In the spirit of SAS’s upcoming 50^th anniversary, we will be looking back at the achievements of our past award winners, sharing spotlights on papers produced from research supported by the SAS Student and ECR Research Support Award. First up is 2021 recipient Petra Vaiglova, Senior Lecturer in Archaeological Science at the School of Archaeology and Anthropology, Australian National University. Petra recently published a paper titled “Transport of animals underpinned ritual feasting at the onset of the Neolithic in southwestern Asia” in Nature Springer: Communications in Earth & Environment as the first author of a team of biologists, archaeologists, and geochemists.

Their study examined seasonal mobility of five wild boar from the Early Neolithic site of Asiab in western Iran using sequential analyses of tooth enamel for oxygen and strontium isotopes and barium concentrations. The team sampled based on microscopic growth patterns identified in the teeth rather than the typical standardized interval (e.g., 1 mm). This method allowed the authors to pinpoint more accurate seasonal patterns of isotopic inputs from changes in eating and drinking. They found that ritual feasting at Asiab relied on the consumption of animals from beyond the immediate catchment of the site, around 70 km away. This result was somewhat surprising, since Asiab is located in an environment where wild boars could have lived locally. These findings shed light on the organization and social connections behind ceremonial feasting during the Neolithic, in particular the investment in bringing animals from beyond the site.

In addition to the main publication, Petra also wrote a 'behind-the-paper' blog post on the Springer Nature Research Communities about this project, and a non-technical Perspective for the latest issue of The European Archaeologist.

Congratulations to Petra! We hope you enjoy reading her work. Find out more about how to share your work with a Spotlight.

Vaiglova, P., Kierdorf, H., Witzel, C., Falster, G., Joannes-Boyau, R., Wang, Y., Wu, J., Williams, I., Knowles, B., Wu, Y., Bangsgaard, P., Yeomans, L., Richter, T., Darabi, H., 2025. Transport of animals underpinned ritual feasting at the onset of the Neolithic in southwestern Asia. Commun Earth Environ 6, 519. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02501-z

Artist’s representation of the hunting and transport of boars at Asiab. Illustration by Kathryn Killackey