Archaic to Hellenistic invertebrate remains from Little Palace North, Knossos (Crete, Greece)

The archaeomalacological dataset from the Little Palace North (LPN) project at Knossos (Crete, Greece) provides a crucial domestic perspective on Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic shell exploitation, periods when bioarchaeological data remain remarkably scarce in the Aegean. The assemblage comprises 367 specimens across 53 taxa, consisting of land snails, fossils, and marine invertebrates. Land gastropods, dominate the assemblage. There is also a significant number of fossil shells, of which the diminutive Brachiopoda predominate. The marine invertebrates, consisting of 108 specimens, features edible taxa including limpets, top-shells, mussels, sea urchins, crabs, and cuttlefish. Banded dye-murex (Hexaplex trunculus) was also found, fragmented and in low numbers. The significance of the LPN shell dataset lies in its reflection of everyday domestic reality, offering a vital counterpoint to the region's heavily studied ritual and feasting deposits. Ultimately, this dataset is fundamental for understanding continuity and change in Aegean coastal resource management, allowing new insights into how historical urban communities locally engaged with their maritime environment.