Archaeomalacology Revisited: Non-dietary use of molluscs in archaeological settings

The past decade has witnessed a remarkable momentum in the advancement of archaeomalacological research but there is still a lot of room for progress. These ten papers are the second published proceedings of the archaeomalacology sessions organised by ICAZ (Mexico City, 2006). The contributions revisit important archaeological issues such as provenance of raw materials, dye production and the secondary uses of industrial shell waste, the role of shell artefacts in the symbolic world of diverse civilisations, technology and early cross-regional exchange networks. All of the papers testify to the necessity and merits of detailed analytical research; most demonstrate the indispensability of the information we obtain from experimental archaeology and archaeological context.