At the pre historic world ,there were many of snails have been found with shell hole. Some of are said it was part of the paleo diet of pre historic man.
but as i know there are many snails species exhibtd the this hole pattern.
Aravinda,
Are you talking about freshwater snails, saltwater snails, or land snails? What size holes?
There are several reasons for holes in freshwater and saltwater snails. Hagan et al. 1998 found that holes in freshwater snails in Canada were likely caused by bacteria or by other gastropods "mining" calcium from the shells. Several other biologic causes are known, including shell boring parasites, worms, green algae, and some juvenile molluscan species.
We had thousands of freshwater snails from Site 8LI76 in Florida, USA. Some had small holes bored into them. These were interpreted to be from parasites. Since most of these snail shells were intact, it was concluded that these freshwater snails were boiled for a soup. Boiling detached the mollusk inside the shell and then the meat was extracted through the shell aperture using a long thorn or other extraction tool much as we use an escargo fork or pick today.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/232817523_Subfossil_bioerosion_of_mollusc_shells_from_a_freshwater_Lake_Ontario_Canada
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00071617500650221
Maymon et al. 1996. Phase III Data Recovery at Site 8LI76 for the Proposed Florida Gas Transmission Phase III Expansion Project, Liberty County, Florida. Submitted by R. Christopher Goodwin & Associates, Inc. to the Florida Gas Transmission Company.
Article Subfossil bioerosion of mollusc shells from a freshwater Lak...
Dear james,
Thank you for link
It was land snails, specially ACAVIDAE FAMILY. Here i just attached the image of it.
its not like parasites activites know.
The position of the holes in the same general location indicates that they were made purposely in order to string as shown. The edges of the holes appear to be crudely bored, with some possibly showing breakage with modification. The snails still likely were eating by boiling them to make a broth or soup, then extraction of the meat as already noted.
I remember one ethnographic study that suggested that the natives strung the snails on a string and then placed them in boiling water to make a broth. They then could extract the snails from the broth easily. However, that is not a likely scenario because the effort to create the holes just for food production is not justifiable in cost/benefit analysis.
Your shells and their perforations look very much like the marine Nassarius sp. shells found in sites like Taforalt in North Africa. They were used for decorative purposes and also occur in other sites (incl in South Africa) about the same time, somewhere around 80Ka. See Bouzzouggar et al 2007 www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.0703877104.
In the upper levels of the same sequence at Taforalt there are the remains of thousands of edible land snails, but the signs that they were used as food are normally that many are fragmented (ie not in the form of neat holes).
Dear Madam julia ,
Thank you for your answer. As i know know some of archeaologist interptred theri idea as "snails have been found with shell hole at the edgese is a direct evidence of the paleo diet". Here i just attached one my on going research image of land snails (ACAVIDAE FAMILY) . But this kind of same shell hole can be create as a some of birds activites in present world.
Aravinda yes there are several natural, non-anthropogenic ways that such holes can appear.As far as I know the edges of the Nassarius perforations have been thoroughly examined with SEM and found to be slightly rounded. The context and weight of evidence best guides you as to how you interpret them.
Aravinda,
From what I can tell, many of the holes in your 2nd image appear to be pecked like that resulting from a bird. The holes in the 1st image look different. Could you provide a closer view?
Dear James ,
Actually the samples of snails in 2nd image, from the Batadombalena cave excavation ,Sri Lanka, on 2005 . Any how as you said ,there are same hole cuase by non anthropogenic activities.
"The snails still likely were eating by boiling them to make a broth or soup, then extraction of the meat as already noted"
like you said , its quite possible .
Thank you so much James
Here in Europe in prehistory snail shells were often used for personal adornment and the holes are intentionally made to use them as beads. An interesting paper on the production of Neolithic beads can be found here: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/238786200_Freshwater_gastropods_as_Neolithic_adornment_size_selectiveness_and_perforation_morphology_as_a_result_of_grinding_techniques. So in many cases the answer is clearly no
Article Freshwater gastropods as Neolithic adornment: size selective...
Dear ,
Manuel Broich & Rengert Elburg thank you for your suggestions..!
YES IT COULD WELL BE AN OYSTER BORER THEY MAKE WONDERFUL HOLES THAT LOOK LIKE THEY WERE DONE BY A DRILL
Indeed Armstrong..! I think its hard to explain why. Few weeks a go i have done some experiment with ACAVIDAE , FOSSIL AND LIVING SPECIES OF BATADOMBALENA CAVE PRE-HISTORIC SITE IN SRI LANKA.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309643255_Morphological_Variation_and_Speciation_of_Acavidae_Family_A_Case_Study_from_Fossil_and_Living_Species_of_Batadombalena_Cave_Pre-historic_Site_in_Sri_Lanka
Article Morphological Variation and Speciation of Acavidae Family: A...
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