The development of the ethnographic perspective included the study of Russian language ethnographic literature about near recent hunter-gatherer groups from the Russian Far East (Nanai, Udege, Ulchi, Nivkh) and the analyses of objects from Siberian ethnographic collections housed at Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography in St. Petersburg, Russia. The archaeological contextual analyses included the material from important Mesolithic/Neolithic sites in Northern Europe such as the burial ground Zvejnieki in Latvia, Vedbæk/Bøgebakken, Gongehusvey, Dragsholm in Denmark and Téviec in France. In order to study the archaeological material from these sites the researcher visited the National History Museum in Riga, National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen and Natural History Museum in Toulouse. The attention was given to faunal remains, artefacts manufactured on animal remains as well as animal representations, their positions alongside human remains in the graves, their mutual relations as well as relations with other deposits. The researcher commenced the development of the experimental archaeological approach. In order to gain an understanding of modes of production and use of modified animal remains and zoomorphic objects among hunter-gatherer groups the researcher studied the Russian language ethnographic literature, analysed objects from the Siberian ethnographic collections and received necessary training in experimental archaeology at the Centre for Experimental Archaeology and Ancient Technologies, University College Dublin. The development of the experimental archaeological approach will be continued through experiments in manufacturing animal tooth and bone pendants.
The researcher was hosted at the School of Archaeology, University College Dublin, Ireland. She received training in experimental archaeology, zooarchaeology, the archaeology of hunter-gatherers, and in teaching archaeology as well as in a variety of transferable skills related to different stages of project implementation. Especially significant result was the design and delivery of a 5 ECTS credit interdisciplinary module "Human-animal relationships: archaeologies, ethnographies, anthropologies" the researcher had an opportunity to teach. The results of the HARA project have been presented at four conferences (one more conference participation is upcoming in November 2018). This included participation at the 12th Conference on hunting and gathering societies bringing together archaeological, ethnographical and anthropological research on hunting and gathering communities where the researcher organised a conference session "Handle with care: humans and their interactions with animals" exploring different aspects of care in hunter-gatherers’ interactions with animals. Various stages of the HARA project have also been introduced by presentations at three different Research Seminars organised by the UCD School of Archaeology and HARA Newsletters have been published. HARA was also introduced to a general audience at a seminar held at Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography in St. Petersburg, Russia. Outreach activities included setting up a project website and FB page and creating an animation movie.
