Prehistoric snail shells contain a wealth of information about what the climate was like thousands of years ago, newly-published research says.
Chemical analysis led by Dr André Carlo Colonese, Dept of Archaeology, University of York, examined the carbon and oxygen isotope composition of the shells of Pomatias elegans, recovered from Mediterranean caves and ranging in date from 9,000 to 2,500 years ago. The team’s findings, published in Quaternary International, reveal that the western Mediterranean, today a hot and dry region, was much warmer, wetter, and stickier, during the Neolithic period.
This article is an extract from the full article published in World Archaeology Issue 58. Click here to subscribe