A multidisciplinary analysis of shell deposits from Saltés Island (SW Spain): The origin of a new Roman shell midden

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Highlights

  • Multidisciplinary analyzes permit to distinguish shell middens from other shell deposits.

  • Percentages of edible species, taphonomy or shell size delimit shell middens.

  • Statistics permits to delimitate shell middens from cheniers, washover fans or tidal flats.

  • Autoecology of the species delimits the fishing spaces of a Roman factory and the fishing techniques used.

  • Age of shell midden is consistent with that of the nearby archaeological remains.

Abstract

The analysis of shell deposits eroded by a ebb-tide channel on Saltés Island (Tinto-Odiel estuary, SW Spain) resulted in the identification of a new shell midden, associated with the activity of a nearby Roman factory over the 4th-5th centuries CE. This midden differs from other old shell deposits (sandy tidal flats, cheniers, washover fans) in several features: a) its malacological content, dominated by edible species (mainly the bivalve Glycymeris nummaria) and differentiated by statistical analysis; b) a partial selection and better conservation of Glycymeris nummaria (Linnaeus), its most abundant species; c) the absence of microfauna, which implies a previous washing to its final deposit; and d) an age concordant with the one deduced from the Roman amphoraic remains found in this area and subsequent to the washover fans on whom it was deposited. All these features, together with the absence of both anthropic fractures or cooking, would indicate that this Roman shell midden was the end result of a trawling on subtidal Glycymeris-rich sandy bottoms with adjacent grasslands, where the gastropod Bittium reticulatum (da Costa) was the most abundant mollusc. This gastropod is the dominant species in the remaining shell deposits.

Introduction

The prehistoric and historical evidences of mollusc consumption are very abundant and started as far back as the Lower Palaeolithic (ca. 300 ka; Colonese et al., 2011). One of the most widespread results are coastal shell middens, characterized by massive concentrations of mollusc shells that also contain frequent bone remains, charcoal and ash that denotes collection, hunting and food processing (e.g. Álvarez et al., 2011; Thompson et al., 2016). These shell accumulations are present in numerous coastal environments around the world (see Fig. 1 for examples).

The species richness of each coastal shell midden depends on the disponibility and paleobiogeographical distribution of edible species in a certain area for a defined period of time. Among bivalves, some of the most commonly reported groups are oysters (Lewis, 2011; Lulewicz et al., 2017), mussels (Jerardino et al., 2008; Erlandson et al., 2009a, b), clams (Bailey, 1977; Hallmann et al., 2009) or cockles (Dupont et al., 2007; López-Dórigal et al., 2019). The gastropod record includes marine, brackish and even terrestrial species, such as strombids, muricids or helicids (Schapiera et al., 2006; Douka et al., 2014; Magee et al., 2017). In an individual shell midden, the most consumed species may vary with time due to anthropogenic overexploitation, climatic effects, sea-level oscillations or geomorphological changes (Branch et al., 2014; García-Escárzaga et al., 2017).

In the geological record of these littoral scenarios, shell middens coexist with natural shell deposits, such as beach ridges, cheniers, washover fans or bioclastic tidal facies. An important body of research has focused on the differences between them, from which it can be deduced that middens shells are mainly characterized by: 1) Texture: absence or very low percentages of matrix and grain size selection in edible species; 2) Stratigraphy: no evidence for internal stratification; 3) Fossil record: low diversity, dominant edible species of macrofauna (e.g. bivalves, gastropods, crustaceans, bones of various groups) and absence or scarcity of microfossils in relation to natural formations; 4) Taphonomy: dominant disarticulation, selection of adults, acute fractures of shell margins, rupture of the last turn of the loop or presence of burnt evidences; 5) Archaeology: presence of hearth stones or artefacts in some cases; and 6) Chronology: consistent with the human history in most cases. This general overview should be treated with caution, because numerous problems have been described in the individual study of each shell midden (Bailey, 1977; Gill et al., 1991; Attenbrow, 1992; Carter, 1999; Saunders and Russo, 2011; Betts and Hrynick, 2017 and references therein).

In southern Spain, evidence of the mollusc exploitation has been highlighted at around 150–120 ka during the Last Interglacial and continued until the Holocene (Fa, 2008; Cortés et al., 2011; Jordá et al., 2011). During the Roman period (3rd century BCE-5th century CE), numerous halieutic sites (so-called cetariae) were present along the southwestern Atlantic coast of Spain (Bernal et al., 2014; Campos et al., 2015a). Associated shell middens are still poorly studied (e.g. Ramos et al., 2011) and require extensive future research.

This paper analyzes the main faunistic characteristics of the sedimentary facies present in the northwestern sector of Saltés Island (Fig. 2, A-B: Tinto-Odiel estuary, SW Spain) to define their main assemblages and to detect possible shell middens based on a multidisciplinary analysis (macrofauna, microfauna, taphonomy, statistics, chronology) of them.

Section snippets

The Tinto-Odiel estuary

In southwestern Spain, the Tinto and Odiel Rivers make up a large joint estuary, with two main channels (Fig. 2, B–C: Padre Santo channel and Punta Umbría channel) and numerous ebb-tide channels that delimit a set of islands and marshes (Fig. 2, C: Saltés, Bacuta, Enmedio). This geomorphological architecture is protected by two sandy spits (Fig. 2, B–C: Punta Umbría and Punta Arenillas). Hydrodynamic processes are controlled by the tidal regime, waves and, to a lesser extent, the fluvial

Field methods

The erosive action of the Estero de los Difuntos ebb-tide channel on the northwestern sector of La Cascajera chenier has allowed the current exposure of various profiles. One of them was selected due to the presence of all the facies defined above (facies 1–5; Cáceres et al., 2018) and three sections about 3.5 m in height were sampled (Fig. 2, D), with the extraction of forty-one samples (Fig. 3).

Samples were selected from the different vertical sedimentary units that make up the facies

Global analysis

Malacofauna constitutes an important percentage of the total sediment weight in most of the studied samples, with a facies average that ranges from 2.5% (F1) to 73.8% (F5) (see supplementary data). Mollusc shells are abundant in F3 (M: mean; M: 84 specimens/sample), F4 (M: 80 specimens/sample) and especially F5 (50–404 specimens/sample; M: 156 specimens/sample). Species richness is also greater in these three facies, with 8–11 species in most of their samples. On the contrary, molluscs are rare

Facies 5: a coastal shell midden?

According to the previous results, F5 has a series of distinctive features in relation to the rest of facies although very similar to those of the upper edaphic horizon:

  • 1.

    Faunal content. It presents the highest percentages in total weight of malacofauna, as well as the largest average number of specimens per sample (Table 1). It is composed overwhelmingly of shells with a very scarce sediment matrix. This facies and the upper soil stand out for the abundance of the Glycymeris nummaria and other

Conclusions

  • 1.

    The study of shell deposits exposed in the northern sector of Saltés Island has allowed to determined thirty-three species of mollucs, with a predominance of the gastropod Bittium reticulatum in old sandy tidal flats (F3), cheniers (F4) and washover fans (F2). Other two facies (F5 and soil) are dominated by the bivalve Glycymeris nummaria, while molluscs are poorly represented in the old muddy tidal flats (F1).

  • 2.

    A multidisciplinary analysis of F5 allows to classify it as a shell midden, according

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest in the publication of this paper.

Acknowledgments

This work has been carried out through the project ´From the Atlantic to the Tyrrhenian. The hispanic ports and their commercial relations with Ostia Antica. DEATLANTIR II - HAR2017-89154-P - (Plan Nacional de I+D+i). Other funds have come from Andalusian Gouvernement (groups HUM-132, RNM-238, RNM-293 and RNM-329) and the Centro de Ciências e Tecnologias Nucleares (University of Lisbon, Portugal). It is a contribution to the Research Centre in Historical, Cultural and Natural Heritage (CIPHCN)

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