Tanja says creating detailed life histories from historic sheep bones offers important and unique insights into life and work in Australia’s convict colonies.
“Given the importance of sheep in Australia it’s surprising how little research has been done on sheep in colonial times,” Tanja says.
Understanding how colonists adapted to a challenging environment – coming from Britain to Australia – through their management of sheep can provide valuable information for today’s challenges in trying to create a stable food supply with rising global temperatures and climactic extremes.
Though initially studying a Bachelor of Education, Tanja undertook a Bachelor of Arts in Archaeology and Palaeoanthropology at UNE in 2017, and, through the zooarchaeology units, found a way to combine her love of animals with her interest in historical bones.
From her Honours to her PhD research, under the supervision of Associate Professor Melanie Fillios, she’s been gaining new specialist knowledge about bones and advanced lab techniques she never expected to learn.
“What I have found surprising is the vast amount of information that can be gathered solely from bones, specifically the skull and teeth,” Tanja says.
Through 3D imaging using geometric morphometrics and stable isotope analysis she’s learning about the breeds, herd management and adaptability strategies used in colonial Australia – and whether these can help tackle contemporary issues.
“3D imaging of the skulls can potentially differentiate between breeds to narrow down what breeds of sheep were used in colonial Australia, while isotope analysis on the teeth can tell us about trade practices, as it helps reveal whether the sheep were local or imported. It can also tell us about the environment, by what the sheep were eating.
I decided to focus on this research area as, despite the importance of sheep to colonial Australia, little is known about the specific early breeds used for secondary products such as wool.
“I’m also creating age profiles of the sheep, which can then tell us if they were young sheep used for primary production – meat, or secondary products, like milk and wool.”
Tanja is analysing well-preserved sheep bones from the early colonial period, 1790 to the 1840s, excavated from Clarence and Kent Street in Sydney, and held in the UNE archaeology lab.
While the bones have been well-studied for many purposes, the animals’ life profiles as Australia’s first sheep have never before been comprehensively reconstructed from the collection.
“I decided to focus on this research area as, despite the importance of sheep to colonial Australia, little is known about the specific early breeds used for secondary products such as wool.
“What has been really significant about my research thus far is the age of the sheep which suggests the majority were used for secondary products, thus enabling us to learn more about the wool economy.”
While able to offer insights into colonial times, Tanja says the findings could also be significant for agricultural practices today.
“Understanding how colonists adapted to a challenging environment – coming from Britain to Australia – through their management of sheep can provide valuable information for today’s challenges in trying to create a stable food supply with rising global temperatures and climactic extremes.”
While it’s too early in her research to begin to tackle the big questions, Tanja is confident there’s more to be revealed.
“The close relationship between humans and animal domesticates is unique, therefore delineating this relationship through looking at their bones contributes to our understanding of past human behaviours, which is what archaeology is all about, and why zooarchaeology is so cool!”
