Work Experience, Caine Mckee – Environmental Project
This project was conducted into the identification of seeds and snails acquired from a Flot sample to allow us to reasonably assume what the habitat of the area had looked, the ways it was used and who had used it.
Using a microscope and appropriate documents specified into the identification of these items (such as the “Land Snails In The British Isles By Robert Cameron” and “European non-marine molluscs, a guide for species identification”, “Seed Identification Handbook” and “A field guide to the crops of Britain and Europe”.), I was able to identify four species of snail and two species of seed. I was first able to identify a snail of Stagnicola species, specifically a Stagnicola Corvus; these snails tend to live in the shallows of silent bodies of water surround by rich vegetation, which implies regardless of where these snails were found, that there was once or is a body of water and a variety of vegetation in that area.
The second species of snail I identified was a Vallonia Costata which live in dry and open habitats, typically on calcareous sub-ground but they are also found on grassy and sunny slopes, rock rubble, stone walls, short meadows, sandy dunes and light forests. Depending on where these snails were found, it can help us theorise what kind of environment that place was before or currently is like.
The third species of snail I identified was a Coculicopa, which have two incredibly similar genus’, those being Lubrica and Lubricella, which have specific habitats from each other which can make it hard to figure out the environment just off the snail alone. Lubrica survive in moderately humid habitats such as valley meadows, forests, under stones, under wood, plains and highlands. But Lubricella prefers usually drier habitats such as meadows exposed by dry slopes. It’s necessary to have some means of fully telling them apart, but if they are found together that can tell you that the environment is likely to be very open like a meadow rather than a forest, but when found separately a Lubricella can tell you that the environment it was found in was likely to be a meadow or a dry area during the time it was alive, but a Lubrica can tells you that the area it was found it had been more humid.
The fourth and last species of snail was a Cepaea Nomoralis, a type of snail that tends to live in shrubs and open woods in plains and highlands, they also live in dunes, cultivated habitats, gardens and road-sides. All these snail species work together to give researches a picture of the environment in the past.
The two seed species I had identified were Triticum Spelta and Hordeum Vulgare. Triticum Spelta is a type of wheat that depends on humans for its survival, where it grows humans have been, it was typically grown by the Romans which means where it is found, there is a likelihood that Romans have been there, but Triticum Spelta had also been used by others all over Europe. Triticum Spelta came into use in Britain in around 500 BC. It didn’t produce as much oats as other species, it was more disease resistant so it tended to last longer and survive in a variety of environments. Similarly Hordeum Vulgare is also cultivated and grown by humans, meaning that where it is found, humans have been. It was typically used in the brewing of alcohol and was incredibly important for humans as it provided a safer and nutritious drinking source to water sources at the time.
To conclude, Environmental archaeology is a vital part of the system of archaeology as it can tell us various things such as what the habitat had looked like throughout the thousands of years of human existence; it can tell us migration paths through the use of type of oats and plants which can only be grown by humans. Environmental data shows us the slow cultivation of plants like wheat as humans had used it. Environmental archaeology plays an important role in piecing together the grand puzzle that is human history.
