Harvesting molluscs in the Eneolithic: a study of freshwater bivalve accumulations from the tell settlements of Borduşani-Popină and Hârşova (Romania, 5th millennium BC)

Radu, Valentin; Popovici, Dragomir; Cernea, Cătălina; Cernău, Ioan; Bălășescu, Adrian

doi:10.1080/14614103.2015.1115615

Cited by 7 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Usually, they fed on detritus and phytobenthic species (Makhutova et al, 2013), and for this reason, naiads qualify as a convenient isotopic baseline for comparisons of pelagic food webs (McKinney et al, 1999;Vuorio et al, 2007). (Radu, 2011;Radu et al, 2016) and as raw material for producing tools or ornaments (Mărgărit et al, 2018(Mărgărit et al, , 2021.…”

Section: Naiads Ecologymentioning

confidence: 99%

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New method for the isotopic study of ancient conchiolin from archaeological shells of freshwater mussels (Unionoida)

García-Vázquez

Radu

Lazăr

2023

Preprint

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Freshwater mussels shells are common remains in archaeological sites of the Gumelnița culture (5th millennium BC, Romania), and were part of the diet of its ancient inhabitants. The proteins of these shells are often preserved and can be used for paleodietary and paleoecosystem reconstructions by stable isotopes. To obtain the empirical relationship between the isotopic composition of sell organic matrix and soft tissues, we analysed the body (foot and mantle), the muscle, the conchiolin of the shell and stomach contents of modern individuals of Unio tumidus from the Danube. In addition, modern shells were digested in 5M HCl and archaeological in 1M HCl to obtain the shell organic matrix or conchiolin. We established a quality criterion for freshwater mussel shell conchiolin of 3.6 (± 0.3) for the C:N and obtained an offset of Δ15Nconchiolin-defatted body= +0.95‰, Δ13Cconchiolin-defatted body = +0.93‰ for the soft tissues, and an offset of Δ15Nconchiolin-muscle= +1.7‰, Δ13Cconchiolin-muscle= +0.3‰ for the muscle. Freshwater mussels from Gumelnița showed that they came from different sources (rivers, lakes, ponds…) but which not necessarily have to come from long distances since all these different habitats were present in the vicinity of the site.

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Section: Naiads Ecologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The size of modern U. tumidus is within the variation (Lazăr et al, 2017, 2020) of this species in the Gumelnița site, except for individual 3, which has a larger size. This could be due to the exploitation of these molluscs in the past, which prevented them from reaching larger sizes (Radu et al, 2016).…”

Section: Modern Molluscsmentioning

confidence: 99%

New method for the isotopic study of ancient conchiolin from archaeological shells of freshwater mussels (Unionoida)

García-Vázquez

Radu

Lazăr

2023

Preprint

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“…During prehistory, molluscs were exploited opportunistically in relationship with the surrounding environment: as an essential source of food (Radu, 2011;Radu et al, 2016) and as raw material for producing tools or ornaments (Mărgărit et al, 2018(Mărgărit et al, , 2021.…”

Section: Archaeological Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The size of modern U. tumidus is within the variation (Lazăr et al, 2017(Lazăr et al, , 2020 of this species in the Gumelnița site, except for individual 3, which has a larger size. This could be due to the exploitation of these molluscs in the past, which prevented them from reaching larger sizes (Radu et al, 2016).…”

Section: Modern Molluscsmentioning

confidence: 99%

New method for the isotopic study of ancient conchiolin from archaeological shells of freshwater mussels (Unionoida)

García-Vázquez

Radu

Lazăr

2022

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Freshwater mussels shells are common remains in archaeological sites of the Gumelnița culture (5th millennium BC, Romania), and were part of the diet of its ancient inhabitants. The proteins of these shells are often preserved and can be used for paleodietary and paleoecosystem reconstructions by stable isotopes. To obtain the empirical relationship between the isotopic composition of sell organic matrix and soft tissues, we analysed the body (foot and mantle), the muscle, the conchiolin of the shell and stomach contents of modern individuals of Unio tumidus from the Danube. In addition, modern shells were digested in 5M HCl and archaeological in 1M HCl to obtain the shell organic matrix or conchiolin. We established a quality criterion for freshwater mussel shell conchiolin of 3.6 (± 0.3) for the C:N and obtained an offset of Δ15Nconchiolin−defatted body = + 0.95‰, Δ13Cconchiolin−defatted body = + 0.93‰ for the soft tissues, and an offset of Δ15Nconchiolin−muscle = + 1.7‰, Δ13Cconchiolin−muscle = + 0.3‰ for the muscle. Freshwater mussels from Gumelnița showed that they came from different sources (rivers, lakes, ponds…) but which not necessarily have to come from long distances since all these different habitats were present in the vicinity of the site.

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Natural environment and resources, and the long life of the Neolithic settlement at Vinča, southeast Europe

Filipović

Marić

Challinor

et al. 2018

Archaeol Anthropol Sci

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Harvesting molluscs in the Eneolithic: a study of freshwater bivalve accumulations from the tell settlements of Borduşani-Popină and Hârşova (Romania, 5th millennium BC)

Cited by 7 publications

References 15 publications

New method for the isotopic study of ancient conchiolin from archaeological shells of freshwater mussels (Unionoida)

New method for the isotopic study of ancient conchiolin from archaeological shells of freshwater mussels (Unionoida)

New method for the isotopic study of ancient conchiolin from archaeological shells of freshwater mussels (Unionoida)

Natural environment and resources, and the long life of the Neolithic settlement at Vinča, southeast Europe

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