4.2. Gathering area

The site of Clos des Châtaigniers is located 10km from the Channel coast. The gathering strategies reflected the values attributed to each species (e.g. flavour), and other environmental parameters such as accessibility and abundance at the seashore. The inhabitants seem to have exploited mainly rocky to muddy/rocky shores (84% of the MNI of marine shells) (Figure 5). This is evidenced by the numerical dominance of the mussel, the most frequently consumed shellfish on the site, which lives in the intertidal zone, down to 10m in depth along the coast. Mussel gathering is quite straightforward since these are readily visible and can be collected by hand or with a tool to cut the byssus, in clusters or individually. Mussels can be consumed all year round but are fleshier during the reproductive period, between March and October (Poppe and Goto 1993). Those mussels living in sandy to muddy/sandy shore substrates were more rarely exploited (11% of the MNI) (Figure 5). It is interesting to note that the spectrum of species coming only from sandy to muddy/sandy environment mostly consists of small individuals, with a shell size smaller than 20mm (Donax sp., Spisula sp., Abra sp., Macoma balthica).