Preface List of 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 machair-dune systems: 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   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   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   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 shells as artefacts?; a cautionary tale of natural wear and tear as compared to resourceful anthropogenic modification processes  Janice Light   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   Index