Shell middens are ubiquitous archaeological features on coastlines throughout the world that have been variously analysed and interpreted as mounds of food, burial places, or simply as convenient receptacles for the preservation of stratified remains. This volume brings together information about little known, or recently discovered, concentrations of shell mounds in areas including Africa, the near East, South-east Asia and the Americas as well as new work on mounds in the classic areas including Denmark, the Pacific NW coast and Japan. Discussions are presented on new approaches to interpretation involving the use of ethnographic studies, analysis of molluscs, the use of shell as a raw material for making artefacts and in construction, and the variable formation processes associated with mound formation.
Contents for Shell Energy
Introduction
1. Shell energy: an introduction Geoffrey N. Bailey, Karen Hardy, Abdoulaye Camara
North America
2. Beyond subsistence: the social and symbolic meanings of shellfish in Northwest Coast societies Madonna L. Moss
3. Revealing the hidden dimensions of Pacific Northwest Coast shell middens Aubrey Cannon
4. Freshwater shell mounds of the Ohio River Valley, USA Cheryl Claassen
5. Prehistoric shell landscapes of the Ten Thousand Islands, Florida Margo Schwadron
6. Invertebrates on San Salvador Island, Bahamas: the use of shellfish as bait Cheryl Claassen
7. Prehistoric shell middens on the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua: food production, structures and site formation Ignacio Clemente-Conte, Ermengol Gassiot Ballbè, Virginia García-Díaz
South America
8. Ceramic sambaquis from the south coast of Brazil Pedro Ignácio Schmitz
9. Coast and hinterland: territory and resource management of the Selknam of Tierra del Fuego, Argentina Estela Mansur, Raquel Piqué
10. Methodological reflections on shell midden archaeology: issues from Tierra del Fuego ethnoarchaeology Jordi Estévez, Assumpció Vila, Raquel Piqué
Europe
11. The shell middens of Scotland’s Inner Hebrides Karen Hardy
