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.


>On Mon, 23 Apr 2007 14:49:01 -0400, Harry G. Lee <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >Dear David et al.,
> >
> >I am untutored in archaeology and anthropology, but I am interested
> >in the discussion of pre-Columbian Cypraea (eg C. moneta) in North
>America.
> >
> >This forum has discussed the prehistoric uses of shells by man
> >(Nassarius kraussianus in Southern Africa; N. gibbosulus in the
> >Levant, Spondylus princeps in western America) and
> >chronostratigraphy, or whatever the archaeological equivalent for
> >that discipline is called, was taken into consideration.
> >
> >I agree with David that it would take a much more compelling argument
> >based on cultural-anthropological observations to place these
> >Indo-West Pacific cowries in the pre-Columbian New World, and I am
> >surprised at the apparent lack of chronostratigraphy brought to bear
> >on as validation/refutation of Jackson's hypothesis. Where's the
> >Carbon 14 and the more traditional archaeology?
> >
> >Harry

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