Cataloging Cowries: A Standardized Strategy to Record Six Key Species of Cowrie Shell from the West African Archaeological Record

Two species of the cowrie shell, Monetaria moneta (Linnaeus, 1758) ma Monetaria annulus (Linnaeus, 1758), repeatedly occur in archaeological contexts across West Africa. Despite their archaeological and ethnographic importance, these shells remain poorly and inconsistently reported in the archaeolog...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The African archaeological review 2019-12, Vol.36 (4), p.479-504
Main Authors: Christie, Annalisa C., Grant, Alastair, Haour, Anne
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anthropology
Archaeology
Historic artifacts
Original Article
Regional and Cultural Studies
Shells
Social Sciences
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Summary:Two species of the cowrie shell, Monetaria moneta (Linnaeus, 1758) ma Monetaria annulus (Linnaeus, 1758), repeatedly occur in archaeological contexts across West Africa. Despite their archaeological and ethnographic importance, these shells remain poorly and inconsistently reported in the archaeological literature. The absence of standardized data on species composition, size, and condition of cowrie assemblages, and whether and how the shells were modified, make it difficult to examine their significance in a regional and chronological framework. To address this problem, we propose a set of standardized criteria and coding system for recording cowrie assemblages—in particular, species, size, condition, and state of modification. We aim to enable nonshell specialists within the wider archaeological community to securely identify intact or modified specimens of M. annulus and M. moneta, showing how these can be distinguished from four cowrie species native to West Africa—Luria lurida (Linnaeus, 1758), Zonaria zonaria (Gmelin, 1791), Zonaria sanguinolenta (Gmelin, 1791), and Trona stercoraria (Linnaeus, 1758). We demonstrate how accurate species identification and the assessment of proportions of different sizes of shells within suitably large assemblages can provide insight into their provenance. This information can enhance our appreciation of the exchange networks within which these shells moved. We also identify five different strategies documented in the archaeological record that were used to modify cowries, detailing how these can be differentiated and classified. The aim here is to suggest a recording strategy that will enable comparisons of the use and value of cowries in West Africa and elsewhere. Deux espèces de cauris, Monetaria moneta (Linné, 1758) et Monetaria annulus (Linné, 1758), se retrouvent de manière répétée dans des contextes archéologiques en Afrique de l'Ouest. En dépit de leur importance archéologique et ethnographique, ces coquillages sont souvent décrits de façon brève ou inconsistante dans la littérature archéologique. L'absence de données standardisées sur la composition des espèces, la taille et l'état des assemblages de cauris, et le manque de données sur les éventuelles modifications de ces coquillages, rend difficile toute étude de leur importance dans un cadre régional et/ou chronologique. Pour aider à résoudre ce problème, nous proposons une normalisation des critères et un système du codage pour enregistrer les assemblages
ISSN:0263-0338
1572-9842
DOI:10.1007/s10437-019-09351-z