FOSSIL LAND SNAILS FROM A HELLENISTIC ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE IN LIBYA

A wine amphora found inside a sarcophagus form a cemetery site in Cyre ne, Libya contained ten species of fossil land snails. The artifacts w ithin the sarcophagus suggest an age between 475 and 375 BC indicating a period c. 150 years after the city was established by the Greeks. T he majority of the land snails are species found today within the regi on suggesting little substantial change in the environmental condition s at the site. The records confirm that Poiretia compressa (Mousson, 1 859) has been present in Libya since the period 475-375 BC. Its disjun ct distribution probably arises from human introduction into Africa, a nd our evidence suggests that this occurred relatively early in the co lonization of the region.