Laboratorio per lo studio della paleodieta e delle attivita' extra-masticatorie

Land snail shell is a frequent constituent of archaeological sites, but it is rarely clear whether it represents food
refuse, the remains of scavengers, or evidence for natural processes. Piercing of land snail shells enables the animal
to be extracted fromthe shell and thus provides direct evidence for human consumption.Wereport pierced
land snails from the Haua Fteah, Libya. The earliest pierced land snail shell in the Haua Fteah pre-dates the Last
Interglacial, while the most recent is Late-Classical in age, but the largest quantities are in layers of Late-Glacial
and earliest Holocene age, where they are associated with atypical microliths which may have been used to
pierce shells to enable easy extraction of the animal