The use of mollusc shells as tools by coastal human groups: the contribution of ethnographical studies to research on mesolithic and early neolithic technologies in Northern Spain

Abstract

In European archaeology, the malacological remains recovered in archaeological contexts have traditionally been considered almost exclusively as food waste. In other cases, this view has been broadened in order to study these remains as an expression of aspects of the social organization of the human groups, based on the use of perforated shells as objects of personal ornamentation. However, the study of these natural resources as raw materials for the manufacture of tools aimed at satisfying the production needs of the human groups has been very limited. This little-developed aspect of research is at variance with the abundant ethnographic information from many different periods and geographical settings showing that malacological resources were used in many complex and varied ways. This paper is an attempt at compiling a small part of this ethnographic information - a contribution which, through its critical application to the archaeological record, is of interest in establishing a methodology for studying this type of evidence. In the specific case of northern Spain, information from ethnographic studies has been used to develop an appropriate methodology with which to approach the analysis of this kind of archaeological evidence, as recently documented for the first time at the classic site of Santimamihe (Basque Country). At the same time, the documentation of shell tools could provide an explanation for the scarcity of " traditional technologies " that characterizes many Mesolithic and early Neolithic sites in northern Spain.