Organised by Canan Çakirlar and Victoria Stosel
SHELLS OF MOLLUSCA: ENVIRONMENTAL ADAPTATIONS, IDEOLOGICAL EXPRESSIONS
Since the earliest appearance of archaeomalacological papers in the late 1970s, the importance of and interest in archaeomalacology as a subdiscipline has increased significantly. The objective of the proposed session at the ICAZ conference in Mexico City is to bring together the various archaeomalacological researchers to discuss their current research. The ICAZ conference facilitates the sharing of diverse scientific approaches and new methodologies within the field, fostering a better understanding regarding human interaction with maritime environments. Papers for this session ideally will focus on a broad range of topics: comparing and discussing molluscan evidence in terms of global ecological trends; aquatic adaptations; human impact on environment; continuity and discontinuity in cultural traditions; trade relationships; gender and social identity. Papers dealing with regional, inter-regional, methodological, environmental, and anthropological problems, bringing in multiple proxy-data together are encouraged rather than restrictively site-specific discussions or merely descriptive presentations.
The proceeding of the meeting was published in Çakirlar, Canan (ed) 2011. Archaeomalacology revisited: non-dietary use of molluscs in archaeological settings: proceedings of the archaeomalacology sessions at the 10th ICAZ Conference, Mexico City, 2006. Oxford; Oakville: Oxbow Books.
The Archaeomalacology Session at Mexico City and its Working Group Meeting – Report
by Daniella E. Bar-Yosef Mayer
The archaeomalacology working group decided during its initial business meeting in Florida, in February of 2005 to meet every other year, alternating between a session within the general ICAZ meeting and an independent meeting elsewhere. During the recent ICAZ meeting in Mexico City due to logistical reasons our session was split into two parts on different days. The session was very variable and included 10 oral presentations and two posters. The topics varied from oyster cultivation to the production and exchange of shell artifacts; from paleoenvironmental reconstruction and dating of mollusks to their dietary significance in an island society as well as shell symbolism. (The abstracts are available on the Bone Commons website). A wide chronological and geographical range was represented, and all papers were stimulating contributions for future research.
In our previous meeting the group welcomed a contribution of sea urchins, while this time we included a study on Ostracod Paleoecology. Being the only working group dedicated to invertebrates, we are open to include such studies and benefit from them. In addition to the archaeomalacology session, there was a session dedicated to Mollusks of Precolumbian Mexico. Withn the entire conference there were about 30 papers and posters that discussed mollusks in various contexts, many of them within the session on Exploitation of Coastal Resources but also elsewhere. A business meeting was carried out dedicated primarily to discuss the publication of the proceedings and to our next meeting. Canan Cakirlar and Victoria Stosel agreed to undertake the editing and publishing of the proceedings of the Archaeomalacology and the Mollusks of Precolumbian Mexico sessions in one volume. Esteban Álvarez Fernández and Diana Rocio Carvajal Contreras volunteered to co-organize the next meeting of the Working Group in Santander, Spain during 2008.
Archaeomalacology Working Group 