Re. Janice's comment - sea urchin spine fragments occur with
reasonable consistency in sieved samples from Scottish shell
middens (and other "midden" deposits) I have looked at, but
never in sufficient concentration to demonstrate that they are
archaeologically significant (ie. not just residual).
Becky Nicholson
Dr. R.A. Nicholson
Dep't Archaeological Sciences
University of Bradford
Bradford BD7 1DP
UK.
On Wed, 24 May 2000 22:23:31 +0100 Janice Light
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Hallo all
> I have just downloaded 2 weeks of emails and intrigued to see all that e
> correspondence on sea urchins! I note not a suggestion of urchin
> material from British Isles archaeo sites. I have certainly never seen
> test residue in shell deposits I have analysed. Has anyone else? There
> is a useful chapter in M S Lovell's Edible British Mollusks (1884, pub
> Lovell Reeve) on Echinus - Sea Egg. In that chapter another
> malacologist, Pennant, is quoted as saying that 'sea-eggs' are used for
> food in many parts of England. There is a reference to the purple sea
> urchin (this would be Paracentrotus lividus) being eaten on the west
> coast of Ireland. I have worked on the Burren coast and confirm that
> the urchin still lives there in hollows excavated in the limestone
> although it has been affected by collection for export to the continent.
> Lovell suggests that to cook 'Echini' you boil them as you would eggs,
> and eat them with sippets (soldiers?!!) of bread.
> Jan
> --
> Janice Light
> 88 Peperharow Road
> Godalming Surrey
> GU7 2PN, UK
> Tel: +44 (0)1483 417782
> Mob: 0973 322681
> email: [log in to unmask]
>
> Carbonate Group, Dept of Geology
> Royal Holloway University of London
> Egham, Surrey, TW20 0EX, UK
> email: [log in to unmask]
----------------------
Rebecca Anne Nicholson
@bradford.ac.uk
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