Kenneth D. Thomas

Sampling shells for seasonality: oxygen isotope analysis on shell carbonates of the inter-tidal gastropod Monodonta lineata (da Costa) from populations across its modern range and from a Mesolithic site in southern Britain

The degree of resolution of seasonal estimates using stable oxygen isotopes from marine shells is determined by various factors, including the potential of the species selected to track annual shifts of temperatures and the size of the annual growth increments. Where the amount of annual shell growth is small, seasonal resolution of samples of shell material might be affected by time averaging of isotopic signals. There is also a need to control the number of samples analysed to affordable levels, which implies planning of appropriate sampling strategies. In this study, we investigate variations in δ18O in both modern and archaeological specimens of the inter-tidal gastropod Monodonta lineata (da Costa), in long sequences of samples (across more than one full year of growth) and in short sequences (three samples) taken back from the edge of the shell. Studies on a number of living populations across the modern range of the species, and at two selected localities over a full year, showed that the δ18O composition of the growing shells generally corresponds to seasonal temperature change. Applying these approaches to shells of M. lineata from the Mesolithic site of Culverwell, Isle of Portland, it was shown that season of death could be demonstrated by interpreting both patterns of edge sequences and actual edge values of δ18O. For this site, season of death was shown to range mainly from autumn to winter, with the possibility of some early spring collection. For Mesolithic communities relying heavily on shellfish and probably other marine and coastal resources, the identification of this season of death has direct bearing on their scheduling of subsistence behaviour and on patterns of settlement.

Molecular biology and archaeology: A prospectus for inter‐disciplinary research

Abstract This editorial‐cum‐paper reviews some of the main areas of interest in which biomolecular archaeology has either made a significant contribution, or promises to do so in the near future. Six major research areas are considered: hominid evolution, including the origins of anatomically‐modern humans; human migrations, dispersals and past population biology, including disease; reconstructing human diets, food webs and subsistence systems; the analysis of artefact use; site‐based interpretations; and the reconstruction of past human environments.

Finding the early Neolithic in Aegean Thrace : the use of cores

Using a new approach that combines high-quality coring with AMS dating, the authors are mapping the start of the Neolithic in Aegean Thrace – a missing link in the arrival of agriculture in Europe. The method also revealed the edge of the marine transgression dating to some 2900 years ago, implying that sites located near the coast in early Neolithic times have in all likelihood been lost to the sea.

Environmental Archaeology is Dead: Long Live Bioarchaeology, Geoarchaeology and Human Palaeoecology

To seek hard and fast definitions of anything, let alone getting embroiled in debates about them, is not exactly my cup of tea. However, having been asked so very politely — but insistently — by the editor to write a brief commentary on Jonathan Driver’s provocative article on the nature of environmental archaeology, I am resolved to try to do my best — and my briefest.

Aspects of soils and early agriculture

The purpose of this brief introduction is to highlight, and briefly discuss, some of the broader aspects of soils and early agriculture and to show how such themes can be traced in the various papers which follow. These themes range from the basic evidence for the agricultural exploitation of soils in the past to the complex ecological and economic relationships between people, their crops and soils.

The Efficiency of Flotation Compared with Other Methods for Recovering Assemblages of Terrestrial and Aquatic Gastropods from Archaeological Deposits, with Reference to the Site of Pico Ramos (Basque Country, Spain)

ABSTRACT We analysed assemblages of shells of land snails and small aquatic and wetland gastropods from a late Mesolithic-early Neolithic deposit in the cave of Pico Ramos (Basque Country). Shells were recovered by hand during excavation and all excavated deposit was processed by flotation, with a 250 μm mesh to recover floating material and a 1.0 mm mesh to recover the heavy fraction. The total assemblage comprised 5780 individuals (MNI) among 33 taxa, the sieved sub-assemblage having the highest proportions of these (2841 MNI in 31 taxa) and the hand-picked sub-assemblage the lowest (698 MNI in 11 taxa). Eleven taxa were absent from the flotation sub-assemblage, although the recovered MNI (2241; 39% of the total MNI) was high. The palaeoecological implications of the results are considered. Adult and large-sized juvenile shells of the edible land snail Cepaea nemoralis are abundant in the hand-picked sub-assemblage, but it is the absence of small-sized juvenile shells in the flotation and wet-sieved sub-assemblages that permits the inference that the species was collected for consumption. Wet sieving is therefore essential, both for interpreting hand-picked samples and in particular for the recovery of representative assemblages of land molluscs.

Paul Davies. Snails: archaeology and landscape change. xvi+200 pages, 98 illustrations, 14 tables. 2008. Oxford: Oxbow; 978-1-84217-317-6 hardback £40.

Magnetometry for archaeologists will certainly appeal to practitioners and neophytes alike. It will no doubt find its place amongst other formative texts on archaeological geophysics and sit comfortably with more detailed treatments. It covers the subject in a clear and coherent manner and should be welcomed for that reason alone. It also leaves the appetite whetted for a third volume in the series, devoted to issues only touched upon here and to how to deal with all this data. In the meantime, I shall certainly be reaching for Magnetronomy for archaeologists frequently for reference and teaching.