The last 500 years is characterized by immense socioeconomic and environmental transformations on a global scale. Animals were significantly affected by these processes but were also central to many of the transformations that shaped the modern world. While there has been a growing number of researchers investigating animal bones from archaeological sites from this period, the “Zooarchaeology of the Modern Era” working group provides the first dedicated forum for these scholars to meet. This paper introduces a special collection of studies which resulted from the first meeting of this research group and explores how these investigations help us understand our modern world.

过去 500 年的特点是全球范围内发生了巨大的社会经济和环境变革。动物受到这些过程的显着影响，但也是塑造现代世界的许多变革的核心。尽管越来越多的研究人员调查这一时期考古遗址中的动物骨骼，但“现代动物考古学”工作组为这些学者提供了第一个专门的论坛。本文介绍了该研究小组第一次会议产生的一系列特别研究，并探讨了这些研究如何帮助我们理解现代世界。