Abstract

Growth-line analysis was carried out on the hard clam (Meretrix petechialis) collected from the Neolithic Eurwang-dong Shell Midden, Incheon, Korea, to reconstruct palaeoenvironment. The growth pattern of the midden specimens was compared to that of modern ones collected from Gimje, Jeonbuk, Korea. Growth curves for shell length fitted to the von Bertalanffy's growth curve were expressed respectively as follows : $SL_t=139.3574[1-e^{-0.1049(t+1.5160)}]$ for the shell midden specimens; $SL_t=104.2583[1-e^{-0.2277(t+0.7499)}]$ for the modern ones. The relationship between shell length (SL; mm) and shell height (SH; mm) was expressed by the following equations: SH = 0.8351 SL + 1.1480 ($r^2=0.959$) for the shell midden specimens; SH = 0.8103 SL + 0.5145 ($r^2=0.991$) for the modern ones. The result of t-tests for the differences in the regression coefficients and elevations of the growth curves for the two populations showed that slopes were not significantly different (p > 0.05). Considering that the overall growth curves for the two populations were not significantly different, it can be inferred that shell growth environments of the two areas were similar. Thus, we assumed that sea temperature near the shell midden was similar to that of present Gimje area.