Researchers in this session share a multispecies/more-than-human approach to our work. We presume that human and animal relationships were inextricably entangled in the past in much the same way they are today. This theoretical framework explores the complexity of multispecies interactions and empowers animals with the agency to both instigate change and influence human decision-making. The multispecies approach closely aligns with Indigenous Ways of Knowing and challenges Western/scientific modes of a human-centered world. In this paper, I review theories, concepts, and ways of knowing that honor the agency of non-human actors. Using examples from my own work in the Mid-Atlantic, I share some familiar and emergent methodologies and technologies that place quantifiable aspects of the archaeological record into conversation with less tangible aspects of animal-human interactions. These techniques and tools allow us to focus on animals as agents fomenting change alongside human actors.

Beaver is one of the most common species found archaeologically in New England, and the study of their bones has produced valuable insights into Indigenous life. How beavers and other fur bearing animals were used in death has received more attention than the impact these animals had on Indigenous and European groups while they were alive. Fur bearing animals are ecosystem engineers, diverting rivers and waterways and creating wetland habitats across North America that are vital to the survival of many other species, including humans. This paper uses historical maps and the archaeological record to reconstruct environments modified by fur bearing animals during the Woodland and Historic periods, comparing them to the locations and use patterns of Indigenous and European settlements. I examine how ecosystem builders influenced Indigenous and European settlement patterns and lifeways, and how their decline impacted the physical and cultural landscape.

Bird bones are nearly ubiquitous in the archaeology of American plantations, but they are often under-examined. Faunal research tends to focus on birds as product or producer. Instead, a multispecies perspective provides insight into the interwoven realities of enslaved people and birds, recontextualizing the landscape and skyscape of late 18th and early 19th century plantations. Using zooarchaeological and historical data from the presidential plantations of Montpelier and Monticello in Virginia, I explore the influence of fowl and other birds on schedules, divisions of labor, and relationships of power and agency. Domesticated birds also influenced the delineation of wildness on plantations, attracting myriad predators that required human intervention. By complicating animal narratives, we can better understand the lived experiences of enslaved African Americans and the birds they kept.

Horses were ubiquitous in 18th and 19th century America, and material objects relating to horse use and care are commonly recovered from archaeological sites across the eastern seaboard dating to this time. Despite their importance and prevalence on the landscape, skeletal remains of horses are notably infrequent in archaeological assemblages. Archaeologists generally attribute the absence of horse remains to their primary utility as work animals, rather than as meat sources. In this paper, we explore an additional, and unusual, explanation for their scarcity. Archival and visual materials from the historic period suggest that deceased horses were used to feed another ubiquitous human companion: domestic dogs. Zooarchaeological analysis of horse remains show evidence for gnawing by carnivores, as well as marks from the primary dismemberment of horses. This paper will break down the zooarchaeological patterns seen between this multispecies encounter between humans, horses, and dogs in the past.

This presentation examines the role of horses in Detroit's industrial development, demonstrating how their labor, then displacement, and erasure, illuminate the logics of colonial capitalism. Drawing on archival and visual sources, I trace how equine bodies were central to public infrastructure before being rendered obsolete by motor vehicles. Grounded in decolonial theory, this research considers how more-than-human histories can unsettle dominant narratives and compel new methodological approaches. The horse histories project deepened into an inquiry of the more profound demands of decolonization itself, not only as critique, but as a personal practice of healing and relational repair. In this light, I consider what it means for academia to take seriously other epistemologies, such as those grounded in Indigenous knowledge systems displaced by Western expansion—and how engaging with them might expand our capacity to engage ethically with multispecies pasts and futures.

Big cats hold symbolic significance across cultures, especially in the Americas, where felids such as jaguars and pumas are revered and respected. In South American cultures, these cats are associated with traits such as strength, aggression, status, and supernatural protection. . Their representations appear in various material forms. This paper traces the journey of modified canine teeth of three large felids – two jaguars (Panthera onca) and one puma (Puma concolor) - from Venezuela to the island of Dominica between the 15th and 18th centuries. The tooth pendants were recovered from LaSoye, a 17th-18th-century Indigenous trading settlement on Dominica’s windward coast. The stories of these teeth are presented both archaeologically and through the words of Kalinago descendants of the bearers of the pendants. These objects symbolize the enduring ancestral connections between the Caribbean islands and South America, as well as the powerful relationship between humans and big cats.

Polar bears (Ursus maritimus) have become mascots of climate change activism. Recently, reports of hybridization with brown bears (Ursus arctos) has caused concern among journalists and scientists. Some have discounted the hybrids as a small group of oddly behaving bears. Others have documented relatively high rates of gene flow between bear species, which leaves open the implications of hybridization. While these bears may seem like twenty-first century news, humans have been in close contact with hybrids for over 100 years. In 1905, Richard Steiff invented the Teddy Bear toy in Germany after being inspired by “cappuccino bears” at the Nill’s Zoo in Stuttgart. These hybrid polar-brown bears were on display as early as 1875. Their bones remained unstudied at the Stuttgart State Museum of Natural History, until 2025. These and other zoo bears have a lot to teach humans about responding to changing conditions, climatic and otherwise.

In 1907, Eugen Mannheim established a private zoo in Tübingen, southern Germany. He sourced animals and structural components from major zoos such as those in Stuttgart and Hamburg. His contact network across Europe’s zoo scene proved invaluable to his private venture. Mannheim had also taken part in animal-hunting expeditions in Africa alongside Carl Hagenbeck, the internationally renowned wild animal merchant. The zoo operated until the outbreak of World War I, after which it fell into disrepair.

For our project, we reconstructed the layout and topography of the zoo using written records, contemporary images, a LiDAR scan, and on-site survey. Our work is guided by a phenomenological approach that foregrounds questions of animal keeping and animal welfare. We see the Tübingen zoo as a material expression of the desire for exotic animals within the broader context of the German Empire’s colonial policies.

Decolonizing zooarchaeology requires developing protocols of care for animals in laboratories and classrooms. Our presentation outlines three actionable approaches for faunal analysts to enhance our respect for and accountability to Indigenous Peoples’ perspectives by acknowledging the agency and inherent value of other-than-human Ancestors. We detail how our lab restructured our comparative collection to align with Southwestern Indigenous epistemologies, disrupting Western taxonomic systems and developed transparency and accessibility to what animal skeletal materials are available in our lab. Through undergraduate and graduate student research, we also work to conduct zooarchaeological analyses that consciously prioritize Indigenous perspectives and limit Western assumptions about animal agency and their relationships with us. Finally, students are empowered in the zooarchaeology class to create their own protocols for respecting animal lives. We offer these examples as a call to action, with the hope of encouraging others to honor the profound contributions of other-than-humans to our interconnectedness.