Janine Ochoa

This project analyzes archaeological animal bone assemblages from several sites in Palawan Island, Philippines using the collection and facilities of natural history museums in the United States, which hold vast collections of Philippine and Southeast Asian vertebrates. The research aims to provide a better understanding of Palawan palaeobiogeography, human-environmental interactions in the region, and ancient subsistence practices from the Terminal Pleistocene to the Holocene. It further explores the impacts of anthropogenic activities, palaeogeographic transformations, and climate change on the island’s terrestrial vertebrate community. In the process of doing the analysis, a biometric and photographic database of various skeletal reference material will also be created in order to facilitate this and future archaeozoological analysis. Advanced archaeozoological training will also be undertaken in several universities and museums including the Peabody Museum-Harvard University Zooarchaeological Laboratory and the University of Michigan under the supervision of Dr. Richard Meadow and Dr. Richard Redding, respectively.