Land snail shell is a frequent constituent of archaeological sites, but it is rarely clear whethe... more Land snail shell is a frequent constituent of archaeological sites, but it is rarely clear whether it represents food refuse, the remains of scavengers, or evidence for natural processes. Piercing of land snail shells enables the animal to be extracted fromthe shell and thus provides direct evidence for human consumption.Wereport pierced land snails from the Haua Fteah, Libya. The earliest pierced land snail shell in the Haua Fteah pre-dates the Last Interglacial, while the most recent is Late-Classical in age, but the largest quantities are in layers of Late-Glacial and earliest Holocene age, where they are associated with atypical microliths which may have been used to pierce shells to enable easy extraction of the animal
Excavations in the photic zones of caves have provided cornerstone archaeological sequences in ma... more Excavations in the photic zones of caves have provided cornerstone archaeological sequences in many parts of the world. Before the appearance of modern dating techniques, cave deposits provided clear evidence for the antiquity, relative ages and co-occurrence of ancient human remains, material culture and fauna. Earlier generations of archaeologists had generally rather limited understanding of taphonomic and depositional processes, but the twentieth century saw considerable improvement in excavation and analytical techniques. The advent of modern dating and chronological methodologies offers very powerful tools for the analysis of cave fill deposits and this has resulted in the recognition of chronological incoherence in parts of some sites, with consequent re-evaluation of previous archaeological disputes. Obtaining multiple dates per context provides a means to assess the integrity and coherence of the archaeological and environmental records from cave fills. In the case of the Haua Fteah (Libya), this technique allowed the recognition of chronological coherence in low-energy depositional environments and limited recycling in high-energy contexts. We provide a conceptual model of the relationship between recycling, sedimentation rate and process energy. High-resolution investigation enables recognition of the complexity of the formation of cave sequences, thus an increasingly sophisticated understanding of human behaviour and environmental relationships in the past, and potentially gives a new life to old data.
Land snail shell is a frequent constituent of archaeological sites, but it is rarely clear whethe... more Land snail shell is a frequent constituent of archaeological sites, but it is rarely clear whether it represents food refuse, the remains of scavengers, or evidence for natural processes. Piercing of land snail shells enables the animal to be extracted fromthe shell and thus provides direct evidence for human consumption.Wereport pierced land snails from the Haua Fteah, Libya. The earliest pierced land snail shell in the Haua Fteah pre-dates the Last Interglacial, while the most recent is Late-Classical in age, but the largest quantities are in layers of Late-Glacial and earliest Holocene age, where they are associated with atypical microliths which may have been used to pierce shells to enable easy extraction of the animal
Excavations in the photic zones of caves have provided cornerstone archaeological sequences in ma... more Excavations in the photic zones of caves have provided cornerstone archaeological sequences in many parts of the world. Before the appearance of modern dating techniques, cave deposits provided clear evidence for the antiquity, relative ages and co-occurrence of ancient human remains, material culture and fauna. Earlier generations of archaeologists had generally rather limited understanding of taphonomic and depositional processes, but the twentieth century saw considerable improvement in excavation and analytical techniques. The advent of modern dating and chronological methodologies offers very powerful tools for the analysis of cave fill deposits and this has resulted in the recognition of chronological incoherence in parts of some sites, with consequent re-evaluation of previous archaeological disputes. Obtaining multiple dates per context provides a means to assess the integrity and coherence of the archaeological and environmental records from cave fills. In the case of the Haua Fteah (Libya), this technique allowed the recognition of chronological coherence in low-energy depositional environments and limited recycling in high-energy contexts. We provide a conceptual model of the relationship between recycling, sedimentation rate and process energy. High-resolution investigation enables recognition of the complexity of the formation of cave sequences, thus an increasingly sophisticated understanding of human behaviour and environmental relationships in the past, and potentially gives a new life to old data.
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Papers by Evan A Hill
refuse, the remains of scavengers, or evidence for natural processes. Piercing of land snail shells enables the animal
to be extracted fromthe shell and thus provides direct evidence for human consumption.Wereport pierced
land snails from the Haua Fteah, Libya. The earliest pierced land snail shell in the Haua Fteah pre-dates the Last
Interglacial, while the most recent is Late-Classical in age, but the largest quantities are in layers of Late-Glacial
and earliest Holocene age, where they are associated with atypical microliths which may have been used to
pierce shells to enable easy extraction of the animal
parts of the world. Before the appearance of modern dating techniques, cave deposits provided clear
evidence for the antiquity, relative ages and co-occurrence of ancient human remains, material culture
and fauna. Earlier generations of archaeologists had generally rather limited understanding of
taphonomic and depositional processes, but the twentieth century saw considerable improvement in
excavation and analytical techniques. The advent of modern dating and chronological methodologies
offers very powerful tools for the analysis of cave fill deposits and this has resulted in the recognition of
chronological incoherence in parts of some sites, with consequent re-evaluation of previous archaeological
disputes. Obtaining multiple dates per context provides a means to assess the integrity and
coherence of the archaeological and environmental records from cave fills. In the case of the Haua Fteah
(Libya), this technique allowed the recognition of chronological coherence in low-energy depositional
environments and limited recycling in high-energy contexts. We provide a conceptual model of the
relationship between recycling, sedimentation rate and process energy. High-resolution investigation
enables recognition of the complexity of the formation of cave sequences, thus an increasingly sophisticated
understanding of human behaviour and environmental relationships in the past, and potentially
gives a new life to old data.
refuse, the remains of scavengers, or evidence for natural processes. Piercing of land snail shells enables the animal
to be extracted fromthe shell and thus provides direct evidence for human consumption.Wereport pierced
land snails from the Haua Fteah, Libya. The earliest pierced land snail shell in the Haua Fteah pre-dates the Last
Interglacial, while the most recent is Late-Classical in age, but the largest quantities are in layers of Late-Glacial
and earliest Holocene age, where they are associated with atypical microliths which may have been used to
pierce shells to enable easy extraction of the animal
parts of the world. Before the appearance of modern dating techniques, cave deposits provided clear
evidence for the antiquity, relative ages and co-occurrence of ancient human remains, material culture
and fauna. Earlier generations of archaeologists had generally rather limited understanding of
taphonomic and depositional processes, but the twentieth century saw considerable improvement in
excavation and analytical techniques. The advent of modern dating and chronological methodologies
offers very powerful tools for the analysis of cave fill deposits and this has resulted in the recognition of
chronological incoherence in parts of some sites, with consequent re-evaluation of previous archaeological
disputes. Obtaining multiple dates per context provides a means to assess the integrity and
coherence of the archaeological and environmental records from cave fills. In the case of the Haua Fteah
(Libya), this technique allowed the recognition of chronological coherence in low-energy depositional
environments and limited recycling in high-energy contexts. We provide a conceptual model of the
relationship between recycling, sedimentation rate and process energy. High-resolution investigation
enables recognition of the complexity of the formation of cave sequences, thus an increasingly sophisticated
understanding of human behaviour and environmental relationships in the past, and potentially
gives a new life to old data.