Exploitation and use of marine invertebrates during the Protohistoric period on the French Channel-Atlantic seaboard

Session XX-2. Shell mounds, shell middens and coastal resourcesInternational audienceThis paper focuses on the use and exploitation of marine invertebrates (molluscs, crustaceans and echinoderms) during the protohistoric period (2200 to 30 B.C.) on the French Channel-Atlantic coast. It is based on the inventory of 197 sites with remains of this type of fauna. An archaeomalacological study was carried out on thirty-two of them, seventeen of which were analyzed as part of my PhD research . The results obtained enable us to broach varied themes, such as the environments exploited, the subsistence economy (diet, geographic characteristics, exchange network), artisanal activities (dyeing, personal ornaments, construction materials, etc.) and funerary and ritual practices (deposits, ritual meals). The study of marine invertebrates thus contributes to a better understanding of the socio-economic and cultural systems of coastal and continental communities during the protohistoric period