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Results for mollusk:

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mollusk

SYNONYM: mollusc, snail shell
CATEGORY: fauna
DEFINITION: Any of a large phylum (Mollusca) of invertebrate animals (as snails, clams, or squids) with a soft unsegmented body usually enclosed in a calcareous shell. Often occurring in calcareous deposits, they may give useful information if associated with archaeological remains. A group may give an indication of environmental conditions and general climatic conditions. More tentatively, a deposit containing mollusks may be dated against the geological scale. The phylum Mollusca is divided into five classes: Amphineura (chitons), Gastropoda (snails and slugs), Scaphopoda (elephant's tusk shells), Lamellibranchiata (bivalve mollusks, such as mussels, clams, oysters), and Cephalopoda (octopus and squids). With the exception of the gastropods, most of these groups are aquatic; shells of gastropods and lamellibranchs are frequently found on archaeological sites. Shells also remain from the exploitation of these animals for food, most often found in middens found near coastal sites. Land snails are increasingly used as an adjunct to pollen and insect analysis in attempts to reconstruct past environments.

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Ang-ang-hsi

CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A group of Neolithic sites in Manchuria which demonstrate strong connections with the Novopetrovka and Gromatukha cultures of the Middle Amur in eastern Siberia, especially in stone tool technology. Animal, fish and mollusk remains occur on the sites.

annuli

SYNONYM: sing. Annulus
CATEGORY: measure
DEFINITION: Annual growth rings or increments in mollusk shell, fish vertebrae, tooth cementum, or wood.

bivalve

CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: An aquatic mollusk which has a compressed body enclosed within two hinged shells, such as an oyster, mussel, or scallop. A mollusk having two shells hinged together, as the oyster, clam, or mussel; or any animal with two halves to its shell such as an ostracode or brachiopod.

ecofact

CATEGORY: flora; fauna
DEFINITION: Any flora or fauna material found at an archaeological site; nonartifactual evidence that has not been technologically altered but that has cultural relevance, such as a shell carried from the ocean to an inland settlement. Seeds, pollen, animal bone, insects, fish bones, and mollusks are all ecofacts; the category includes both inorganic and organic ecofacts.

Kouroukorokale

CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Rock shelter near Bamako in Mali, West Africa, containing a microlithic and harpoon industry. The crude stone industry was accompanied in the second phase by barbed bone harpoon heads. The site may indicate a westerly representative of the heterogeneous complex of harpoon-fishing adaptations which is attested in the southern Sahara between the 8th-3rd millennia BC. Economy for the first phase was fishing, mollusks, and hunting; for the second it was mainly hunting and gathering.

malacology

CATEGORY: related field
DEFINITION: The study of mollusks as indicators of past diet and environmental conditions.

molluscan analysis

CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: The analysis of molluscan remains, of both marine and land species, as part of the examination of the environment of man. A mollusk/mollusc is any of a large phylum (Mollusca) of invertebrate animals (as snails, clams, or squids) with a soft unsegmented body usually enclosed in a calcareous shell. Edible species yield information on the subsistence economy of certain groups; in most cases it is the shells which survive. The analysis of marine mollusks involves separation of the shells from the sample by wet sieving, and the identification of varieties. The occurrence of mounds of discarded shell debris in shell middens also allows for a clear understanding of the collecting patterns, seasonal use, and preferences of man in the marine region. Land snails are increasingly used as an adjunct to pollen and insect analysis in attempts to reconstruct past environments.

mound

SYNONYM: tuft
CATEGORY: feature
DEFINITION: A gradual accumulation of debris upon which a continuously occupied settlement is built, or which is the by-product or remains of some activity. The term can mean (1) a constructed earthwork or fortification, especially one with a geometric or animal form (also called effigy mound), (2) a low, isolated, rounded natural hill, usually of earth, (3) a structure built by fossil colonial organisms, (4) prehistoric refuse heap consisting chiefly of the shells of edible mollusks (also called shell mound), or (5) an artificial construction commonly used for human burial (also called burial mound) or as a foundation for a temple or dwelling.

Northwest Coast tradition

CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: A series of prehistoric groups of the northern California coast, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, and southeastern Alaska, with origins in the Fraser River delta and clearly established by 1000 BC. Their subsistence was based on hunting and gathering of riverine and marine food sources (mollusks, salmon, halibut, sea mammals). Characteristics in the archaeological record include bone and slate hunting tools, stone effigy carving, and woodworking tools. Totem poles and elaborately carved long houses are still a cultural feature in the area.

oxygen isotope analysis

SYNONYM: oxygen isotope examination
CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: Isotope analysis looking at the O18/O16 ratio in materials. The method can be used to classify glass types and to analyze mollusk shells in order to try and reconstruct their original environment and thus the source. It is also used to interpret deep sea cores. The basis for this technique is the fact that the ratio of two of the stable isotopes of oxygen varies according to the material in which it is found. The oxygen is released from the sample, and is converted to carbon dioxide; the oxygen isotopic ratio is determined after ionization in a mass spectrometer. Variations in the isotopic ratios for the raw materials can lead to a classification of types and even, in some cases, the suggestion of a source for the raw materials. The technique is also used to analyze mollusk shells in an attempt to reconstruct the original aquatic environment. Because temperature variations are correlated with changes in atmospheric O18/O16 ratios, oxygen isotope analysis has also been used to identify seasonal changes in ice cores, interpret temperature variations during speleothem precipitation, and examine isotopic variations in tree ring climates. Foraminifera sampled from deep sea cores have revealed fluctuations in the O18/O16 ratio. These present evidence for glacial-interglacial cycles in the form of continental ice volume change.

scraping

CATEGORY: ceramics
DEFINITION: Thinning the walls of a pottery vessel with a tool, such as a mollusk shell or lithic flake, held almost perpendicular to the surface while the clay is nearly leather-hard.

scraping

CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: Thinning the walls of a pottery vessel with a tool, such as a mollusk shell or lithic flake, held almost perpendicular to the surface while the clay is nearly leather-hard.

shell

CATEGORY: fauna; artifact
DEFINITION: A hard rigid usually calcareous covering or support of an animal, as a mollusk. Many varieties of shell were used in antiquity, apart from the use of their contents as food. Some were used for tools (oyster, conch) and others were made into jewelry or used for decorative inlays. Others, such as ostrich and smaller seashells, were used to make beads. Shell was perforated and strung on necklaces since at least the Upper Palaeolithic. It is frequently found in tombs, probably symbolizing the resurrection. Shell was traded widely to areas where it was not locally available.

shell midden

SYNONYM: shell mound
CATEGORY: feature
DEFINITION: An archaeological deposit consisting of a refuse mound of discarded shells, offering evidence of early human use of certain mollusks. These often extensive heaps are the result of many years of exploitation of marine resources as a main or supplementary food source. Shell middens provide information on diet, harvesting techniques, subsistence economy, and seasonality.

Swanscombe, Barnfield Pit

CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: British Lower Palaeolithic site on a terrace of the lower Thames Valley, North Kent, England, with a skull of possibly an archaic Homo sapiens with strong Neanderthal features. The skull bones are considerably thicker than those of modern European or Neanderthal skulls; the skull pieces may be the oldest of Homo sapiens found in Europe. More recent opinion holds that the skull is non-sapiens and has closer affinities with those of Neanderthal type. There is a succession of artifact-bearing strata of the Mindel-Riss interglacial period (400,000-200,000 years ago), with the earliest tools of Clactonian type. Middle Acheulian handaxes and a pointed biface assemblage were found in the Middle Gravel level and in the Upper Loam level, Middle Acheulian tools of a more evolved form and a refined ovate assemblage. The deposits contain useful environmental evidence, including abundant mollusk and mammal remains and large assemblages of stone tools.

uranium dating

SYNONYM: uranium series dating, uranium series disequilibrium dating
CATEGORY: technique
DEFINITION: A method of dating based on measuring the rate of radioactive decay of uranium isotopes in bone and other organic remains to the stable isotope of lead. It has proved particularly useful for the period before 50,000 years ago, which lies outside the time range of radiocarbon dating. Each of the isotopes decays through a series of radioactive daughter isotopes until a stable isotope of lead is reached. Three daughter isotopes are created and decay with half-lives useful for dating: ionium, proactinium, and radium. Several uranium dating methods exist and material datable by these methods includes: aragonitic coral, speleothem, travertine, mollusk shell, marl, bone, teeth, caliche, calcretes, peat, wood, and detrital sediment.