Dog Cockle Shells as Occasional Finds in Romano-British Shell Middens from Newquay, North Cornwall, UK

Abstract

At archaeological sites, concentrations of marine mollusc shells, which are known to be edible species, can often be interpreted with little ambiguity as food refuse. It is a recurring feature that such concentrations may also contain other shells whose condition, even allowing for the degradational processes which may have affected the deposit, suggests that they were brought to the site in a worn state, or they may have been subjected to man-made modification after collection. Analysis of shell middens from a Romano-British site at Fistral Bay in north Cornwall, England, and comparison with the species present in the modern day environment there, shows that the 6 taxa (3 genera) which dominate the middens (Patella spp., Mytilus spp. and Nucella lapillus) also dominate the mollusc populations living on the shore, and worn, sometimes holed, Glycymeris glycymeris valves which are present in the archaeological assemblage, dominate the dead shell assemblage which litters the present-day beach. Glycymeris is a taxon for which worn shells have been reported from archaeological sites throughout the Mediterranean area and the Iberian Peninsula, but rarely from the British Isles. A high proportion of these shells bear a hole in the umbo; various processes may account for these holes. The use and significance of Glycymeris shells as artefacts are considered.