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Melinda A. Zeder is an American
archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landsca ...
and Curator Emeritus in the Department of Anthropology of the
National Museum of Natural History The National Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It has free admission and is open 364 days a year. In 2021, with 7. ...
,
Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Found ...
. Her zooarchaeological research has revolutionized understandings of
animal domestication The domestication of animals is the mutual relationship between non-human animals and the humans who have influence on their care and reproduction. Charles Darwin recognized a small number of traits that made domesticated species different fro ...
. Zeder received her PhD in Anthropology from the University of Michigan in 1985 with a dissertation focused on
faunal assemblage In archaeology and paleontology a faunal assemblage is a group of associated animal fossils found together in a given stratum. The principle of faunal succession is used in biostratigraphy to determine each biostratigraphic unit, or biozone. T ...
s from the site of Tal-e Malyan in southeastern Iran. She later founded a zooarchaeological consulting firm, and secured a position at the Smithsonian Institution in 1992 as a research scientist in archaeobiology. She has conducted extensive fieldwork throughout the Near East, including in Iran, Israel, Turkey, and Syria. Her research focuses on the origins of plant and animal domestication, and the impacts of agriculture on human prehistory. She has also pioneered approaches that combine archaeological and genetic analyses of plant and animal remains from archaeological sites.


Honors

Zeder was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2008 and the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nat ...
in 2012. She is also a member of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...
and previously the
National Geographic Society The National Geographic Society (NGS), headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational organizations in the world. Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, ...
Committee for Research and Exploration. In 2016 she received the Pomerance Award for Scientific Contributions to Archaeology from the
Archaeological Institute of America The Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) is North America's oldest society and largest organization devoted to the world of archaeology. AIA professionals have carried out archaeological fieldwork around the world and AIA has established re ...
.


Books

* Zeder, M. A. (1991) ''Feeding cities: specialized animal economy in the ancient Near East''. Smithsonian Series in Archaeological Inquiry, Smithsonian Institution Press. * Zeder, M. A. (1997) ''The American archaeologist: A profile''. Rowman Altamira. * Zeder, M. A., D. Bradley, E. Emshwiller, and B. D. Smith (Eds.) (2006) ''Documenting Domestication: New Genetic and Archaeological Paradigms''. University of California Press. Winner, 2008 Secretary's Research Prize. * Meadow, R. and Zeder, M. A. (Eds.) (1978) ''Approaches to Faunal Analysis in the Middle East''. Peabody Museum Bulletin No. 2, Peabody Museum, Harvard University.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zeder, Melinda A. Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American women archaeologists Smithsonian Institution people American archaeologists Zooarchaeologists University of Michigan alumni 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American women writers