Oyster shells are an extremely common find on archaeological sites of all periods, and are representative of a major food source. The exploitation of oysters has been long established in Britain. There is evidence that oysters were favoured by prehistoric hunter-gatherers, and the first reliable historical references to oyster gathering are from the Roman period; Sallust writing in Rome around 50BC remarked: ‘Poor Britons – there is some good in them after all – they produce an oyster’, while in 60 AD, Juvenal describes the high repute English oysters held with the Roman elite. Oyster beds are recorded in the Domesday Book, and documentary and archaeological evidence demonstrates the continued importance of oysters as a food source through to the Victorian period. For an excellent site-specific study of oyster beds in Emsworth, Sussex check out this article.
Holes in oyster shells – why??
For many, many years now, excavations at sites across England have found oyster shells with perforated holes – some round, some square, and usually with just one hole. As with the unperforated shells, the date range of these artefacts where known is wide-ranging – for example, excavations by MOLA along the Walbrook found holey shells from very secure 1st C Roman deposits, while late medieval examples were recorded during investigations of a deserted village site in Hangleton, Sussex during the 1960s (see Holden, 1963 for a discussion of the oyster shells).
Many of you will have seen examples on the Thames foreshore as well, and now seems to be as good a time as any to pull together a few theories as to why we are finding these! So here goes…..
The first suggestion is that these holes could be naturally occurring. They could be caused by birds trying to peck holes in the shells (any ornithologists out there who could confirm or deny this?) or they could be caused by microbes or parasites. For a good discussion of these possibilities, plus the all-important caveat that some holes may have been caused by archaeologists themselves during excavation, have a look at this article.
Next suggestion – is it possible that these holes might have been caused during the harvesting process? I’m not an oyster eater myself but I understand that making a hole in the shell might not be a good idea if you want to eat what’s inside it?
A third popular theory is that the holes represent evidence for buttons – you could punch out squares and circles as desired. While it may seem wasteful to only get one (or more rarely two) buttons out of one shell, it should be remembered that these are extremely common items, and it simply might not have been necessary to get more than one button out of each shell.
Possibility number four – the shells are being used as building material. Imagine you had a bit of failing wattle and daub, or you needed to patch a hole in your roof – you could hammer in a few oyster shells as temporary protection. Or perhaps they were being used decoratively – as you can still see in modern examples….It would be interesting to know whether perforated oyster shells are often found associated with other building materials from excavations.
And finally, in April this year you may have seen the April Fools Day which suggested that the holey oysters represented an early version of Transport for London’s Oystercard. While we certainly can’t say that this is how holey oyster shells were being used, it is worth considering the possibility that they were used as informal tokens of some sort, perhaps for exchange, possibly for gaming or maybe, just maybe as a religious item.
The suggestion that shells with holes in them could have functioned as a kind of religious token or badge is a very interesting one. It is well-known that the scallop shell motif was associated by pilgrims with St James of Compostela and as well as the many pewter scallop-shell badges found, excavations at Thames Exchange (TEX88) recorded a scallop shell (Pecten maximus)with holes – these have also been found at other urban sites, including Winchester and Norwich (see Spencer, 2010, 204-5). So is it possible that oyster shells were being used in the same way??
Why not join the discussion on our Facebook group and add your own comments?
A sidenote about pearls
Going off on a bit of a tangent here but bear with me…. While pearls are most commonly associated with oysters, edible varieties (Ostrea) do not produce them. Freshwater mussels (Unio margaritifera) found in parts of northern and western Britain do however, and these were highly prized from the Roman period and through to the Tudor period as high status items, with symbolic associations to purity and virginity. So maybe we should be keeping an eye out for mussel shells with holes in them being used as religious tokens as well (associated with Mary?) like this one found on the foreshore at Putney earlier this year. For more on pearls see here.
- By: Nathalie Cohen
- 24 Sep 2015
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Swift even penned instructions on how to boil oysters: "Take oysters, wash them clean that is wash their shells clean, then put the oysters into an earthen pot, with their hollow sides down, then put this pot into a kettle of water, and so let them boil. Your oysters are boiled in their own liquor, and not mixed with water."
17th to 18th century In
the 17th and 18th centuries, oysters were used in many varied dishes.
Smaller oysters were often eaten raw, and larger oysters were often used
in stews or cooked in pies. Oysters were used with pork or mutton to
make sausages. Oysters were stuffed inside fowl, such as turkey or duck,
and then roasted; and the oysters' liquor would be poured over the
fowl! Oysters were also pickled for transport to inland towns.
19th to 20th century In the 19th century, oysters were plentiful and cheap; and were sold on almost every street corner in London. Oysters were very popular with the lower class who used oysters as a substitute for expensive beef in stews and soups. One of the most popular Victorian dishes with the lower class was oyster pie.
By the mid 19th century oysters were fished on a massive scale. In the year 1864, over 700 million oysters were consumed in London alone; and oyster fisheries employed around 120,000 people across the UK.
By the mid 20th century, oysters became over-fished, and natural oyster stocks became desperately low. In the year 1964, only 3 million oysters were fished from UK waters. In 1965, the robust Pacific Oyster (native to Japan's Pacific coast) was introduced to UK waters by the UK government under quarantine to replace the low stocks of the UK Native Oyster.
Deaths of Leeds father and son magnet fishing in canal not suspicious - police
The deaths of a father and son as they were magnet fishing for discarded metal in canal are not being treated as suspicious, police have said.
A potted history of the oyster in London
Victoria Stewart traces the history of the oyster in the capital with Drew Smith, author of a new book called Oyster: A Gastronomic History
he history of the oyster stretches back to the beginning of time, so to try and tell its rich story in just a few paragraphs would be mad. But the oyster has a strong connection to London, too, which is where we’ll begin; those searching for a roll call of quick oyster facts can refer to the box at the end.
“They have been eaten regularly, going back to the Neolithic period, because they were the things that were there… they were there at the start of humanity," explains Drew Smith, food writer and author of a new book called Oyster: A Gastronomic History (With Recipes). "That’s what really started me off, because it seemed to me that actually at every point in human history there was an oyster, and because we can find the shells, they’re incredibly useful. A lot of DNA dating is done using oyster shells." His fascinating work traces their journey from the late Paleozoic era to their domestic use in Mississippi c.4000 BC, and later in kitchens across England, France and Australia, to today where they are considered by many to be a luxury item.
The bodies of the 43-year-old man - named on social media as Martin Andrews - and his 19-year-old son, Jack, were found by police divers in Huddersfield on Saturday evening.
The men, from Pudsey, had gone to a stretch of canal close to the River Calder, in the Cooper Bridge area of the town, at about 6.15am, West Yorkshire Police said.
Mr Andrews’s wife told officers they had gone “magnet fishing”, a hobby which involves trawling waterways for metal using a very strong magnet on a rope.
Officers were first alerted at about 11.20am on Saturday by a passer-by who noticed personal belongings including clothing, a mobile phone, a camera and car keys had been left by the waterside for at least 50 minutes.
The police used the keys to locate a nearby car and this was traced to an address in Pudsey where Mr Andrews’s wife confirmed her husband and son had gone out hours earlier.
The police spokesman said: “Police were called around 11.18am on Saturday June 16 to the canal side, near to Navigation House in Cooper Bridge, Huddersfield, after it was believed two men entered the water.
“Officers conducted extensive inquiries to locate the men, and the police underwater search unit attended.
“The bodies of two men were recovered from the water around 7.20pm.
“They are believed to be a father and son from the Leeds area. The family have been notified.
“There are not thought to be any suspicious circumstances at this time and a file is being prepared for the coroner.”
Tributes have been paid to the two men on social media, although they have not yet been formally named by police.
Magnet fishing is thought to have been begun in the United States and has grown in popularity in the UK in recent months, with kit becoming available online.
Earlier this month, a Gloucestershire man was reported to have found a safe full of jewellery in the lake in a Cheltenham park after watching a programme about magnet fishing on TV.
He told reporters he had bought the fishing magnet on the internet for £17.50.
Also this month, a hand-grenade was blown up in Birmingham after it was pulled from a canal in the city by a man out magnet fishing.
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