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Radiocarbon Ecology of the Land Snail Helix Melanostoma in Northeastern Libya

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 June 2017

E A Hill ,
P J Reimer ,
C O Hunt ,
A L Prendergast  and
G W Barker
E A Hill*
Affiliation:
Queen’s University Belfast, Natural and Built Environment, Belfast BT7 1NN, United Kingdom
P J Reimer
Affiliation:
Queen’s University Belfast, Natural and Built Environment, Belfast BT7 1NN, United Kingdom
C O Hunt
Affiliation:
Liverpool John Moores University, Ringgold Standard Institution, School of Natural Sciences and Psychology, Liverpool, United Kingdom
A L Prendergast
Affiliation:
University of Melbourne, School of Geography, Melbourne, Australia
G W Barker
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge Ringgold Standard Institution - McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom
*
*Corresponding author. Email: e.hill@qub.ac.uk.
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Abstract

Terrestrial gastropods are problematical for radiocarbon (14C) measurement because they tend to incorporate carbon from ancient sources as a result of their dietary behavior. The 14C ecology of the pulmonate land snail, Helix melanostoma in Cyrenaica, northeastern Libya, was investigated as part of a wider study on the potential of using terrestrial mollusk shell for 14C dating of archaeological deposits. H. melanostoma was selected out of the species available in the region as it has the most predictable 14C ecology and also had a ubiquitous presence within the local archaeology. The ecological observations indicate that H. melanostoma has a very homogenous 14C ecology with consistent variations in F14C across sample sites controlled by availability of dietary vegetation. The majority of dated specimens from non-urbanized sample locations have only a small old-carbon effect, weighted mean of 476±48 14C yr, with between ~1% and 9% of dietary F14C from non-organic carbonate sources. Observed instabilities in the 14C ecology can all be attributed to the results of intense human activity not present before the Roman Period. Therefore, H. melanostoma and species with similar ecological behavior are suitable for 14C dating of archaeological and geological deposits with the use of a suitable offset.

Keywords

land snailsterrestrial mollusksradiocarbonecologyNorth Africadatingisotopes
Type
Method Development
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 59 , Special Issue 5: 8th International Symposium, Edinburgh, 27 June – 1 July, 2016 Part 1 of 2 , October 2017 , pp. 1521 - 1542
Copyright
© 2017 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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Footnotes

Selected Papers from the 8th Radiocarbon & Archaeology Symposium, Edinburgh, UK, 27 June–1 July 2016

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