Specific objectives
of the project include:
- Assessing the distribution
of shell middens in relation to variations in depositional behaviour
and geomorphological and taphonomic processes.
- Refining methods of extracting
palaeoenvironmental and palaeoeconomic data from microscopic growth
structures in molluscs as a sensitive guide to season of collection,
changing environmental conditions and economic intensification.
- Incorporating independent
research on off-site palaeoenvironmental change, biomolecular studies
of food residues and stable isotopes, and amino acid racemisation evaluation
of rates and processes of midden formation.
- Examining material across
the widest temporal and geographical range to place the Mesolithic-Neolithic
transition into a longer time perspective.
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