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Spondylus shell ornaments from late Neolithic Dimini, Greece: specialized manufacture or unequal accumulation?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Paul Halstead*
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology & Prehistory, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, England

Abstract

Rings and buttons and beads cut from the marine shell, Spondylus gaederopus, are among the most distinctive exchange items of Neolithic Europe. From sources on the coast of the Mediterranean, these highly valued objects were widely distributed across central Europe. A re-examination of the nature and contexts of shell objects and manufacturing waste at Dimini, a key late Neolithic site on the coast of northern Greece, explores their social role within a Spondylus-working community.

Type
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Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 1993

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