Dear colleague,
here in Flanders, Belgium, we've recovered crustacean remains from:
- a 4th c. well, from waterlogged layers with a lot of bone, shells,
calcium-rich soil, lime mortar and many fragments of limestone;
- but mainly from medieval and postmedieval cesspits, characterised by
alkaline and waterlogged conditions
We not only find the fragments of the exoskeleton of crabs and lobsters
but also the much more fragile ones from shrimps and prawns.
all the best,
Anton Ervynck
"Bruce J. Bourque" schreef:
> A colleague and I have been puzzling about the absence of crustacean
> remains in Northwest Atlantic, Gulf of Maine shell middens. He points
> out that lobster and crab chitin in particular is well calcified and
> therefore should survive in this carbonate-rich environment. I
> counter that in over forty sites I have examined I have recovered a
> single small carbonized fragment of crab claw. Even accidental
> inclusions should have produced many more recoveries if chitin is
> preserved in shell middens.
>
> So my basic question is where in the world and under what conditions
> have archaeologists recovered crustacean shell? And secondarily, has
> anyone examined the structure of chitin in this regard?
>
> Bruce J. Bourque
> Chief Archaeologist
> Maine State Museum
> Augusta, Maine 04333
>
> and
>
> Senior Lecturer in Anthropology
> Bates College
> Lewiston, Maine 04240
--
Anton Ervynck
Vlaams Instituut voor het Onroerend Erfgoed
Flemish Heritage Institute
Phoenix-building, Koning Albert II-laan 19 box 5, B-1210 Brussel
02/553.18.30
0477/56.01.95
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