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ASSESSMENT OF MOLLUSCA FROM WATCHING BRIEFS AT WALPOLE, SOMERSET (PWL 05, and PWL 06) Internal Report for

C & N Hollinrake Matt Law, March 2010

Introduction and Methods Nine bags of Mollusca from the 2005 and 2006 watching briefs at Walpole were presented for assessment. The bags contained Mollusca recovered from seven bulk sediment samples processed by GeoFlo at Sutton Montis, Somerset. All complete shells and distinctive fragments were identified as closely as possible, although in some cases key diagnostic features had been lost through damage to the shell. For each taxa within a sample, the most commonly represented non-repeated element (usually the shell apex, umbilicus or body whorl) was counted to determine the minimum number of individuals. This avoids the underestimation of minimum number of individuals (MNI) reported by Giovas (2009). Principal sources for the biology of recorded species were Kerney and Cameron (1979), Graham (1971), and Davies (2008). Nomenclature follows Anderson (2008). For identification, comparisons were made to the author's own reference collection, the teaching collection at Cardiff University, and the collections of the National Museum of Wales. Results MNI values for the taxa recorded are presented in Table 1. Survival was very poor, Sample 4 in particular containing no identifiable shell fragments. Relatively few shells were recovered, which may be indicative of a low number of molluscs in the vicinity, or (more likely) poor conditions for survival. Discussion The quantity of shell contained in the sample is far too low to carry any interpretative value. Generally, palaeoecological analyses of snail assemblages work best when more than 150 shells are recovered from a sample (Evans 1972, 83). That said, the shells recovered from the channel silts are consistent with a freshwater environment, and in particular lentic or stagnant waters; however it should be noted that the freshwater species recovered, with the exception of L. palustris (of which there was only one shell) may be found in all well-vegetated aquatic habitats (Davies 2008, 168). The isolated Discus and Myosotis shells may have arrived in the samples by a number of means, and are likely to be chance introductions. The 2006 samples appear to be from deposits subject to a more marine environment; however in life the Hydrobiidae V. ventrosa and P. ulvae (which can co-exist as they have overlapping tolerances to salinity) tend to occur in extremely large numbers. At Caldicot in Gwent, occurrences of low numbers of V. ventrosa (formerly known as Hydrobia ventrosa) were attributed to rare episodic marine flooding events (Bell and Johnson 1997, 141). The cockle Cerastoderma edule occurs in similar environments to P. ulvae, and so the fragment recovered is unlikely to represent food waste.

Statement of Potential The assemblage from the 2005 and 2006 watching briefs is rather small, although it does present evidence of well-vegetated, lentic freshwater, and occasional marine influence. Due to its size, any interpretation based on this assemblage should be used with extreme caution, and viewed as a possible scenario rather than a definitive statement. Recommendations It is recommended that the complete assemblage of shell be retained with the archive in case of future synthetic study, but further analytical work is not judged necessary. References ANDERSON, R., 2008, Annotated List of the Non-Marine Mollusca of Britain and Ireland (London: Conchological Society of Great Britain and Ireland) BELL, M., AND JOHNSON, S., 1997, The Molluscs, in Nayling, N., and Caseldine, A., (Eds.), Excavations at Caldicot, Gwent: Bronze Age Palaeochannels in the Lower Nedern Valley, CBA Research Report 108, (York: CBA), 128-141 DAVIES, P, 2008, Snails: Archaeology and Landscape Change (Oxford: Oxbow) EVANS, J.G., 1972, Land Snails in Archaeology (London: Seminar Press) GIOVAS, C.M., 2009, The Shell Game: Analytic Problems in Archaeological Mollusc Quantification. Journal of Archaeological Science 39, 1557-1564 GRAHAM, A., 1971, British Prosobranch and Other Operculate Gastropod Molluscs, Synopses of the British Fauna No 2 (London: Academic Press) KERNEY, M.P., AND CAMERON, R.A.D., 1979, A Field Guide to the Land Snails of Britain and NorthWest Europe (Glasgow: William Collins and Sons Ltd)

SAMPLE Year/ Number

2005/4

2005/25

2005/27

2005/30

2006/04

2006/06

2006/11

Context type River silts

Channel silts around aurochs horn

Channel silts below wood W477

Channel silts

Organic material

Organic material

Organic layer at base of channel silts

TAXA GASTROPODA

Ecological Preference

Peringia ulvae (Pennant Estuarine, 1777) brackish to fully marine waters Ventrosia ventrosa (Montagu 1803) Estuarine, tolerant of less brackish waters than P. ulvae

Discus rotundatus Terrestrial, rotundatus (O. F. Mller woods and 1774) shaded places

Planorbis planorbis (L.) Freshwater, tolerant of seasonal dryness Anisus leucostoma (Millet 1813) Galba truncatula (O. F.Mller 1774) Freshwater, tolerant of seasonal dryness Freshwater, tolerant of seasonal dryness

Lymnaea palustris (O. F. Freshwater, Mller 1774) stagnant or slightly flowing water

Myosotella myosotis (Draparnaud 1801)

Estuarine, usually out of water around the high tide mark

BIVALVIA

cf. Cerastoderma edule (L.) (frag.)

Estuarine

Unidentifiable

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