American shell daggers and picks have been illustrated by Pfeiffer, L.,
1914. Die steinzeitliche Muscheltechnik und ihre Beziehungen zur Gegenwart.
334 pp. , but Strombus is not mentioned by him. According to the text "his"
daggers were made out of Charonia, Busycon and Ficus (the latter in my
opinion a wrong identification).
Examples were found in excavations of sites dating back to the Stone
age-period, in both North- and South America. No such items have ever been
recognized among archaeomalacological material in the Middle East. Gijs a
copy of the book is present in the library of the Zoological Museum in
Amsterdam.
Henk K. Mienis. E-mail: [log in to unmask] & [log in to unmask]
----- Original Message -----
From: Liz Somerville <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, August 28, 2000 5:27 PM
Subject: Re: Strombus gigas as weapon (again)


> Gijs asked about a particular type of pick made from the conch
> (Strombus gigas). I can't add any thing to that, but though that it
> might be of relevance to note that shell, especially the shell of S.
> gigas, was used as raw material for tools (axes and adzes) on Barbados
> in prehistory. (See Drewett, P. (1991) Prehistoric Barbados. Archetype
> Press). I don't know if these tools were also made in Florida, but if
> local stone was scarce I would not be surprised. However, Gijs' query
> seemd to relate to a more recent tradition.
>
> Liz Somerville
>
>
> Dr Liz Somerville
> Sub-Dean (Academic Affairs)
> School of Biological Sciences
> University of Sussex
> Falmer
> Brighton
> BN1 9QG
>
> Tel: 01273 877460
> internal no: 7460
>
> email:[log in to unmask]