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Red Sea Palaeoclimate: Stable Isotope and Element-Ratio Analysis of Marine Mollusc Shells

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Geological Setting, Palaeoenvironment and Archaeology of the Red Sea

Abstract

The southern Red Sea coast is the location of more than 4,200 archaeological shell midden sites. These shell middens preserve archaeological and climatic archives of unprecedented resolution and scale. By using shells from these contexts, it is possible to link past environmental information with episodes of human occupation and resource processing. This chapter summarises current knowledge about the marine gastropod Conomurex fasciatus (Born 1778) and discusses its use in environmental and climatic reconstruction using stable isotope and elemental ratio analysis. It offers a review of the most recent studies of shell midden sites on the Farasan Islands, their regional importance during the mid-Holocene, theories about seasonal use of the coastal landscape, and preliminary results from new methods to acquire large climatic datasets from C. fasciatus shells.

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Acknowledgements

We greatly thank Najeeb Rasul for organising the meeting in Jeddah and for his help with the publication of this chapter. Research on the Farasan Islands has been made possible through the support and collaboration of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage (SCTH), in particular its President, HRH Prince Sultan bin Salman bin AbdulAziz al Saud, Professor Ali Al-Ghassan, and Jamal Omar. Underwater work on modern shells has been supported by permits from the Department of General Survey of the Ministry of Defense. The work has been supported by grants from the European Research Council (Advanced Grant 269586 DISPERSE under the ‘Ideas’ Specific Programme of FP7), and EU Marie-Curie Action, “Intra-European Fellowships for Career Development’’ (Archaeological and climatic data from elemental ratios using rapid analysis of shell carbonate—ACCELERATE) “Grant Agreement No. 703625”. The research has greatly benefited from comments and discussions with Geoff Bailey, Robyn Inglis, Matthew Meredith-Williams, Harry Robson, Andre Colonese, Demetrios Anglos, Panayiotis Siozos and Costas Fotakis. This is DISPERSE contribution no. 38.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Foundation for Research and Technology—Hellas, Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser (IESL), P.O. Box 1527, 711 10, Heraklion, Greece

    Niklas Hausmann

  2. Department of Archaeology, University of York, King’s Manor, York, YO1 7EP, UK

    Niklas Hausmann & Olga Kokkinaki

  3. NERC Isotope Geosciences Facilities, British Geological Survey, Nottingham, NG12 5GG, UK

    Melanie J. Leng

  4. Centre for Environmental Geochemistry, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK

    Melanie J. Leng

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Correspondence to Niklas Hausmann .

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  1. Center for Marine Geology, Saudi Geological Survey, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

    Najeeb M.A. Rasul

  2. Stewart Geophysical Consultants Pty. Ltd., College Park, SA, Australia

    Ian C.F. Stewart

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Hausmann, N., Kokkinaki, O., Leng, M.J. (2019). Red Sea Palaeoclimate: Stable Isotope and Element-Ratio Analysis of Marine Mollusc Shells. In: Rasul, N., Stewart, I. (eds) Geological Setting, Palaeoenvironment and Archaeology of the Red Sea. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99408-6_33

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