The role of shellfish in human subsistence during the Mesolithic of Atlantic Europe: An approach from meat yield estimations

In spite of the increased number of investigations of the Mesolithic period in Atlantic Europe, including studies that have focused on reconstructing human diets, the information about the role of shellfish in human subsistence strategies is still very limited. In this study, an experimental programme to collect modern molluscs was carried out in northern Iberia over a three-year period in order to establish the meat yield of the four main species recovered from archaeological sites in this coastal area. The resulting dataset enabled accurate estimates of the meat yield from the shell remains recovered in the shell midden deposits of El Mazo cave (Asturias, N Spain). Results show that the mollusc meat yield contributed at least 20% of the meat yield obtained from ungulates. This value is notably higher than in previous studies, showing that molluscs had a more important role in human subsistence strategies than previously recognised. The mollusc meat contribution relative to ungulates would be even higher if estimates were based on the number of identified bone remains, instead of the minimum number of individuals, which is a more subjective method and tends to overestimate the amount of mammal meat consumed by human populations. In any case, and independently of the methodology applied, our data show a greater dietary importance of shellfish during the Mesolithic than previously published for Atlantic Europe.This research was performed as part of the projects HAR2016-75605- R and HAR2017-86262-P, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, MINECO. AGE was funded by the University of Cantabria through a predoctoral grant (no code available) and is currently supported by the Basque Country Postdoctoral Programme (grant number POS_2018_1_0016). This study has also been supported by Prehistoric Research Consolidated Group of the Basque Country University (IT1223-19), funded by the Basque Country Government. We thank the Fishing Activity Service of the Cantabrian Government for the authorization to collect modern specimens. We also thank the Universidad de Cantabria (UC), Instituto Internacional de Investigaciones Prehist´oricas de Cantabria (IIIPC), Grupo de Ingeniería Fot´onica (GIF), Max Plank Institute for Science of Human History (MPI) and Basque Country University (UPV) for providing support. We would also like to thank Manuel R. Gonz´alez-Morales (IIIPC), David Cuenca-Solana (IIIPC), Adolfo Cobo-García (GIF) and Jos´e M. L´opez-Higuera (GIF) for their contributions to this investigation. We also thank Lucía Agudo P´erez (IIIPC) and Patricia Bello Alonso (CENIEH) for helping during the experimental programme and two anonymous reviewers for their useful comments