When only the strong shells survive: Archaeology’s fresh approach to turn oyster shells into tools of conservation
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 5-Nov-2025 01:11 ET (5-Nov-2025 06:11 GMT/UTC)
As global oyster populations decline and fisheries collapse, archaeologists may be able to inform effective management with valuable, long-term perspectives of the human-oyster connections stretching back millennia.
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Throughout history, crises have often led to collapse – but not always. An international team of researchers, including members of the Complexity Science Hub (CSH), highlights four cases where societies under extreme pressure avoided breakdown through adaptive reforms, identifying three key factors that helped them “turn the tide.”
After revisiting Poverty Point and nearby sites, gathering radiocarbon dates, and rethinking the archaeological record, Kidder and his team in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis are suggesting new theories that challenge previous assumptions about these communities.
Beneath the verdant pools of Gan Ha-Shelosha lies a network of medieval tunnels that once powered the thriving sugar industry of the Mamluk Empire. Hewn into soft tufa rock along Nahal ‘Amal, the tunnels reveal how medieval engineers transformed brackish spring water into a source of mechanical energy, adapting their methods to a dry landscape. Radiometric dating and archaeological evidence suggest these channels supplied water to sugar mills, linking local ingenuity to the wider economic currents of the late medieval Mediterranean. The discovery redefines the industrial landscape of the Bet She’an Valley, highlighting an unexpected fusion of geology, hydrology, and commerce in the medieval Levant.