Learning from Experiment: <i>Unio</i> Freshwater Mussel Shells in Fifth-millennium <scp>bc</scp> Romania

Mărgărit, Monica; Radu, Valentin; Voinea, Valentina

doi:10.1017/eaa.2020.51

Cited by 8 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Due to the increased fragmentarity, 54 valves were classified only at the genus level (Unio sp.). Experimental studies have shown that valves with wear traces could be used to process ceramics [37]. On eight of these valves, it was possible to identify spots of red pigments (Fig.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Non-Invasive Analytical Techniques Applied on Pigments Characterization of Ancient Bivalve Shells

et al. 2021

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In this paper was studied eight bivalve shells (with pigments traces) collected from Cheia archaeological site (Eneolitihic site, dated between the end of the 6th millennium and the beginning of the 5th millennium cal BC, Romania), in order to established correlations related to morphology, composition, longevity and belonging to the archaeological site of these shells. The samples (pigments and shells) were investigated, from morphological and chemical composition point of view, by optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), and attenuated total reflectance - Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy, respectively. Principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis (CA) were carry out using IBM SPSS Statistics software to assess the similarities between the investigated samples

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Non-Invasive Analytical Techniques Applied on Pigments Characterization of Ancient Bivalve Shells

et al. 2021

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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%

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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“…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%

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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Learning from Experiment: Unio Freshwater Mussel Shells in Fifth-millennium bc Romania

Cited by 8 publications

References 16 publications

Non-Invasive Analytical Techniques Applied on Pigments Characterization of Ancient Bivalve Shells

Non-Invasive Analytical Techniques Applied on Pigments Characterization of Ancient Bivalve Shells

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)

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