Re: opening oysters with stone tools?

From: Marc Verhaegen (fa204466_at_skynet.be)
Date: 02/23/05 

Date: Wed, 23 Feb 2005 23:06:05 +0100

"mikelist" <mutterer@notime> wrote in message
news:421b2481$1_2@newspeer2.tds.net...

> gastric solvents would have likely dissolved or eroded pieces small enough
> to swallow without choking. Besides, oyster shells aren't like clam
> shells, they are much thicker, I think 'chunks' would be a better
> description of the shell bits that would be caused by smashing them.
> Still, I'd guess that the hammer method wasn't the method of choice.
>>
>>
>> Or, do as most pre-metal tool cultures do/did, throw the oysters (and
>> the rocks/mangrove roots etc) they are attached to into a fire : )
>
> That seems to me like the most likely method of opening shells. Oyster
> middens should tell something about that, based on the condition of the
> shells. I've never seen an oyster midden, but in New Orleans oyster shells
> are used like gravel, and it occurs to me that broken shells would be
> obvious, leaving only heat to do the hard work. Conceivably though,
> presuming that the climate was temperate or warmer, they may have been
> able to merely lay them in the sun, perhaps covered with leaves to collect
> and retain heat.

Yes, very well possible, but fire use is presumably more recent than oyster
consumption: 1.8 Ma H.erectus at Mojokerto lay amid salt & freshwater
shells - probably their diet included oysters which they had to open without
the use of fire.

Thanks for the answers, but could somebody tell me whether you can use stone
tools (eg, Oldowan, Acheulian) to open oysters (apart from hammering)?

Marc Verhaegen
http://www.onelist.com/community/AAT
http://allserv.rug.ac.be/~mvaneech/Verhaegen.html

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