaology is a filed focuses on the analysis of animal bones recovered from archeological sites and investigation of the utilisation of animals by humans in the past. My recent focus has been on Accipitridae (hawks and eagles). In Japan, the accipitrids were used for fletching and falconry. Although specimens of Accipitridae have been recovered from sites from the Jomon period to the Edo period, which species and genera were used is ambiguous. Therefore, in this study, I will examine and assess the long bones of Accipitridae specimens to establish the morphological identification criteria. Additionally, I will attempt to compare the variability of amino acid sequences across taxa by using zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry (ZooMS). Furthermore, I will re-examine Accipitridae specimens recovered from archaeological sites in Japan. The findings of this study might be useful to understand the relationship between Accipitridae and humans in ancient Japan from archaeological perspective.