Organizers

Anne Bridault (CNRS, UMR 7041 ArScAn – Archéologies environnementales, Maison de l’Ethnologie et de l’Archéologie, Nanterre, France),

Gila Kahila Bar-Gal (Koret School of Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Quality Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel),

Scientific comitee

Prof. G. Baneth (Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel) Prof. A. Belfer-Cohen (Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel) Prof. O. Dutour (Aix-Marseille II University, Marseille, France) Prof. H. Bocherens (Tuebingen University, Allemagne), Prof. Ch. Greenblatt (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel) Dr. S. Morand (DR CNRS, ISEM, Montpellier, France) Prof. C. Perlès (Paris X-Nanterre University, France), Dr. R. Rabinovich (Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel) Prof. P. Smith (Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel), Dr. F. Valla (DR, CNRS – UMR 7041 ArScAn, Nanterre, France)

Overview

The emergence and re-emergence of infectious diseases, many of which are zoonotic, demands a better understanding of human-animal interactions. Humans and their animals have a long co-evolution history, in which ecological, cultural and social influences have affected the infections transmitted between them and the resultant diseases. These zoonoses are influenced by factors such as environmental change, population densities (animal and human), mobility, husbandry practices, contacts with wild animal species, food habits, virulence of the agent and routes of transmission. Today it is global warming which we envisage as the great challenge to our eco-systems, but still we have much to learn about all of these important relationships. In the proposed workshop we want to tackle the question of the zoonotic diseases, as a long-term and a multidimensional process, specifically along the Mediterranean basin because of its unique human and biogeographical history.

It is often suggested that infectious diseases increased considerably with the beginning of animal domestication. What was the situation prior to domestication? Could an alternate usage of caves by animals and human groups have favoured indirect parasite transmission through the infestation of the cave debris? Were there socio-environmental conditions during the past that could have favoured the emergence of zoonotic diseases? Were there dietary crisis (i.e starvation) that can be inferred from the archaeological record and that could have played any role in the emergence of diseases? How did people avoid the risk of zoonotic diseases in the past, if they did?

Topics

 Genetic evidence for zoonotic diseases and host-parasite evolution
 Archaeological evidence for zoonotic diseases
 Human-animal interactions in the circum Mediterranean area
 Paleoecology and palaeoclimate of the parasitic diseases
 Emergence, transmission and evolution of ancient diseases
 Paleodiet and trophic webs
 Tracking socio-environnemental change by bio-indicators