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NEWS
PhD
Studentship Department
of Archaeology, School of Human & Environmental Sciences, University
of Reading Applications are
invited for a 3-year PhD studentship which forms part of a Leverhulme
Trust funded project on cemeteries and sedentism in pre-farming societies
in North Africa. Project partners are the University of Oxford (Prof.
Nick Barton), the Natural History Museum (Dr Louise Humphrey) and Reading
University (Prof. Martin Bell). The project focuses on a significant sediment
transition in a number of caves (particularly Taforalt, Morocco) around
13,000 years ago. The student will work under the day to day supervision
of Prof M. Bell and Dr S Black. One or more month long visits will be
made to study and sample middens in Morocco. Training will be provided
in molluscan analysis, isotopic and sediment analysis. We seek a student
with strong scientific foundations including a MSc in bio- or geo-science.
Closing date:
16th November 2009
Gastropods and humans in the Late Palaeolithic and Mesolithic of Europe and the circum-Mediterranean Colloquium proposal for MESO2010 (13 to 17 September 2010) at the Universidade de Cantabria, Santander, Spain Organizers: David Lubell (University
of Waterloo: dlubell@uwaterloo.ca)
and Nick Barton (Oxford
University: nick.barton@arch.ox.ac.uk) Gastropods are a major component in several Late Pleistocene and in hundreds (perhaps thousands) of early to middle Holocene archaeological sites throughout Europe and the Mediterranean region. Terrestrial species appear to be the most common, but marine and fresh water ones also occur. The most spectacular examples are in the Maghreb where both Iberomaurusian and Capsian deposits contain abundant land snail shells that represent food debris. Other sites with similar deposits are known from Cyrenaica, Cantabria, the Pyrenees, southern France, Italy, south-eastern Europe including the Balkans, Anatolia, Cyprus and the Levant, the Zagros region and the Ukraine. What was the significance of gastropods to humans in this region, not only as a type of food but also for decorative, ceremonial and other purposes? Do they represent a signature for the period just prior to the adoption of food producing economies? Do major shell accumulations signify even earlier changes in sedentary and funerary behaviour? When used for subsistence, were they a starvation food or are they evidence of feasting? Were they in some cases farmed? How might the biology and ecology of gastropods have been a factor in their use by humans? What is the nutritional contribution of gastropods to prehistoric and ethnographically documented diets? This colloquium will bring together a diverse group of researchers to develop means to answer such questions and perhaps pose new ones.
ICAZ Archaeomalacology Working Group member Mike Allen has a new book out in collaboration with Niall Sharples and Terry O'Connor in honour and celebration of J.G. Evan's work, and in particular his classic archaeomalacological text "Landsnails in Archaeology" Click on the book cover below to open a pdf. file including contents, cover, and a summary of contents.
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