Sea shell mystery.

[Garabaldi]

I have been hunting this site for a few years. Site goes back to the mid 1600's. I have dug many of these white shells deep. Anyone know why they would be at this site? I live on the coast but this site is about 10 miles from the coast.

 

[ipsilateral]

I don't know where you live, but they are oyster shells. It's called a shell midden (thank you anthro 101). Could be an interesting place... Incidentally returning oyster shells to the ocean is the best way to help reestablish our failing oyster stocks as oyster "spat" colonize best on old oyster shells.

Here's some info on one:
http://www.maine.gov/doc/parks/programs/history/whaleback/

 

[lostcauses]

was a lake near by??

 

[Garabaldi]

There is a river that was in the colonial days open to the harbor. I have found many of these shells all over the site and pretty deep in the ground.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

My college Minor back in my olden days was Archeology & Anthropology of the North American Indian. The oyster shells you are finding "deep" means the residents (be they native or whites/blacks) ate a lot of oysters. I've dug a lot of oyster shells at vanished old house-sites in coastal areas.

Also, if the residents were white/black farmers, they sometimes used oyster shells to add calcium to the soil of the fields.

A way you'll know the oyster shells were not "naturally" there (but were instead carried there by humans, for eating) is that the oyster shells will almost entirely be from "eating-size" oysters. If they were "naturally" there, you'd find a mix of all sizes, from li'l teeny baby oyster shells on up through elderly adult oysters.

 

[ipsilateral]

That's a good point about the sizes. I've been learning a lot about oysters these last couple of years raising them under the dock at the Eastern Shore. The shell is pretty worn which leads me to believe that they are really old-- worn by soil conditions, water action etc..

 

[Dave44]

I have seen shells come out of bored wells about 50 ft down, looks like the oceans were alot higher. Am talking a couple hundred miles from the coast, Better yet isn't there shells in the rocks on the tops of some of the rockies?

 

[Bramblefind]

I find lots of shells at my old sites too and I am much farther from the coast than you are. I took an archaeology class and asked the professor about it and he was kind of vague as to how they might have obtained them. But he did tell me that in addition to eating the oysters the shells could also be used to treat the soil (lime) -as was stated above - and used to make mortar or plaster.

 

[Sky Pilot]

We find shells by the river in East Tennessee that look a lot like the ones we used to find in Fort Myers Florida.

Shells are everywhere!

Sky Pilot

 

[trixie charger]

Also, Native American's used multiple types of shells for making Wampum

 

[Dano Sverige]

Oyster shells are a good sign in the UK that the place had Roman activity, therefor being an excellent place to detect. Doubt yours are saying the same thing...but not only Romans ate a lot of oysters. 10 miles from the coast wasn't too far back in the horse and cart days for merchants. They'd still be fresh on arrival.

 

[Garabaldi]

Wow!!!!,
Interesting how many are responding to this post. I wish that I had kept all the shells and bits I had found at this site now. When they come out of the ground they are chalky and make your hand white, but after cleaning(water turns white)they no longer turn your hands white. I suspect that the colonials were eating them. There were Native Americans around, but I have found many Colonial artifacts here. Thanks for the info.

 

[Sky Pilot]

No problem on my end, friend!


Sky Pilot

 

[DevilDog812]

on vacation in new mexico, i was hiking on a mountain and suddenly came across a huge number of fossilized shells in the rocks of the mountain. it was above santa fe, which is 7000ft. but assuming that they died and were fossilized before the mountains were formed, that is still a fair way inland

 

[Dave44]

on vacation in new mexico, i was hiking on a mountain and suddenly came across a huge number of fossilized shells in the rocks of the mountain. it was above santa fe, which is 7000ft. but assuming that they died and were fossilized before the mountains were formed, that is still a fair way inland

Exactly, have seen them on Sandia Peak, can't remember, 10500 Ft?
I can't remember ever going on that mountain above Sante Fe, but the vally below it is about 6000 ft. How high was that hill?

 

[Charlene]

Old folks threw nothing away, so they ate the oysters and then would crush up the shells to fed to the laying hens to make the egg shells harder.

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Yep (still do) and they were and are ground up to add nutrients to the soil

 

[ivan salis]

in oyster bearing areas -- in the old days oysters were a important part of local indains diet ( being that oyster do not runaway or leave the area like game animals or fish might do thus they were a steady dependible supply of much needed protein *) - indains that lived near the sea coast areas are well known for having large oyster shell mounds or "middens"--- there are 2 differant typesnormally that are found -- trash heap ones and burial mound ones * --- often the dead were emtombed under a huge mound of shells to prevent animals from bothering the body .

oysters were also eatten by white folks too --

since most everwhere was "underwater" long long ago (dinosaur days) fossil type oyster shells can be found all over

 

[Garabaldi]

This information is so fascinating. I am digging oyster shells that are possibly close to 300 years old if Colonial and older (up to 5000) years old if Native American. WOW!!!!!

 

[DialM]

Oyster shells are a good sign in the UK that the place had Roman activity, therefor being an excellent place to detect. Doubt yours are saying the same thing...but not only Romans ate a lot of oysters. 10 miles from the coast wasn't too far back in the horse and cart days for merchants. They'd still be fresh on arrival.

Sounds like a case for Hmmmmm to investigate.