The subject of ‘Molluscs in Archaeology’ has not been dealt with collectively for several decades. This new volume in Oxbow’s Studying Scientific Archaeology series addresses many aspects of mollusks in archaeology. It will give the reader an overview of the whole topic; methods of analysis and approaches to interpretation. It aims to be a broad based text book giving readers an insight of how to apply analysis to different present and past landscapes and how to interpret those landscapes. It includes Marine, Freshwater and land snails studies, and examines topics such as diet, economy, climate, environmental and land-use, isotopes and mollusks as artifacts. It aims to provide archaeologists and students with the first port of call giving them a) methods and principles, and b) the potential information mollusks can provide. It concentrates on analysis and interpretation most archaeologists and students can undertake and understand, and to 'review' the 'heavier' science in terms of potential, application and interpretational value.

Molluscs are the most common invertebrate remains found at archaeological sites, but archaeomalacology (the study of molluscs in archaeological contexts) is a relatively new archaeological discipline and the field of zooarchaeology is seen by many as one mainly focused on the remains of vertebrates. The papers in this volume hope to redress this balance, bringing molluscan studies into mainstream zooarchaeological and archaeological debate, and resulting in a monograph with a truly international flavour.

The subject of ‘Molluscs in Archaeology’ has not been dealt with collectively for several decades. This new volume in Oxbow’s Studying Scientific Archaeology series addresses many aspects of mollusks in archaeology. It will give the reader an overview of the whole topic; methods of analysis and approaches to interpretation. It aims to be a broad based text book giving readers an insight of how to apply analysis to different present and past landscapes and how to interpret those landscapes. It includes Marine, Freshwater and land snails studies, and examines topics such as diet, economy, climate, environmental and land-use, isotopes and mollusks as artifacts. It aims to provide archaeologists and students with the first port of call giving them a) methods and principles, and b) the potential information mollusks can provide. It concentrates on analysis and interpretation most archaeologists and students can undertake and understand, and to 'review' the 'heavier' science in terms of potential, application and interpretational value.

The past decade has witnessed a remarkable momentum in the advancement of archaeomalacological research but there is still a lot of room for progress. These ten papers are the second published proceedings of the archaeomalacology sessions organised by ICAZ (Mexico City, 2006). The contributions revisit important archaeological issues such as provenance of raw materials, dye production and the secondary uses of industrial shell waste, the role of shell artefacts in the symbolic world of diverse civilisations, technology and early cross-regional exchange networks. The papers testify to the merits of using state-of-the-art laboratory techniques to address archaeomalacological questions and demonstrate the interpretative value of integrating malacological expertise with experimental archaeology and detailed knowledge of archaeological context.

Gwithian, on the north coast of Cornwall, is a multiperiod archaeological site. The present work explores the palaeoenvironment of the area around the settlement sites, from the Neolithic, when sand dunes initially developed in the Red River valley, to the present post-industrial landscape.