Postilla

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HARVARD UNIVERSITY

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LIBRARY

OF THE

Museum of Comparative Zoology

‘JUL 17 1963

BARVARD
UNIVERSITY |

Pipl

YALE PEABODY MUSEUM

oF Narurat History

Number 66 September 10, 1962 New Haven, Conn.

SNAILS ON A PERSIAN HILLSIDE

Ecology—Prehistory—Gastronomy
Je . -

CuHarwes A. REED

The archeologist who is prehistorian may expect snail shells
in his excavations. Sometimes, even though the site may be far
from the nearest seas, such shells are marine and often were
used as decorations, indicating the continuity of human vanity
through the ages. Generally, the archeologist has had little
interest in such shells as snails, or even in the generic and
specific identifications furnished him by a malacologist; in-
stead, the archeologist is interested in any cultural uses of the
shells, and is intrigued by problems of their geographic crigin
and the possibility of tracing prehistoric trade routes.

However, to the ecologically-oriented archeologists and the
various natural scientists with them working the past fifteen
years in Iraq and Iran, some of the local terrestrial snails
have become of prime interest, particularly as potential indi-
‘ators of past environmental conditions (including climate),
and as a source of food for past populations. Thus the con-
tinued presence in archeological sites of the same species of
snails in the same localities in northern Iraq, for periods some-
times measured in the tens of thousands of years, has been used,
with other evidence, to make a tentative reconstruction of the

2 Postilla Yale Peabcdy Museum No. 66

environments of that area over those periods (Reed and Braid-
wood, 1960).

This environmental reconstruction, based primarily on zoo-
logical data, is partly in conflict for some time-periods with the
glaciological evidence of Wright (1961) and the palynological
evidence of Solecki and Leroi-Gourhan (1961). Wright’s stu-
dies indicate a colder climate for the period of the Wirm max-
imum of the late Pleistocene than postulated by Reed and
Braidwood for those parts of this period for which they had
zoological remains, mostly of mammals and snails. Conclusions
derived from study of the pollen-grains recovered from Shani-
dar Cave in northern Iraq do not contradict Wright’s glacio-
logical evidence, but do indicate more fluctuating climatic phases
during the periods of the Baradostian and Mousterian cultures
than postulated by Reed and Braidwood.

Obviously if zoological remains, such as snail shells, are to be
useful in assessing past environments, the ecological conditions
of life—and particularly the environmental limitations within
which each species can live—must be known. At present, such
ecological data are not known precisely for any animal popula-
tion of southwestern Asia; while in general the botanical assess-
ment of past environments is probably capable of more exacti-
tude than is one based on zoological evidence, the latter should
not be ignored, and this present paper is a preliminary effort
toward an understanding of the ecology of some of the snails
excavated in various of the archeological sites in Iraq and
Iran.

To be useful as a climatic indicator, an animal population
should have narrow and definite environmental limitations, and
these should be known. For instance, a snail which ranges from
the Dead Sea to the Iranian Plateau, as does Helicella lang-
loisiana Bourguignat, is obviously useless as a climatic indi-
cator (Biggs, 1962).!

However, as our knowledge of the ecologic tolerances and
limitations of each animal and plant species increases, we can

1 The same criticism might be brought against the use of Helix salomonica
as an environmental indicator, since it had been reported (Biggs, 1960)
from Jericho in the lower Jordan valley. However, it is now believed that
this identification was an error (Biggs, personal communication).

Sept. 10,1962 Snails on a Persian Hillside 3

use the data derived from combinations of species, each with
varied requirements and with different present geographical
ranges, to clarify our concepts of the changing environments
of the past.

In all such attempts at environmental reconstruction we
begin with the assumption that a biologic population of a past
period, as represented by identified remains, had the same eco-
logical requirements as do members of a species with the same
morphology as studied today. In general, these assumptions of

TURKEY L.Urmion
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Kermanshah

Fig. 1. Map of the area discussed, showing the archeological sites mentioned.

4 Postilla Yale Peabody Museum No. 66

evolutionary stability and ecological uniformitarionism upon
which we build our paleo-ecological reconstructions are prob-
ably more valid than is the loose framework of our present
knowledge, but we are warned by Johnson (1960), even if ina
different context, that these assumptions may be less valid for
the more precise details we hope to learn in the future.

In addition to the chmatic problems outlined above, the
steady increase in numbers of one kind of snail, Helix
(Naegelea) salomonica Naegele through the late Pleistocene
and into the early Recent (post-Pleistocene) in all archeologi-
cal sites of northern Iraq, is considered to be evidence for the
increased use of these animals as food by a steadily-growing
population (Braidwood and Reed, 1957; Braidwood and Howe,
1960). The same general pattern is evident in western Iran,
and other species of Heliv during this general period were sim-
ilarly being used in northern Africa.

Thus by the time the fourth” southwestern Asiatic prehis-
toric expedition of the Oriental Institute of the University of
Chicago was ready to go into the field in 1959, a preliminary
field study of the snails important to the archeologists had be-
come necessary.

Previous observations in northern Iraq and the problems
posed by them were as follows (see Braidwood and Howe, 1960,
as a general reference for geography, environment and chro-
nology):

1. Helix salomonica is not common in archeological sites
prior to the late cave-living period of the uppermost Pleistocene
(i.e., the Zarzian, ca. 15,000-12,000 years ago), then increases
in concentration to ca. 8,500 years ago, and was still numerous
at 7,000 years ago, but after that it disappeared almost entirely
from the archeological record of the area. It cannot be found
at present in some of the regions where it was previously so
plentiful, as for instance in the immediate area of Jarmo in
northeastern Iraq. The appearance and increase of these snails

2 The previous expeditions had been in 1947-1948, 1950-1951, and 1954-1955,
all in northeastern Iraq. The fourth, 1959-1960, went into western Iran. All
four expeditions have been under the direction of Dr. Robert J. Braidwood
of the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago. The present author was a
member of the two last expeditions.

Sept. 10, 1962 Snails on a Persian Hillside 5

in archeolegical sites are undoubtedly to be correlated solely
with changing human food-habits, but is their disappearance
from the archeological record due solely to changing human
food preferences? Possibly local destruction of the environment
(deforestation and brush-cutting, cultivation, over-grazing and
soil erosion) have destroyed the micro-habitat necessary for
the species so that its present distribution is discontinuous.
The species may thus be listed as “abundant” over much of
northern Iraq at present (Harris, 1961), and have a number
of localities listed (Biggs, 1959) while yet being locally erad-
icated in an area (as at Jarmo) where once numerous. Harris
writes in general for the terrestrial gastropods which he has
listed as abundant, “As long as some perennial plants are
present, the supplement of annuals is quite sufficient to provide
food for the limited faunas common today. Where perennials
are absent, and only a poor annual flora is present, snails do
not occur, even though the rainfall is adequate.” However,
the situation is not so simple, as there may well be a sequence
of local eradication with the deterioration of the environment;
for instance, as mentioned, H. salomonica now seems to be
absent entirely from the area around Jarmo, whereas Levan-
tina hurdistana (1..Pfr.) still flourishes there.

2. Different species of Levantina have been recorded from
different archeological sites in northern Iraq. L. mahanica Ko-
belt is found, in at least one long-occupied site, that of Shani-
dar Cave, for several tens of thousands of years, where the
shells of this species occurred earlier (ca. 60,000 or more years
ago) than did those of H. salomonica (somewhat more than
50,000 years ago) and in greater numbers than the latter in
the older deposits (prior to 27,000 B.C.). However, shells of
H. salomonica are more numerous in the later, post-Wiirm de-
posits (Solecki’s layers B and A) which coincide with the pe-
riod when this latter snail was being gathered for food in other
areas of southwestern Asia. In general, the concentrations of
the shells of Levantina never become high in archeological re-
mains in Iraq and Iran, and one assumes that it was rarely, if
ever, used for food. One wonders, too, why it was not so used,
since it is a large and meaty snail. However, the number of

6 Postilla Yale Peabody Museum No. 66

L. spiriplana (Olivier) found together at Jericho, in the lower
Jordan valley, suggested to Biggs (1960) that this species of
Levantina was being eaten at one time at that site.

Levantina has managed to survive, as at Jarmo, where Helix
salomonica cannot now be found. Moreover, at the three sites
(Shanidar Cave, Jarmo, and Warwasi), where recent collec-
tions have been made, the species of Levantina reported from
the prehistoric levels are the same (L. mahanica, L. kurdistana,
and L. diulfensis [| Mousson ], respectively) as are those found
in each of the areas now.

3. At the strictly taxonomic level, are the different species
of Levantina reported from northeastern Iraq (mahanica, kur-
and the
forms since collected from western Iran (guttata and/or diul-

distana, guttata | Olivier]) valid species, or are they

fensis)—merely geographical variants (1.e., subspecies) in a
wide-ranging and continuous population (one species), the
different parts of which exhibit considerable morphological
differentiation ?

It was with such questions in mind that the members of the
Iranian Prehistoric Project went into the field in west-central
Iran in 1959. We cannot claim to have solved any of these
problems, but we have added to our observations, and we feel
that a presentation is due of these, as well as of our present
level of understanding.

Unfortunately, late 1959 and early 1960 was a poor time for
“normal” environmental observations. The season was an ex-
ceptionally dry one over all of southwestern Asia. In the area
of Kermanshah, west-central Iran, where our group was lo-
cated, unusual cold and snow in November was followed by a
long period of winter dryness, during the greater part of what
is usually the rainy season. Then there was more snow in March
and finally some rain in April.

Observations to be reported were thus made in the area of
Kermanshah under the above-described circumstances. "The
Kermanshah valley is a flat-bottomed alluvial valley, at a
general level of 4,000-4,400 ft. (ca. 1,280-1,330 m), surrounded
by mountains, some of them high, steep and rugged. The aver-

Sept. 10,1962 Snails on a Persian Hillside ¢

age annual precipitation is variously reported as 13.1 in.
(Robison and Dodd, 1955) to nearly 17 in. (Bakker, 1956;
Ganji, 1960: the latter’s figures are for 15 consecutive years. )
This precipitation occurs entirely during the typical Mediter-
‘anean “rainy season” (October to May, with March the month
of heaviest rain). The “average” is, however, not the “normal,”
as wide annual fluctuations occur, from 9 in. to 24 in. (22.5-
60.0 cm), although such extremes may not occur oftener than
once in 85 years (Bakker, 1956). Even two seasons recorded
as having the same precipitation could differ widely in the eco-
logical results of that snow and rain, depending upon the tem-
perature at the time, the intensity of the rain (or depth of
snow), and particularly upon the seasonal distribution.

The valley floor and much of the adjacent valley walls are
not now forested, and the botanists who have studied there
seem agreed that probably the areas now unforested have
mostly not been forested as long as present climatic conditions
have prevailed. Actually, the area seems to be one of an en-
vironmental transition, as measured by floral zones (Bobek,
1951; Pabot, 1961). The valley floor is now intensively cul-
tivated, and the valley walls heavily grazed and subjected to
continuous bush-cutting (I do not say brush-cutting because
the vegetation is too sparse to be called brush.) To what extent
the human activities, continuous for several thousand years,
have changed the original environment we cannot assess nor
can we at present definitely reconstruct the pre-agricultural
environment.

All of the above environmental factors, not available to
museum malacologists intent on taxonomic identifications, are
pertinent to the understanding of our problems. Actually, we
need to know additional types of ecological information not
yet gathered, such as the distribution, both geographically and
environmentally, of each species represented. Precise data of
this type would inform us concerning the limits within which
the total environment might vary and yet allow combinations
of certain species of snails to persist at one spot, as at War-
wasi. However, not only is such information not yet available,
but the nomenclatural confusions concerning certain of these
species are such that one finds difficulty in interpreting some of

8 Postilla Yale Peabody Museum No. 66

the identifications as published. It would be most desirable to
have the collecting, identifications, and ecological studies ac-
complished by one person or a coordinated team. Additionally,
we should know the fewest number of feeding periods per year
which will support each population of snail, and also the kinds
of variables (maximum and minimum daily temperatures and
maximum and minimum daily precipitations) which control the
emergence, feeding and _ breeding of each species. Eiseley
(1937) has considered in some detail other factors of the ecol-
ogy of terrestrial gastropods which have bearing on paleo-
environmental interpretations, and several other authors have
also considered different aspects of this general problem.

Some observations and collecting of empty shells had been
accomplished prior to the April rains, and by that time data
from several excavations could be added (Braidwood, Howe,
and Reed, 1961). Our observations were concentrated on Helix
and Levantina, for these alone (so far as we can see at present
for the area of our studies) are part of our more general pre-
historic archeological problems. These preliminary observa-
tions were as follows:

1. Shells of neither Helix nor Levantina were found any-
where on the open valley floor, on open rounded well-grazed
hills, in areas adjacent to streams, or in the typical oak-haw-
thorn-pistachio forest (Bobek, 1951) of some of the nearby
hilly areas.

2. Adjacent to the archeologic site of Warwasi (fig. 2) in
the Tang-i-knisht valley, there is a southwesterly-facing, rock-
strewn slope covered with thornbushes and with a cliff above.
On the slope the most common shell was that of Helicella
langloisiana, occurring by the thousands. Some of these were
sharply-keeled, some almost rounded on the edges of the whorls,
with all gradations between these extremes. The second shell,
in frequency, was the high-spired Jaminia (Euchondrus) albula
(Mousson). Next most common was Levantina diulfensis; the
Levantina shells were accumulated at the base of the cliff and
some scattered down the slope. Fourth in frequency were shells

Sept. 10,1962 Snails on a Persian Hillside 9

of Helix salomonica, found only on the slope. Rarest were
shells of Buliminus (Buliminus) egregius Naegele and Zebrina
carducha (Mertens), which were found only in cracks in the
cliff and, presumably fallen from there, at the foot of the cliff.

3. Shells of Helix salomonica, but of no other snail, were
found in open fields on the top of the low divide between the
Kermanshah valley and the next valley to the south. The alti-
tude was around 5,500 feet (ca. 1,700 m) and the shells were
associated here only with a hardy ground-hugging perennial
too soft to be called a shrub but yet too resistant to be removed
by the primitive ploughs used in the area. This circumstance
agrees with the observations in Iraq of Harris (1961) on the
role of perennials in the survival of snails, but one wonders
what factor in this particular locality led to the survival of
H. salomonica and no other species.

4. Shells of Helix salomonica were found in great numbers
in an archeological site (Tepe Sarab) located in the open Ker-

Fig. 2. The hillside and cliff at Warwasi, where living snails were col-
lected in April of 1960. The Paleolithic archeological site of Warwasi is the
dark overhang at the base of the cliff, almost directly above the car.

10 Postilla Yale Peabody Museum No. 66

manshah valley (Braidwood, Howe, and Reed, 1961); Tepe
Sarab is now dated at nearly 8,000 years ago and is thus prob-
ably somewhat more recent than is Jarmo. Large numbers of
H. salomonica in a site of this period agree with our findings
in northern Iraq. We are not suggesting that H. salomonica
was the major food source at Tepe Sarab (nor at any other
archeological site), as: a) in our experience, these snails can
only be gathered during or following a rain, and; b) at Sarab,
as at Jarmo, the people already had cultivated grains and
domestic animals.

5. In a site (Tepe Asiab), probably some 2,000 years older
than Tepe Sarab and less than a mile distant, but near a per-
manent stream (the Kara Su) in-the valley’s center, H.
salomonica is extremely rare; the major molluscan protein
source here seemingly was a clam, Unio tigridis Bgt. (So far as
we know, these earlier people at Tepe Asiab did not have cul-
tivated grains or domestic animals.) In northern Iraq at the
same time (ca. 10,000 years ago) we think H. salomonica was
being eaten in some quantities; perhaps the easy availability of
the fresh-water clams, still present in the river adjecen. to
Tepe Asiab, made the gathering of snails unnecessary. 3

In the rock shelter of Warwasi (Braidwood, Howe, and
Reed, 1961), adjacent to the slope and cliff mentioned in para-
graph 2 above, snail shells are found sparsely but continuously
through most of the Zarzian and through all of the deeper
Baradostian and Mousterian levels (these latter at least 40,000
years old and probably older). Shells of Helix salomonica be-
come numerous in the uppermost Zarzian layers (about 12,000

3 It is obvious, thus, that local biotic and/or cultural patterns change the
local archeological findings, making widespread archeological exploration
necessary before a total picture emerges. In the excavations at Tepe Sarab,
for instance, Unio tigridis is rare, although the clam-laden Kara Su is no
more than a half-mile away. Within some 2000 years a major shift in food-
habits had occurred and the people simply didn’t gather clams anymore.
Similarly today in the same region, we were told that the people will not
eat clams or snails, even under conditions of extreme starvation. There is
no truth to the assertion sometimes made by some prehistorians that primi-
tive people ate anything and everything they could gather. There is now,
and seemingly has always been, the important factor of the “cultural filter”
in the collection of human food-stuffs, and consequently in the comparative
archeologic record.

Sept. 10, 1962 Snails on a Persian Hillside lal

years ago), at which time these snails probably were being
gathered for food. Throughout these tens of thousands of
years of the later Pleistocene the species represented are the
same as those still present on the hillside and, except for the H.
salomonica of the more recent Zarzian levels, are considered to
be no more than random strays into the cultural deposits. In
levels below the upper Zarzian, Levantina is the most numerous,
and occurs earlier than any of the others; at its earliest occur-
rence it was exactly the same L. diulfensis as found on the hill-
side today.

Subsequent collections of living snails, on April 9 and April
18, 1960, were made on the slope and cliffs immediately ad-
jacent to the site of Warwasi in the Tang-i-knisht valley, which
is a lateral side-valley opening southerly into the main Ker-
manshah valley close to the town of Kermanshah. The mouth of
the secondary valley is bounded by high limestone cliffs, with
steep slopes of soil and talus rock at their bottoms. It was on
such a slope (fig. 2), southwesterly facing, that we did our
collecting. Toward the base of the slope there was relatively
little fallen rock, but higher and closer to the cliff the tumbled
rock was thick. Thorn-bushes, rarely over 10 inches high and
spaced some 10 or 15 feet apart, dotted the hillside, even grow-
ing among the fallen rocks but not up on the cliff. The ground
between the thorn-bushes is quite bare since the slope is heavily
overgrazed. This particular slope could be duplicated thou-
sands of times around the Kermanshah valley ; while we can say
the slope is typical of the area today, we must also assume that
the degenerate floral assemblage represents only a remnant of
the “natural” vegetation (whatever that may have been) before
intensive human use had removed most of the less hardy plants.
Thus we cannot now imagine the appearance of these steep hill-
sides some 8,000 years ago.

On the two nights mentioned, there were continued gentle
‘ains, followed by cool cloudy mornings (11°C-14°C ground
temperature) with occasional drizzle. Living snails were asur-
face both mornings. Since the conditions and the collections
were generally similar, the descriptions of the two events will be
combined.

12 Postilla Yale Peabody Museum No. 66

SPECIES ACCOUNTS
(Identifications were made by Rev. H. E. J. Biggs, from liv-
ing specimens air-mailed to England; see Biggs, 1962.)

1. Helix salomonica: Most of these snails were found a-
bove ground, but under the thorn-bushes on the lower three-
fourths of the slope. The snails were extended and moving, not
up in a bush, but were generally on the accumulation of dead

leaves and grass under a bush or at its edge. Only two individ-

A B

Fig. 3. A. Helix salomonica. B. Levantina diulfensis. Natural size.

uals were seen out between bushes, on practically bare ground.
A few were found under rocks (although none could be found
under rocks between rainy periods). The population of Hela
thinned out up the slope, and none were found in the upper
fourth of the slope, although thorn-bushes occur on that upper
fourth of the slope. On April 18 (although not on April 9) the
snails were observed copulating; of 340 picked up on the slope
on the latter date, 12 pairs were coupled, and many more of
the living snails did so in the jars after being collected.

Sept. 10,1962 Snails on a Persian Hillside ne

2. Levantina diulfensis: These snails were first found about
halfway up the slope, under identical habitat conditions (so far
as could be observed) as the Helix. They became much more
numerous on the upper parts of the talus slope and on the cliff
itself and continued on to the top of the cliff, a near-vertical
distance of at least 500 feet. On the upper parts of the talus

(>)

slope, and on the cliff, they usually occur on bare ground or

orass but

rock, or on occasional cliff-side patches of moss or g

unprotected by thorn-bush.

3. Jaminia (Euchondrus) albula (Mousson): Although
quite common as dead shells all over the hillside, living exam-
ples on these two mornings were rare. They were found coinci-
dent with the Helix, but also higher on the talus slope (not on
the cliff), in similarly protected spots where detritus had ac-
cumulated.

4. Buliminus (Buliminus) egregius Naegele: As dead shells,
these snails had been found on the surface of the highest part
of the talus slope, but more frequently on the cliff-side itself,
not only in protected crevices, but also out on small patches of
grass or moss where such occur on the rough cliff. They seem-
ingly did not continue to the top of the cliff, as the Levantina
did. Whereas the living Helix and Levantina could easily be
collected by the hundreds, Buliminus was rare, and only very
few living B. egregius were found. (Three of these are those
mentioned by Biggs (1962, p. 69) as being collected by Kent
Flannery on April 17; the correct date is April 18.)

5. Helicella langloisiana: When collecting empty shells, this
is by far the most frequent snail on the hillside, but the living
examples were few on the two mornings specified. The Helicella
were found on the slope under thorn-bushes and up the cliff
on and under small vegetational patches.

6. Zebrina carducha (Mertens): The few individuals of this
species were not distinguished by the collectors in the field from
specimens of Buliminus egregius; the two have been confused
even by experts, and the proper taxonomic position of the

14 Postilla Yale Peabody Museum No. 66

species carducha has only recently been established on the basis
of the internal anatomy (Forcart, 1962). As with B. egregius,
individuals of Zebrina carducha were limited to the cliff-side
niches. So far as can be determined in retrospect, the two
species were collected together.

It is obvious that the ecologic notes made to date on these
species of snails are not in themselves sufficient for valid paleo-
environmental conclusions. Still, a beginning has been made,
and one continues to wonder how much different the climate
could have been and yet have this same gastropod assemblage
represented—as it is at Warwasi—for periods of tens of thou-
sands of years of the late Pleistocene. During this time, a
major period of glaciation occurred in the Zagros Mts.
(Wright, 1961), with considerable depression of the mean an-
nual temperature (possibly, but not necessarily as much as
12°C for the higher areas). The coincidental depression in alti-
tude of the permanent snow-line has not been studied for the
northeastern (interior) side of the Zagros Mts., as in the area
of Kermanshah, where the annual precipitation is much less
than on the outer (southwestern) aspect; in this latter area,
the snowline some 20,000 years ago was to be found at ap-
proximately 2,100 m to 1,500 m (ca. 6,750-4,850 ft.), if
Wright’s conclusions are correct.

The permanent snowline on the inner side of the mountains
would have been higher (even though the inner side is typically
colder), due to a lower annual precipitation (a precipitation
possibly no greater than that today [Bobek, 1954]). The
mean annual temperature, however, would have been lower

C

(possibly 5° C, possibly more) than that of today, so that
evaporation would have been less than it is now with a result-
ant more humid environment.

Whatever the details of the climatological factors, which
should be determined in major part by geological investiga-
tions, the snails at Warwasi remain the same. At Shanidar
Cave, on the “outer” side of the mountains, there is a human
occupation hiatus of some 17,500 years (between ca. 30,000
years ago and 12,500 years ago, as derived from C™ deter-
minations), which period neatly coincides with that postulated

Sept. 10,1962 Snails on a Persian Hillside us

for the Wiirm glacial maximum in North America and Europe.
The assumption is that man, because of cold, depressed snow-
line, and coincidentally depressed treeline, could not live in the
region of Shanidar Cave during this period (an assumption
which is perhaps questionable for the latter part of the period,
when conditions must have been warmer and both snowline and
treeline higher).

However, no such occupational gap has been detected for
Warwasi (although there are no Ct determinations as yet on
any of the levels of this site). The inference is that man con-
tinued to live in the area of Warwasi, and thus of the Ker-
manshah valley as a whole, at an altitude of 1,300 m (4,200 ft.)
and higher, during a long pericd when he supposedly was ex-
cluded from the region of Shanidar Cave at 700 m (2,200 ft.).
One can only say from a study of the fauna (including snails )
that there was no noticeable faunal change at Warwasi
throughout this period of the last 40,000 years or so of the
Pleistocene, and at Shanidar Cave there was no noticeable
faunal difference between the last of the Baradostian cultural
layers (at ca. 30,000 years ago, prior to the occupational hia-
tus) and those of Solecki’s “Mesolithic” layer (following the
cultural gap, and beginning ca. 12,500 years ago) (Reed and
Braidwood, 1960).

Perhaps long-term experimental studies on the environ-
mental limitations of the snails of the Tang-i-knisht hillsides,
coupled with intensive field studies over varied environmental
areas where these snails may be found today, would throw some
light on these problems. There is, thus, much work for the
future.

GASTRONOMIC EXPERIMENTS

Several kinds of Helix, are the edible snails of southern
Europe, and the evidence of hundreds of thousands of similar
shells in archeological sites of 12,000 to 8,000 years ago in
northern Africa, as well as in Iraq and Ivan, showed that snails
of this genus were being eaten then as well. Obviously, these
snails were good human food. Why, however, were the some-
what larger Levantina, occurring on the same slopes for at
least some tens of thousands of years, and as numerous or al-

16 Postilla Yale Peabody Museum No. 66

most as numerous as are the Helix on those slopes today—why
were these snails not eaten? (At least they do not occur in any
great numbers in any archeological site hitherto excavated by
the Oriental Institute and so we must assume they were not
often gathered in our area; an occasional Levantina shell at
Jarmo or Tepe Sarab may, we think, be due to a mistake by
some small child helping its mother in the gathering.)

It was with pleasurable anticipation, therefore, with respect
to the Helix salomonica but with some apprehension with re-
gard to the Levantina diulfensis that we took more than 300
of the former and more than 200 of the latter and prepared
them for eating in the best French tradition (Rombauer, 1951,
p. 257). All members of the expedition participated in the
experiment (April 19, 1960) ; indeed, we had a festive occasion,
with special “snail-picks” being provided, made from some of
the microlithic bladelets from Tepe Sarab (fig. 4). (We are
not claiming that these microliths were used originally as snail-
picks; we only showed that they could be.) This gourmet ex-
periment proved to our complete satisfaction that both the
Helix and the Levantina are uniformly good.

Fig. 4. Prehistoric microlith from Sarab, mounted to be used as a snail-pick
for gastronomic experiments.

However, it was assumed that 8,000 years ago the techni-
ques of French cooking were not available to the people of
west-central Iran (although we have no way of knowing, cf
course, what variety of herbs they may have used to flavor
their food), so a few hardier spirits tried a second experiment.
Both H. salomonica and L. diulfensis were boiled 15 minutes,
and then eaten hot, without salt or any other flavoring. Sur-
prisingly, they are both acceptable food under these Spartan
conditions; the Helix comes out of the shell quite easily, the
Levantina perhaps a bit less so, and the latter retains maybe
a bit more mucus (tasteless), but it seems hardly possible that
such minor factors were those which restrained the prehistoric

Sept. 10,1962 Snails on a Persian Hillside me,

populations of the Zagros slopes from eating the Levantina.
We found these snails quite tasty, and cannet imagine why
they were not eaten in former times: the experiments, from

the point of view of such *

‘action archeology,” were therefore
a failure, although gastronomically a success.

The mode of preparation of the snails for eating under
prehistoric conditions is a problem we have not solved. Since
most of the shells are intact as we find them, the animals must
have been killed prior to extraction, inasmuch as the living
animals cannot be extracted from their shells without breaking
these. Although the animals could be killed by drowning, we
presume that the mode of killing was by cooking, but have
no proof of this. We cooked them by boiling, for us a simple
and effective method; the boiling does not affect the shells in
any way that we could see, although Matteson (1959) noted
that extended boiling of certain terrestrial snails frem Illinois
tends to cause the epidermis to flake away from the rest of
the shell. However, extended boiling—if the snails were boiled—
is not necessary for their preparation as food.

If the snails were cooked by boiling, as we first casually as-
sumed, the question arises as to what were the containers in
which they were boiled. Pottery is unknown pricr to about
8,500 years ago, and for earlier times, we have no archeological
evidence of containers in which boiling water could have been
held. In answer to some who have suggested that this earliest
pottery was too coarse to have been used to hold boiling water,
Dr. Frederick Matson, who assisted in the excavations and has
studied the ceramics from Jarmo and Sarab, has written, “The
pottery from Sarab and Jarmo could easily withstand boiling
water. The vessels are made of fired clay, and, aside from their
porosity, would not react with the water. However, I doubt if
they were used to boil snails or prepare stews because most
of the larger flat-based vessels have very thin bases and there
might be a problem with respect to the weight of the water
unless the pots were nested in the fire with adequate support
beneath them. Also, I do not recall seeing smudge and burning
marks on the exteriors of the lower parts of the vessels that
would suggest such firing....A small amount of water in a pot
full of snails would not require a lot of basal support for

18 Postilla Yale Peabody Museum No. 66

weight. If the pot were covered with a flat slab of some sort
(skin, sherd, wood, or smaller jar that just fit the mouth) the
snails could be steamed without requiring the presence of much
water. ... I would not want to rule out the boiling or steaming
of the snails, because it would be physically possible, but I
wonder if it wouldn’t be easier to roast them in hot ashes”
(Matson, personal communication).

However, as mentioned, pottery was unknown for much of
the period for which we think eating of snails to have occurred,
and actually for neither the pre-pottery or pottery-making
cultures do we have any real knowledge of the mode of prepara-
tion of the snails.

In a similar situation in Alabama, where large numbers of
snail shells were found in pre-pottery cultural associations,
Morrison (1942, p. 381) thought that the snails were steamed
in pits beneath a fire. Again, we have no archeologic evidence
for or against such a hypothesis: we only know that, both for
our sites in southwestern Asia and for those in Alabama (as
well as those from prehistoric Jericho [ Biggs, 1960]), the
great majority of the shells show no signs of charring, and
thus we assume the animals were not roasted on hot rocks.

SUPERSTITION
Our cook and two house-boys were town bred; they were
familiar with snail-shells as shells, but were astounded to dis-
cover that each housed a living animal. They were of the opin-
ion that no one of all the people they knew had any idea that
these shells were anything other than what they were commonly
regarded to be: snake pillows!

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

My zoo-archeological work in southwestern Asia in 1954-
1955 and 1960, upon which the present paper is based, was
financed in large part by grants from the National Science
Foundation to the Department of Anthropology and to the
Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. While in the
field, all members of the expeditions assisted with the work in
one way or another, and to each of these numerous people I ex-
tend my thanks. I am particularly grateful to Kent Flannery,
Jim Knudstadt, and Gene Garthwaite for the gathering of

Sept. 10,1962 Snails on a Persian Hillside 19

more than 500 live snails in the vicinity of Warwasi on the
drizzling morning of April 18, 1960. I am most indebted to
the Rev. H. E. J. Biggs, of Bromley, Kent, for his identifica-
tions, not only of the living snails sent him, but also of hun-
dreds of dead shells collected from numerous recent surfaces
and ancient dwelling-places. Additionally, he has spent many
patient hours, initiating the present author (who is not a mala-
cologist) into the mysteries of terrestrial snails from the region
of the Zagros Mts. of Iraq and Iran.

SUMMARY

The finding of shells of certain terrestrial snails (particu-
larly of Helix salomonica and several species of Levantina) in
archeological context throughout the upper Quaternary of the
slopes of the Zagros Mts. of southeastern Iraq and western
Iran led to the speculations concerning: 1) the use of Helix as
food by the prehistoric people involved, and: 2) the possible use
of the presence of these shells and others as ecologic indicators
of past environments.

Pleasurable gastronomic experiments indicated that both
Helix salomonica and Levantina diulfensis were equally accept-
able as food to modern archeologists and their colleagues :
however, during the late Pleistocene and early Recent when
snails were being gathered for food, all evidence indicates that,
in the area studied by us, the Helix were eaten and the Levan-
tina were rejected. We have no explanation for this choice by
the prehistoric peoples involved.

The use (and possible mis-use) of terrestrial snails as paleo-
ecologic indicators are discussed, and some preliminary ecologic
notes are made on six species which have been found in late
Quaternary archeological sites and which presumably may have
importance to paleo-envircnmental studies. However, only a
bare beginning has been made in this type of study, particu-
larly for the area of the Zagros Mts., and much more intensive
study is necessary before any valid paleo-environmental deduc-
tions can be made on the basis of the terrestrial snails.

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