Shell middens have always been an important topic of prehistoric and historic archaeology, since the very beginning when they were discovered in Denmark in the early 19th century. The discovery of shell middens in the Arabian Peninsula are linked with the study of the fish eaters of the classical authors, the Ichthyofagoi, who inhabited the coasts of the Arabian Sea until very recently. Research and excavations carried out in Oman, the UAE, and Pakistan have shown the importance of these sites which started make their appearance in the area around the mid-8th millennium BP. The complexity of these sites and their variability in these regions is at present reasonably known, while there are many other coastal zones of South and Southeast Asia of which we still know very little. What are the problems related with the shell middens of this wide coastal territory? What is their chronology? Did they ever interacted between each other maybe due to some kind of coastal movements? What are the problems related with their dating and how do they show the disappearance and reappearance of mangal environments in different areas through the millennia? How they can help us in the study of sea level rise and coastal geomorphological variations and which are the prehistoric period during which we assist to the maximum spread of their distribution and why?
For inquiries and submissions, please contact:
Paolo Biagi, Department of Asian and North African Studies, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Ca’ Cappello, San Polo 2035, I-30125 Venezia – pavelius@unive.it
Elisabetta Starnini, Department of Civilizations and Forms of Knowledge, University of Pisa, Via dei Mille 19, I-56126 Pisa, Italy – elisabetta.starnini@unipi.it