LAUSR

Abstract Hazel ( Corylus avellana L.) nutshell is one of the most frequent wild food remains recovered from sites of prehistoric date in temperate Europe and hazelnuts are often suggested to have been a staple food in early prehistory. Many authors have proposed that hazel nutshell may be over-represented in archaeological assemblages relative to other wild foods and cereal remains, but the exact parameters of charring and destruction for hazel nutshells, kernels and whole nuts have not previously been examined in detail. This paper assesses the effects of temperature, time and oxygen availability on the relative preservation of hazel nutshell, hazel kernel and whole hazelnuts in controlled laboratory conditions. The analysis of the preservation and fragmentation of the nutshell in the experiments provides a base-line for the interpretation of archaeological hazelnut assemblages, and shows that hazel kernels and whole nuts only survive whole under an extremely limited range of conditions and are likely to be under-represented in the archaeological record relative to hazel nutshells.