Thermal Processes on Tropical Archaeological Shell: An Experimental Study

Summary

Tropical archaeological shell middens throughout Australasia provide valuable information about subsistence practices, environmental changes, and human occupation. One of the major anthropic processes that can occur in any midden site is burning or heating of the shell, either from cooking or heat-treating shell for working.

Thermal influences on marine shell are poorly understood across all disciplines, including archaeology. Burning or heating may not always show any visual signs and rather can only be identified through erroneous results when dating or chemical analyses have been undertaken. Recent studies have begun to explore changes in structural and chemical aspects between varying burning/heating methods and durations, however, these studies only focus on a few shell species from the Mediterranean and fail to factor in overall microstructural differences between shell species.

Therefore, to better understand the processes of burning/heating on shell in tropical sites of Australasia an experimental study was undertaken. Six tropical marine shell species with varying microstructures were chosen to undergo three methods of burning/heating. These samples were then examined under Dinolite, SEM as well as under-going XRD analysis. Results show distinct differences between the various microstructures, both visually and chemically.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21201