Mollusker som miljöhistoriskt och kulturhistorisk dokument.

Abstract

Molluscs arc among the most conspicuos invertebrate animals and include such familiar forms as oysters, mussels, cowrie shells, snails and slugs. They live the sea, on freshwater and on land. Nevertheless, as subfossil evidence their preservahon is restricted to areas with calcareous bedrock, sediments and soils. Analysis and ecological mterpretat_1on of molluscs play an important
role as environmental evidence for many archaeological sites in Europe and in the New World. So far this method has not _been applied m Sweden. A brief look in old excavation reports shows, however, that single shells have been found and identified in Sweden too.