The Role of Animals in Early Urbanising Society: A Multiscalar Zooarchaeological Analysis of Faunal Remains from Late Chalcolithic Shakhi Kora, Iraqi-

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Many of the socio-political traits associated with modern urban societies, such as centralised administration, strict social hierarchies, monumental architecture, and literacy, first developed in the Late Chalcolithic (LC), also called the 'Uruk Period' (c.4000-3100 BCE), in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq). Underpinning this transformational period was a changing relationship between humans and animals.Zooarchaeology can offer unique perspectives into the everyday practices that took place at this critical time in human history, providing novel insights into economic structures, foodways, cultural identities, and ritual practices. This potential has yet to be fully realised, however. Traditional approaches to LC human/animal relationships tend to simply focus on the one-way intensification of animal production, and neglects the agency and social power that the animals possess. As such, these ancient animals are rendered as nothing but economic resources to be exploited.This PhD project will explore the alternative narratives of human/animal interactions in the LC, by identifying the varied ways animals were manged, consumed, and discarded. This project will also explore the social implications of these diverse human/animal relationships. This will be achieved primarily through a qualitative and quantitative zooarchaeological analysis of the faunal material from Shakhi Kora, a LC site located in Iraqi-Kurdistan, on the western bank of the Sirwan/Diyala River. This site spans c. 1000 years of uninterrupted occupation and provides an unprecedented opportunity for detailed diachronic analyses of human/animal relationships and their role in urbanising processes. I will also conduct a stable isotopic study of sequentially sampled sheep/goat molars, which will produce high-resolution insights into the movement, diet, and reproductive seasonality of these animals.