The Conchological Society partnered publication of Land and People; papers in honour of John G. Evans was published this year (see also Mollusc World Issue 19) and launched at the Association of Environmental Archaeologists 30th anniversary conference in York in September. This handsome book does the Society proud with its pleasing cut-down A4 hardback format produced by the Prehistoric Society with Oxbow Books. It contains a wealth of papers (20 in all), which cover aspects of environmental archaeology and research that John Evans was involved in during his career; typically a number of papers relate to land snails and shells. John was a former member of the Society, and one of the last public lectures he attended was one of the Society’s on Molluscs in Archaeology.
Papers by Paul Davies and Mark Robinson examine land snails in particular, with Paul discussing the nature of modern recording and ecology of woodland and Mark examining the palaeoecology of Ena montana. Palaeoecological sequences of land snails are discussed from Roman colluviums at Rock Roman villa on the Isle of Wight by George Speller, Richard Preece and Simon Parfitt, and from sediment cores from mire in Orkney by Terry O’Connor and Jane Bunting. Data derived from land snail evidence provide the basis of arguments of prehistoric land-use of the chalkands of southern England by Mike Allen and Julie Gardiner, and to a lesser extent by Charly French. Land snails were used in some of the preliminary work examining the prehistory of the Wylye valley, Wiltshire (Gardiner & Allen).
Marine shells, in the form of prehistoric middens, are discussed to examine continuity and change in the Mesolithic – Neolithic of the west coast of Scotland, by Nicky Milner and Oliver Craig. Their study included isotope and radiocarbon analysis of the shells.
Indeed evidence from snails published in this book is rewriting the prehistory of the southern chalklands; a theme taken up by our President in the next issue of British Archaeology. I will provide a short piece on this for a later edition of Mollusc World.
Details of ordering the volume can be found on our website and the Oxbow Book catalogue and website. Society members are enttled to a 25% discount on the cover price.