Introduction

The past decade has witnessed a remarkable momentum in the advancement of archaeomalacological research but there is still a lot of room for progress.

Proceedings Overview

These ten papers are the second published proceedings of the archaeomalacology sessions organised by ICAZ (Mexico City, 2006).

Key Topics

The contributions revisit important archaeological issues such as provenance of raw materials, dye production and the secondary uses of industrial shell waste, the role of shell artefacts in the symbolic world of diverse civilisations, technology and early cross-regional exchange networks.

Significance

The papers testify to the merits of using state-of-the-art laboratory techniques to address archaeomalacological questions and demonstrate the interpretative value of integrating malacological expertise with experimental archaeology and detailed knowledge of archaeological context.