The Marsoulas conch shell Carole Fritz et al. 2021. Conch shells have been used as sacred objects or musical instruments across history, with the authors suggesting the previously oldest known ...

Some 18,000 years ago, in a cave in what we now call France, a human being left behind something precious: a conch shell. It was not just any conch shell. Its tip had been lopped off—unlikely by ...

Only in 2016 did researchers begin to analyze the shell anew. Artifacts like this conch help paint a picture of how cave dwellers lived, said Carole Fritz, an archaeologist at the University of ...

After 18,000 years of silence, an ancient musical instrument played its first notes. The last time anyone heard a sound from the conch shell trumpet, thick sheets of ice still covered most of Europe.

Early excavations unearthed two chambers of artifacts, which contained knives, scrapers, pendants made from animal bones, and a Charonia lampas shell — the conch shell. It was discovered in 1931 and ...

Conch shells, found buried at ancient Pueblo sites in New Mexico, were likely used as communication devices across the arid landscape. James Wainscoat via Unsplash If you were standing on the edge ...

The conch shell is made of the same material as chalk, but unlike the crumbly rock, it's one of the toughest materials out there. If we can understand why it's so tough, we can mimic it to create ...

Yves Mondelus, a master conch cracker at the popular Da Conch Shack restaurant demonstrates how to remove the meat from the shell. “If you are on a deserted island all you need is a hammer and a ...

The conch shell is made up of three layers, with the grain running in a different direction in each one. This means that when it's subjected to an impact, cracks can't just run straight through it.