How could the Indian Ocean species have reached the archaeologcail sites. It
is an evidence for trade?
----- Original Message -----
From: "mienis" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, July 18, 2006 7:25 PM
Subject: Re: 100,000 year old shell beads


> Dear Richard and other interested ConchLers,
>
> You asked about the Cowries found at Epipaleothic sites. At the moment I
can
> report only about two sites I've studied myself. Both sites: Rosh Horesha
> and Abu Salem are located in the center of the Negev desert, Israel.
>
> Rosh Horesha yielded among others only one fragment of Cypraea erosa
> nebrites, a Red Sea species, and five additional, tiny fragments of
cowries
> which could not be identified at species level. Noteworthy was the fact
that
> 15 shell beads made of Nassarius gibbosulus were also present.
>
> Abu Salem yielded:
> four fragments of Cypraea arabica grayana, a Red Sea subspecies;
> one shell bead made of Cypraea caputserpentis, most probably from the
Indian
> Ocean, since it has never been reported from the Red Sea;
> one shell bead made from Cypraea erosa erosa, likewise most probably from
> the Indian oCean;
> two shell beads made from Cypraea erosa nebrites from the Red Sea;
> one fragment of Cypraea isabella from the Red Sea;
> one shell bead made from Cypraea spurca, a Mediterranean species;
> and seven unrecognizable fragments.
> At this side too 10 shell beads of Nassarius gibbosulus were found.
> All this was reported in:
> Mienis, H.K., 1977. Marine molluscs from the Epipaleolithic Natufian and
> Harifian of the Har Harif, Central Negev, Israel. In A.E. Marks (Ed.):
> Prehistory and paleoenvironments in the Central Negev, Israel. Volume II
The
> Avdat/Aqev area, part 2 and the Har Harif, 347-353. Dept. Anthropology,
> Institute for the Study of Earth and Man, Southern Methodist University,
> Dallas.
> Of other Epipaleolithic sites I don't have the literature at hand at my
> home.
> So neither Cypraea moneta nor C. annulus were present. By the way both are
> rarely encountered in the northern part of the Red Sea inclusive the Gulfs
> of Aqaba and Suez. More to the south they are becoming more common, but
> nowhere they are really abundant in the Red Sea.
>
> With best regards,
>
> Henk K. Mienis
>
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