Cover ; Title ; Copyright ; Dedication ; Contents ; Preface ; Contributors ; Acknowledgements ; Molluscs in archaeology: an introduction Michael J. Allen and Bas Payne ; PART 1: PALAEO-ENVIRONMENTS; ENVIRONMENT AND LAND-USE ; TERRESTRIAL HABITATS, CONTEXTS AND LANDSCAPES ; 1. Land snails in archaeology --
Michael J. Allen; 2. The geoarchaeology of context: sampling for land snails (on archaeological sites and colluvium) --
Michael J. Allen ; 3. Numerical approaches to land snail palaeoecology --
Matt Law ; 4. Molluscs and the palaeo-environment of coastal blown sand and dunes --
Thomas Walker. 5. Molluscs from dune-machair systems in the Western Isles: archaeological site formation processes and environmental change --
Matt Law and Nigel Thew 6. Caves and molluscs --
Chris O. Hunt and Evan A. Hill ; WETLANDS AND FRESH- AND BRACKISH-WATER ; 7. Molluscs from the floodplain alluvial sediments in the Thames Valley --
Mark Robinson ; 8. Wetlands: freshwater and slum communities --
Terry O'Connor ; PART 2: PALAEO-ENVIRONMENTAL RECONSTRUCTION: EUROPE, THE MEDITERRANEAN AND NEAR EAST. 9. The southern English chalklands: molluscan evidence for the nature of the post-glacial woodland cover --
Michael J. Allen 10. (Some thoughts on) using molluscs for landscape reconstruction and ecology in Malta --
Michael J. Allen and Bri Eastabook ; 11. Molluscan remains from early to middle Holocene sites in the Iron Gates reach of the Danube, southeast Europe --
Catriona Pickard, Adina Boroneanț and Clive Bonsall ; 12. Land mollusc middens --
Victoria K. Taylor and Martin Bell ; PART 3: MARINE AND FOOD AND DIET 13. Marine molluscs from archaeological contexts: how they can inform interpretations of former economies and environments --
Liz Somerville, Janice Light and Michael J. Allen 14. Oysters in archaeology --
Jessica Winder ; 15. Shell middens --
Karen Hardy ; 16. The collection, processing and curation of archaeological marine shells --
Greg Campbell ; PART 4: ARTEFACTS ; 17. Shell ornaments, icons and other artefacts from the eastern Mediterranean and Levant --
Janet Ridout-Sharpe ; 18. Molluscan shells as raw materials for artefact production --
Katherine Szabó 19. How strong is the evidence for purple dye extraction from the muricid gastropod Nucella lapillus (L. 1758), from archaeological sites in Britain and Ireland? --
Janice Light and Thomas Walker 20. Marine shell artefacts: cautionary tales of natural wear and tear as compared to resourceful anthropogenic modification processes --
Janice Light ; PART 5: SCIENCE AND SHELLS ; 21. Bivalves and radiocarbon --
Ricardo Fernandes and Alexander Dreves ; 22. Radiocarbon dating of marine and terrestrial shell --
Katerina Douka. 23. Stable isotope ecology of terrestrial gastropod shells --
André Carlo Colonese.

The subject of 'Molluscs in Archaeology' has not been dealt with collectively for several decades. This new volume in Oxbow's 'Studying Scientific Archaeology' series addresses many aspects of molluscs in archaeology. It will give the reader an overview of the whole topic; methods of analysis and approaches to interpretation. It aims to be a broad based text book giving readers an insight of how to apply analysis to different present and past landscapes and how to interpret those landscapes.