Cornell University Emblemthe department of Anthropology
Faculty
Nerissa Russell
Office: McGraw 203
Phone: (607) 255-6790
My interests lie in the many ways that past peoples have used animals and their products to construct social relationships. I work primarily at Neolithic sites in southeast Europe and in Anatolia. My main field project at the moment is Çatalhöyük in Turkey, where Louise Martin and I are analyzing the mammal bones and I study the bone tools and, with Kevin McGowan of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the bird bones. In addition to diet and hunting/herding strategies, I explore topics such as feasting, meat sharing, animal wealth, and the symbolic role of animals.

Selected Publications

2007 The domestication of anthropology. In Where the Wild Things Are Now: Domestication Reconsidered. R. Cassidy and M. H. Mullin, eds. Pp. 27-48. Oxford: Berg.
2006 Nerissa Russell and Bleda S. Dü Worthy is the lamb: A double burial at Neolithic Çatalhöyük (Turkey). Paléorient 32(1):73-84.
  Nerissa Russell and Stephanie Meece. Animal representations and animal remains at Çatalhöyük. IN Çatalhöyük Perspectives: Reports from the 1995-99 Seasons. I. Hodder, ed. Pp. 209-230. McDonald Institute Monographs. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.
  The Çatalhöyük worked bone. IN Changing Materialities at Çatalhöyük: Reports from the 1995-99 Seasons. I. Hodder, ed. Pp. 339-367. McDonald Institute Monographs. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.
2005 Nerissa Russell, Louise Martin, and Hijlke Buitenhuis. Cattle domestication at Çatalhöyük revisited. Current Anthropology 46(5):S101-S108.
  Nerissa Russell and Louise Martin. The Çatalhöyük mammal remains. IN IInhabiting Çatalhöyük: Reports from the 1995-1999 Seasons. I. Hodder, ed. Pp. 33-98. McDonald Institute Monographs. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.
  Nerissa Russell and Kevin McGowan. The Çatalhöyük bird bones. IN Inhabiting Çatalhöyük: Reports from the 1995-1999 Seasons. I. Hodder, ed. Pp. 99-110. McDonald Institute Monographs. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.
2004 Livestock of the early farmers. In Ancient Europe 8000 B.C..A.D. 1000: Encyclopedia of the Barbarian World. P. I. Bogucki and P. J. Crabtree, eds. Pp. 211-217. Farmington Hills, MI: Scribner.
  Milk, wool, and traction: Secondary animal products. In Ancient Europe 8000 B.C..A.D. 1000: Encyclopedia of the Barbarian World. P. I. Bogucki and P. J. Crabtree, eds. Pp. 325-333. Farmington Hills, MI: Scribner.
2002 The wild side of animal domestication. Society and Animals 10(3):285-302.
2001 The social life of bone: A preliminary assessment of bone tool manufacture and discard at Çatalhöyük. IN Proceedings of the Second Meeting of the Worked Bone Research Group. A. Choyke, ed. Pp. 241-249. British Archaeological Reports, International Series. Oxford: Archaeopress.
  Neolithic relations of production: Insights from the bone tool industry. IN Proceedings of the Second Meeting of the Worked Bone Research Group. A. Choyke, ed. Pp. 271-280. British Archaeological Reports, International Series. Oxford: Archaeopress.
2000 Louise Martin and Nerissa Russell. Trashing Rubbish. IN Towards Reflexive Method in Archaeology: The Example at Çatalhöyük. I. Hodder, ed. Pp. 57-69. McDonald Institute Monographs. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.
1998 Cattle as wealth in Neolithic Europe: Where's the beef? IN The Archaeology of Value: Essays on Prestige and the Processes of Valuation. D. W. Bailey, ed. Pp. 42-54. British Archaeological Reports, International Series no. 730. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports.