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Dating the Cassis rufa shell from the Mousterian levels of the Grotte du Prince, Monaco

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Brian Hayden ,
D. E. Nelson  and
Jean Cataliotti-Valdina
Brian Hayden
Affiliation:
Archaeology Department, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby B.C., Canada V5A 1S6
D. E. Nelson
Affiliation:
Archaeology Department, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby B.C., Canada V5A 1S6
Jean Cataliotti-Valdina
Affiliation:
ERA 38, Centre de Recherches Archéologiques (CNRS), Sophia Antipolis, Valbonne, France
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Abstract

A fragment of Cassis rufa shell, in modern times a species of the Indian Ocean, was reliably reported from the deep Mousterian deposits excavated at the beginning of the century from the Grotte du Prince, Monaco. Because its known habitat is so distant and exotic, there has always been question about the specimen's authenticity. A radiocarbon determination shows it to be recent, and no evidence for long-distance movement of shell in the European Middle Palaeolithic.

Type
Notes
Information
Antiquity , Volume 67 , Issue 256 , September 1993 , pp. 609 - 612
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 1993

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