Oyster Shells? Significance?

[TippecanoeRecovery]

Hi everybody.
Just finished watching an Aquachigger YouTube video where at the end he points out an oyster shell from his hunt. He mentions that if you had watched his previous videos you will know the significance of why oyster shells are important when hunting a spot. I've went back looking at his vids and have been unable to find the answer. Reason I ask is because I am hunting an 1850's ghost town dwelling I've located in the corn field. I've been seeing pieces of oyster shell throughout the field as well as pottery shards and orange brick. Just started working it and have found an eagle button and various flat buttons, but the oyster shells are a mystery to me. I've read the shells were used for driveways and such, but the few amount I'm seeing wouldn't support that theory. Are we just talking about something that was part of the occupants diet and is just a clue to habitation or is there some other significance I'm missing here?

Thx.

 

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[GatorBoy]

Native American shell middens come to mind.
You should be looking for a stone projectile points and tools while you're in that field

 

[huntsman53]

Native American shell middens come to mind.
You should be looking for a stone projectile points and tools while you're in that field

I agree! Also, in the Florida Keys and on other Islands/Keys, Native American Indians used shells to build mounds to bury their dead. Due to most of these Islands/Keys being made up of dead Coral sometimes called Marro or Marrow (not sure of the exact spelling), there was not suitable soil or even rocks available to build mounds for burial so shells were often used. I know of one such mound that existed on Stock Island next to the cut between it and Key West. However, this mound was excavated many times by University personnel as well as raiders over the years and pretty much destroyed. A friend and myself even saw where someone (or should I say several persons as that is what it would take) removed a Treasure Chest from under the roots of an old tree growing in the burial mound.


Frank

 

[littleneckhalfshell]

Oysters were a popular food in the 1800's and after the railroads came, were even shipped by the barrel to parts far from the sea. I am not sure what the fellow said in his videos, but after the oysters were eaten, the shell could be used for chicken scratch to give them the extra calcium for their egg shells, or burnt and used as lime for mortar for brick or stone foundations. So if you find oysters out in an open field, far from the sea, it is evidence of a inhabited area.

 

[CASPER-2]

Oysters were a popular food in the 1800's and after the railroads came, were even shipped by the barrel to parts far from the sea. I am not sure what the fellow said in his videos, but after the oysters were eaten, the shell could be used for chicken scratch to give them the extra calcium for their egg shells, or burnt and used as lime for mortar for brick or stone foundations. So if you find oysters out in an open field, far from the sea, it is evidence of a inhabited area.

you find them away from water and it shows that people were there - sometimes Indians - sometimes early settlers

 

[shawninNY]

I agree always a good indication of homestead, large quantities often found in bottle dumps, same goes for coal ash .

 

[DignTXRelics]

They used them for building material on the SE coastline before and during the civil war. The oyster shells were mixed in with other stuff to act as an aggregate to make the building material stronger. If you find black glass, pottery, and oyster shells en masse in an area.....dig it. It is very common in SC. That is what Aqua Chigger meant.

 

[Diver_Down]

They used them for building material on the SE coastline before and during the civil war. The oyster shells were mixed in with other stuff to act as an aggregate to make the building material stronger. If you find black glass, pottery, and oyster shells en masse in an area.....dig it. It is very common in SC. That is what Aqua Chigger meant.

What you are referring to is called Tabby concrete/construction. Some oysters are burnt to create lime and this is mixed with sand and water and oyster shells to create a Tabby wall.

 

[SCdigger]

They ate them, and it's also a key ingrediant in tabby.

 

[Rcard86]

I know in my area a type of farming was used when the soil was depleted from tobacco, they fertilized the fields with them. I forget what it's called but it was pioneered by Edmund Ruffin. My folks own an old VA plantation and they pop up on the fields every now and again when they're planted.