IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/yenvxx/v19y2014i2p153-165.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Stacks and sheets: The microstructure of nacreous shell and its merit in the field of archaeology

Author

Listed:
  • Sofie Debruyne

Abstract

Inspired by archaeological finds from Kilise Tepe in southern Turkey, this paper explains how the internal structure of nacreous shell can indicate which type of shell was its source. Previous work in the biological sciences demonstrated that it is possible to distinguish between gastropods/cephalopods and bivalves by observing the arrangement of the aragonite tablets in the nacreous layer, and that the thickness of these tablets is fairly constant within taxa but can differ between them. This study verifies these properties by scanning electron microscopy on modern and ancient material, and discusses the benefit in the field of archaeology. The text is not the result of full-scale research but rather a proof of concept to explore the potential of the topic. It is shown that the difference between gastropods/cephalopods and bivalves can indeed be established by looking at the internal architecture of their mother-of-pearl, but that it is problematic to further discriminate between taxa. The thickness of the aragonite tablets is not a reliable distinctive feature. The microstructure of the overlying prismatic layer is a useful parameter when it is preserved.

Suggested Citation

  • Sofie Debruyne, 2014. "Stacks and sheets: The microstructure of nacreous shell and its merit in the field of archaeology," Environmental Archaeology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(2), pages 153-165, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:yenvxx:v:19:y:2014:i:2:p:153-165
    DOI: 10.1179/1749631413Y.0000000014
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1179/1749631413Y.0000000014
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1179/1749631413Y.0000000014?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:yenvxx:v:19:y:2014:i:2:p:153-165. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/yenv .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.