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"Kitchen-middens Analysis."
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The cultural dynamics of shell-matrix sites
\"The excavation of shell middens and mounds is an important source of information regarding past human diet, settlement, technology, and paleoenvironments. The contributors to this book introduce new ways to study shell-matrix sites, ranging from the geochemical analysis of shellfish to the interpretation of human remains buried within. Drawing upon examples from around the world, this is one of the only books to offer a global perspective on the archaeology of shell-matrix sites; 'A substantial contribution to the literature on the subject and essential reading for archaeologists and others who work on this type of site'--Barbara Voorhies, University of California, Santa Barbara, author of Coastal Collectors in the Holocene : The Chantuto People of Southwest Mexico\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
The Cultural Dynamics of Shell-Matrix Sites
The excavation of shell middens and mounds is an important source of information regarding past human diet, settlement, technology, and paleoenvironments. The contributors to this book introduce new ways to study shell-matrix sites, ranging from the geochemical analysis of shellfish to the interpretation of human remains buried within. Drawing upon examples from around the world, this is one of the only books to offer a global perspective on the archaeology of shell-matrix sites.
\"A substantial contribution to the literature on the subject and... essential reading for archaeologists and others who work on this type of site.\"—Barbara Voorhies, University of California, Santa Barbara, author of Coastal Collectors in the Holocene: The Chantuto People of Southwest Mexico
eBook
Late shellmound occupation in southern Brazil: A multi-proxy study of the Galheta IV archaeological site
Brazilian coastal archaeology is renowned for its numerous and large shellmounds (sambaquis ), which had been continuously occupied from at least 8000 to 1000 years cal BP. However, changes in their structure and material culture in the late Holocene have led to different hypotheses concerning their ecological and cultural changes. The archaeological site Galheta IV (ca. 1300 to 500 years cal BP) offers new insights into the complexity of the late coastal occupation in southern Brazil. Our attempt was to determine whether Galheta IV can be classified as a sambaqui site, or if it belongs to a Southern proto - Jê settlement. Here, we reassessed Galheta’s collections and applied a multi-proxy approach using: new 14 C dates, zooarchaeology, δ 13 C and δ 15 N isotopes in bulk collagen and 87 Sr/ 86 Sr enamel isotopic ratios from eight human individuals, ceramics analysis, and FTIR. The results indicate an intense exploitation of marine resources, with an area designated for processing animals located at the opposite side of the funerary areas. Bone tools and specific species of animals were found as burial accompaniments. No evidence of human cremations was detected. 87 Sr/ 86 Sr results indicate that the eight human individuals always lived on the coast, and did not come from the inland. The pottery analysis confirms the association with Itararé-Taquara, but contrary to what was assumed by previous studies, the pottery seems related to other coastal sites, and not to the highlands. In light of these findings, we propose that Galheta IV can be considered a funerary mound resulting from long and continuous interactions between shellmound and Southern proto - Jê populations. This study not only enhances our understanding of the late coastal occupation dynamics in southern Brazil but also underscores its importance in reshaping current interpretations of shellmound cultural changes over time.
Journal Article
From Shell Midden to Midden-Mound: The Geoarchaeology of Mound Key, an Anthropogenic Island in Southwest Florida, USA
Mound Key was once the capital of the Calusa Kingdom, a large Pre-Hispanic polity that controlled much of southern Florida. Mound Key, like other archaeological sites along the southwest Gulf Coast, is a large expanse of shell and other anthropogenic sediments. The challenges that these sites pose are largely due to the size and areal extent of the deposits, some of which begin up to a meter below and exceed nine meters above modern sea levels. Additionally, the complex depositional sequences at these sites present difficulties in determining their chronology. Here, we examine the development of Mound Key as an anthropogenic island through systematic coring of the deposits, excavations, and intensive radiocarbon dating. The resulting data, which include the reversals of radiocarbon dates from cores and dates from mound-top features, lend insight into the temporality of site formation. We use these insights to discuss the nature and scale of human activities that worked to form this large island in the context of its dynamic, environmental setting. We present the case that deposits within Mound Key's central area accumulated through complex processes that represent a diversity of human action including midden accumulation and the redeposition of older sediments as mound fill.
Journal Article
Quantifying spatial variability in shell midden formation in the Farasan Islands, Saudi Arabia
During the past decade, over 3000 shell middens or shell matrix deposits have been discovered on the Farasan Islands in the southern Red Sea, dating to the period c. 7,360 to 4,700 years ago. Many of the sites are distributed along a palaeoshoreline which is now 2-3 m above present sea level. Others form clusters with some sites on the shoreline and others located inland over distances of c. 30 m to 1 km. We refer to these inland sites as 'post-shore' sites. Following Meehan, who observed a similar spatial separation in shell deposition in her ethnographic study of Anbarra shellgathering in the Northern Territory of Australia, we hypothesise that the shoreline sites are specialised sites for the processing or immediate consumption of shell food, and the post-shore sites are habitation sites used for a variety of activities. We test this proposition through a systematic analysis of 55 radiocarbon dates and measurement of shell quantities from the excavation of 15 shell matrix sites in a variety of locations including shoreline and post-shore sites. Our results demonstrate large differences in rates of shell accumulation between these two types of sites and selective removal of shoreline sites by changes in sea level. We also discuss the wider implications for understanding the differential preservation and visibility of shell-matrix deposits in coastal settings in other parts of the world extending back into the later Pleistocene in association with periods of lowersea level. Our results highlight the importance of taphonomic factors of post-depositional degradation and destruction, rates of shell accumulation, the influence on site location of factors other than shell food supply, and the relative distance of deposits from their nearest palaeoshorelines as key variables in the interpretation of shell quantities. Failure to take these variables into account when investigating shells and shell-matrix deposits in late Pleistocene and early Holocene contexts is likely to compromise interpretations of the role and significance of shell food in human evolutionary and socio-cultural development.
Journal Article
New research at Riņņukalns, a Neolithic freshwater shell midden in northern Latvia
The prehistoric shell middens of Atlantic Europe consist of marine molluscs, but the eastern Baltic did not have exploitable marine species. Here the sole recorded shell midden, at Riņņukalns in Latvia, is on an inland lake and is formed of massive dumps of freshwater shells. Recent excavations indicate that they are the product of a small number of seasonal events during the later fourth millennium BC. The thickness of the shell deposits suggests that this was a special multi-purpose residential site visited for seasonal aggregations by pottery-using hunter-gatherer communities on the northern margin of Neolithic Europe.
Journal Article
Feasting on fore-limbs: conspicuous consumption and identity in later prehistoric Britain
The discovery in Llanmaes, South Wales, of a large midden dating from the Early Iron Age provided an opportunity to deepen our understanding of feasting in late prehistoric Britain. But the dominance of right fore-limbs of pigs in the faunal assemblage has raised questions about the social processes represented by this activity. The evidence suggests a move away from conspicuous consumption by an Early Iron Age elite towards a more community-focused event designed to galvanise social relations at a time when the breakdown of bronze exchange networks was challenging the social order.
Journal Article
Shell Mounds in the Southeast: Middens, Monuments, Temple Mounds, Rings, or Works?
Focusing on the southeastern United States, I provide some alternative perspectives on shell mounds previously interpreted as architectural features, temple mounds, and feasting sites. The same pattern of deposition often inferred to indicate mound construction—darker-colored, highly organic strata alternating with lighter-colored, shell-rich strata—can be accounted for by domestic midden accumulation and disposal of refuse away from living areas. Observed abundances of particular shell species can result from local or regional ecological conditions. Site complexes interpreted as architectural may have evolved largely in response to short-term climate changes. Shell rings on the Georgia and South Carolina coasts probably functioned to conserve and store unconfined water. To understand ancient shell mounds, we need a sediment-oriented approach to the study of mound deposits and more attention to the environmental contexts in which shell mounds accumulated.
Journal Article
Temporal variability in shell mound formation at Albatross Bay, northern Australia
We report the results of 212 radiocarbon determinations from the archaeological excavation of 70 shell mound deposits in the Wathayn region of Albatross Bay, Australia. This is an intensive study of a closely co-located group of mounds within a geographically restricted area in a wider region where many more shell mounds have been reported. Valves from the bivalve Tegillarca granosa (Linnaeus, 1758) were dated. The dates obtained are used to calculate rates of accumulation for the shell mound deposits. These demonstrate highly variable rates of accumulation both within and between mounds. We assess these results in relation to likely mechanisms of shell deposition and show that rates of deposition are affected by time-dependent processes both during the accumulation of shell deposits and during their subsequent deformation. This complicates the interpretation of the rates at which shell mound deposits appear to have accumulated. At Wathayn, there is little temporal or spatial consistency in the rates at which mounds accumulated. Comparisons between the Wathayn results and those obtained from shell deposits elsewhere, both in the wider Albatross Bay region and worldwide, suggest the need for caution when deriving behavioural inferences from shell mound deposition rates, and the need for more comprehensive sampling of individual mounds and groups of mounds.
Journal Article
Placing the Poverty Point Mounds in their Temporal Context
Sampling biases in archaeological research may inadvertently lead to unsubstantiated assumptions about the relationship between various site features. The majority of radiometric dates from the Poverty Point site have been recovered from excavations in the large, earthen ridges. While archaeological investigations have previously been undertaken in the Poverty Point mounds, few of these excavations have yielded radiometric dates. As a result of the almost complete absence of chronometric data from Poverty Point's mounds, the construction of these features is generally assumed to have occurred during the same time span as construction of the ridges. New radiometric dates from the Poverty Point mounds reveal information about the timing and pace of their construction. These new chronological data provide the basis for a more detailed developmental sequence, and may allow for the development of new hypotheses about population size, the organization of labor, architectural relationships, and the degree of social complexity at Poverty Point. Examining the development of cultural landscapes, such as the chronology of earthwork construction at Poverty Point, also provides a better understanding of the ways prehistoric societies interacted with and modified the environments in which they lived.
Journal Article