Great piece Harry!  As a further indication of active "in the field"
archaeology, I have been in email contact for a number of years with Dr
Katherine Szabo from the Australian National University of Canberra.  Dr
Szabo and her team participate in active digs in a number of Pacific
localities.  Her finding fossil Nerita textilis in a shell midden in
Indonesia led to the range extension of this species after Extant specimens
were also found (reported in Amer. Conch.).  More recently in a similar dig
on Easter Island she found evidence of a Nerita species no longer found on
the island (MS in prep).  So we still have intrepid souls digging into our
past.

Tom Eichhorst in New Mexico, USA

-----Original Message-----
From: Conchologists List [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of
Harry G. Lee
Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2007 8:22 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Wikipedia and Cowries once more


Dear Richard and other aspiring ethnoconchologists/zooarchaeologists,

Let me tell you that classical pre-Columbian archaeology and
chronostratigraphy is alive and well in my neighborhood; see
<http://www.jaxshells.org/arko.htm>.

Harry


At 01:35 AM 4/24/2007, you wrote:
>Jackson was writing in 1917, and carbon-dating wasn't invented until 1947.
>
>Having said which, there was a whole generation of anthropologists
>studying and writing between the wars, when there was no reliable dating
>system of any kind, but they managed to collect an amazing amount of data
>on the areas where common cultural items were used (like Hornell on boats,
>and outriggers, single and double, Jett on blowpipes - used in SE Asia, on
>a couple of islands N of New Guinea, and a whole area of S America, and
>quite a few more, whose names I forget, who looked at basket-weaving
>methods, pot-making, etc).
>
>Someone in one of the messages here mentioned mollusc purple dye - that
>was used in Mexico (before the Spanish) as well as in the more familiar
>Tyre and Sidon of Phoenicia.
>
>Most of their stuff has now been forgotten (too old-fashioned) while
>modern achaeologists don't dig very much, but maunder around museum
>collections picking up things like a couple of 'lost' shells, so they call
>on Henk Mienis to tell them what they are. That's how they found out that
>Nassarius shells were being used for jewellery in Turkey and Algeria only
>a bit later (or perhaps a bit earlier) than they were used in South
>Africa, nearly 70,000 years ago.
>
>I argue, from Nassarius' resemblance to C. moneta, that they were using
>the next best thing to cowries, but Henk disagrees with me. I am waiting
>for the moment when he is called in to look at shells from an East African
>site of about that time.
>
>It's a good idea not to rely too much on the fashionably 'new'
>anthropology/archaeology, but to resurrect the sheer breadth of knowledge
>that the 'oldies' had.
>
>regards
>
>Richard Parker
>Siargao Island, The Philippines.
>
>My website at www.coconutstudio.com is about the island and its people,
>coastal early humans, fishing, coconuts, bananas and whatever took my
>fancy at the time.
>
>PS I envy Henk Mienis in being able to pop into Jerusalem to look at a
>book. My nearest library of any use at all is in Manila, 4 days' voyage
>away.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
[log in to unmask] - a forum for informal discussions on molluscs
To leave this list, click on the following web link:
http://listserv.uga.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=conch-l&A=1
Type your email address and name in the appropriate box and
click leave the list.
----------------------------------------------------------------------