Associate Professor Melanie Fillios

Director of Place Based Education and Research | Archaeology - School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences

Melanie Fillios

Phone: +61 +61 2 6773 5828

Email: mfillio2@une.edu.au

Biography

I am an anthropological archaeologist with an interest in the relationship between humans and animals throughout history. I have extensive field experience in Greece and Australia, and have taught a range of theoretical and practical, field-based subjects in the United States and Australia.

I am passionate about all things education. I have a particular fascination with exploring the ways that increased interaction with technology is influencing learning. I am also an avid advocate for sustainability and am intensely interested in exploring the nexus between people, the environment and the increasing role of technology in all aspects of modern life.

Qualifications

BA Boise State University
MA University of Minnesota
PhD University of Minnesota

Teaching Areas

ARPA 104 Principles and Practices in Archaeology

ARPA 107 Human Evolution

ARPA 307/507 Experimental Archaeology

ARPA 309/509 Zooarchaeology

ARPA 310/510 Archaeology of Food

ARPA 356/556 Archaeology in the Laboratory

Australian Archaeology

Mediterranean Archaeology

Research Interests

Zooarchaeology: human-animal-environmental interactions, esp. commensals & early animal domesticates

Behavioural Ecology and human evolution

Experimental archaeology

Holocene Australia and dingoes

Greek prehistory and the evolution of social complexity

Anthropological archaeology

Archaeology and anthropology of food

Publications

Maccheroni, M., Fillios, M., Grave, P. 2021. Female Vanity in the Early Modern Period: Evidence from the Science Based Reassessment of a Supposed Merovingian Dental Appliance. Journal of the History of Dentistry 69(1):29-45.

2021   Vaiglova, P, Coleman, J, Diffey, C, Tzevelekidi, V, Fillios, M, Pappa, M, Halstead, P, Valamoti, SM, Cavanagh, W, Rendard, J, Buckley, M, Bogaard, A.  Exploring diversity in Neolithic agropastoral management in mainland Greece using stable isotope analysis. Environmental Archaeology. https://doi.org/10.1080/14614103.2020.1867292

Roberts, J, Weeks, L, Fillios, M, Cable, C et al. 2020. The bird remains from Saruq al-Hadid: Insights into human activity and the environment in late prehistoric southeastern Arabia. Quaternary International.   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2020.03.021

2020a   Koungoulos, L., Fillios, M. 2020a. Hunting dogs down under? On the Aboriginal use of tame dingoes in dietary game acquisition and its relevance to Australian prehistory, Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 58, 101146, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2020.101146

2020b   Koungoulos, L., Fillios, M. 2020b. Between ethnography and prehistory: The case of the Australian dingo in Bethke, B. & Burtt, A. (eds) Dogs: Archaeology beyond domestication. University of Florida Press

2019  Maccheroni, M, Fillios, M.  Replication of Ancient Egyptian Oral Surgical Procedures Using Stone and Bronze Hand Drills. Journal of the History of Dentistry 67(1):31-392019   Roberts, J., Weeks, L., Fillios, M., Cable, C., Carter, M., al-Ali, Y., Radwan, M., Zein, H. The exploitation of marine resources at Saruq al-Hadid: Insights into the movement of people and resources in Bronze and Iron Age southeastern Arabia, Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 30(2), 179-198. https://doi.org/10.1111/aae.12137

2019   Roberts, J., Weeks, L., Fillios, M., Cable, C., al-Ali, Y., Boraik, M., Zein, H. et al. Preliminary insights into late prehistoric fish procurement strategies in the desert interior of southeastern Arabia: The results of LA-ICP-MS analysis of a fish otolith assemblage from Saruq al-Hadid, UAE, Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 26. doi.org/10.1016j.jasrep.2019.05.021.

2019   Smith, B., Cairns, K., Adams, J., Newsome, T., Fillios, M., Deaux, E., Parr, W., Letnic, M., van Eeden, L., Appleby, R., Bradshaw, C., Savolainen, P., Ritchie, E., Nimmo, D., Archer-Lean, C., Greenville, A., Dickman, C., Watson, L., Moseby, K., Doherty, T., Wallach, A., Morrant, D., & Crowther, M. Taxonomic status of the Australian dingo: the case for Canis dingo Meyer, 1793. Zootaxa, 4564 (1), 173-197. doi: 10.11646/zootaxa.4564.1.6

2018   James Roberts, Lloyd Weeks, Charlotte Cable, Melanie Fillios, Yaaqoub Youssef al Aali, Mansour Boraik Radwan, Hassan Zein. 2018. The role of wild terrestrial animals in late prehistoric societies of south-eastern Arabia: new insights from Sarug al-Hadid. Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy. DOI: 10.1111/aae.12112.

2017   Coleman, J., Karali, L., Karimali, L. Bogaard, A., Diffey, C., Angeli, E. Dimaki, S., Fillios, M., Job, J., “The environment and interactions of Neolithic Halai.” In Sarris, A., Kalogiropoulou, E., Kalayci, T., and Karimali, L. (eds) Communities, Landscapes and Interaction in Neolithic Greece. International Monographs in Prehistory, Archaeological Series 20. Proceedings of the International Conference, Rethymno 29-30 May, 2015.

2016    Fillios, M., Tacon, P. Who let the dogs in? A review of the recent genetic evidence for the introduction of the dingo to Australia and implications for the movement of people.  Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2016.03.001 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352409X16300694

2015    Fillios, M., Blake, N. Animal bones in Australian archaeology: A Field Guide to common native and introduced species. Tom Austin Brown Series in Australian Prehistory. Sydney University Press.

2015    Fillios, M. Food for thought: Using game cameras to better understand the movement of bones by scavengers in archaeological faunal assemblages. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences. DOI: 10.1007/s12520-015-0274-z

2014    Letnic, M., Fillios, M., Crowther, M. S. The arrival and impact of the dingo. In A. S. Glen & C. R. Dickman (Eds.). Carnivores of Australia. CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne.

2014    Crowther, M., Fillios, M., Colman, N., Letnic, M. An updated description of the Australian Dingo (Canis lupus dingo, Meyer 1793). Journal of Zoology. doi:10.1111/jzo.12134

2012    Radford, C., Letnic, M., Fillios, M., Crowther, M. S. An assessment of the taxonomic status of wild canids in south-eastern New South Wales: Phenotypic variation in dingoes. Australian Journal of Zoology 60: 73-80.

2012    Letnic, M., Fillios, M., Crowther, M. Could direct killing by larger dingoes have caused the extinction of the thylacine from mainland Australia? PLoS ONE 7, e34877.

2012    Fillios, M., Crowther, M., Letnic, M. The impact of the dingo on the thylacine in Holocene Australia World Archaeology 44(1): 118-134.

2011    Fillios, M. Testing the impact of environmental zone on experimental faunal models. Environmental Archaeology 16(2): 111-121.

2011    Fillios, M. “Pig frequency as a proxy measure of inter site variability: A case study from early Helladic Greece” In D.Katsonopoulou (ed.) PROTOHELLADIKA-The Southern and Central Greek Mainland, Helike IV, Proceedings of Fourth International Conference on Ancient Helike and Aigialeia 1-3 September 2007. Athens: The Helike Society.

2010    Fillios, M., Gordon, C., Koch, F., Letnic, M. The effect of a top predator on kangaroo abundance in arid Australia and its implications for archaeological faunal assemblages.  Journal of Archaeological Science 37: 986-993.

2010    Fillios, M., Field, J., Charles, B.  Investigating human and megafauna co-occurrence in Australian prehistory: mode and causality in fossil accumulations at Cuddie Springs. Quaternary International 211(1-2): 123-143.

2009    Slack, M., Fillios, M., Fullagar, R. Aboriginal Settlement during the LGM at Brockman, Pilbara region, Western Australia.  Archaeology in Oceania 44 Supplement: 32-39.

2008    Field, J., Fillios, M., Wroe, S. Chronological Overlap between Humans and Megafauna in Sahul (Pleistocene Australia-New Guinea): A review of the Evidence. Earth Science Reviews 89: 97-115.

2007    Fillios, M.  Measuring Complexity in Early Bronze Age Greece: The Pig as a Proxy Indicator of Socio-economic Structures. BAR International Series 1722.  Oxford.

Memberships

International Council for Archaeozoology

Society for American Archaeology

Australian Archaeological Association