Archaeology of shell middens

Two multilayer settlements - Novoselivka-VI and Novoselivka-VII were discovered as a result of the planned area survey on the right bank of the River Aidar, not far from village Novoselivka (or Besedivka) in Starobilsk district of Luhansk region. The materials found in these settlements allow us to make assumptions about several stages of settling in this area, starting with the Neolithic and completing the Late Bronze Age. Late Neolithic artifacts are represented massively and are accompanied by so-called køkkenmødding or spots with accumulated shells remains of the river shellfish.

Shell-matrix sites are one of the most widespread archaeological deposits in the world. They inform archaeologists about human adaptations to coastal environments , the evolution of coastal economies, ritual practices, and prehistoric architecture. In recent years, the micromorphological study of Brazilian shellmounds and a shell midden from Tierra del Fuego revealed unique information about the human behaviors related to the formation of shell-matrix sites. These investigations refined our knowledge concerning the upward sequence of events involved in the growth and post-depositional evolution of the deposits. Micromorphological studies denied the traditional view of shell-matrix sites as simple secondary deposits of food remains, providing evidence of trampling surfaces, midden redeposition, domestic spaces, abandon-ment episodes, and intra-site differences. Dissimilarities were detected in the pre-depositional history of sediments in the shellmounds and shell middens that also attest to differences in site use and function. This comparative study highlights the role of micromorphology in the study of shell-matrix sites as a unique approach intended to disassemble the sequence of events hidden in the intricate stratigraphies. The technique has the potential to reveal microdepositional events and/or the weathering process of the seemingly thick layers of densely packed shell that characterize shell-matrix sites worldwide.

Processes behind the shift from hunting-gathering to food production lifestyle are multifaceted and not yet completely understood. The Mediterranean
coast of NW Africa provides an eclectic transitional pattern, namely, a very hesitant transition to food production. The distribution and abundance of
early Neolithic domesticated species is disparate and region specific. Climate and environmental change have been often considered as an important
influencing factor for this transition. This hypothesis was tested using archeological shells of the rocky intertidal gastropod Phorcus turbinatus recovered
from the Ifri Oudadane site in NE Morocco. The oxygen isotope composition (δ18O) of the shell was used to examine whether the hesitant transition to
food production was linked to a local climate shift in the Mediterranean Maghreb. Intrashell δ18O values suggest a marked temperature increase from >7.6
to ~7.0 cal. ka BP, the time when Neolithic innovations first appear on site. An additional increase in temperature from ~7.0 to <6.8 cal. ka BP matches
with the beginning of the main occupation phase and the doubtless breakthrough of cultivation at Ifri Oudadane. This apparent warming trend, although
considered preliminary, seems to match well with warming tendency observed in several published regional climate proxies. Therefore, a temperature
shift may have played a role in the timing and implementation of food production in the area. Last growth episode δ18O values suggest that shellfish were
harvested throughout most of the year, with noticeable intensification during the cooler half of the year. This preliminary pattern was fairly consistent
throughout the Epipaleolithic and early Neolithic phases, pointing to a probable near year-round site occupation rather than a single season settlement.
Future research on Ifri Oudadane and other NW African archeological records are much needed to assess whether these patterns persist in Morocco
and other Epipaleolithic and early Neolithic settlements in the western Mediterranean Maghreb.

En el presente trabajo de tesis doctoral se aborda la problemática sobre el acceso arqueológico a las normas sociales, en particular en el contexto de sociedades cazadoras-pescadoras-recolectoras. La Arqueología tradicional, bebiendo de los postulados histórico-culturales, asumió que este acceso estaría limitado, de entrada, por la inmaterialidad de lo social. Por su parte, el optimismo científico de la New Archaeology y, más en general, los planteamientos procesuales exploraron la posibilidad, aunque partieron de una visión igualmente restringida de lo material. Para solventar este déficit, se planteó y desarrolló una nueva disciplina, denominada Etnoarqueología. La reacción a un énfasis funcionalista y a la extracción mecánica de inferencias sobre las relaciones sociales de las sociedades prehistóricas (y, como consecuencia, sobre los grupos contemporáneos estudiados por estos trabajos etnoarqueológicos) llegó en la década de 1980 de la mano de las diferentes propuestas que se han englobado bajo el epígrafe de arqueologías post-procesuales. Éstas pusieron lo social e ideológico en el centro del debate, significando un giro radical, por ejemplo, respecto a la manera de plantear la etnoarqueología o a denunciar la “invisibilidad” de la mujer. Así, en las últimas décadas, la presencia de conceptos con connotaciones sociales como household, espacio social o género ha sido muy importante. Pese a todo ello, el conocimiento sobre la organización social de las sociedades cazadoras-pescadoras-recolectoras del pasado no ha avanzado significativamente en comparación con los años ochenta. Así pues, el objetivo principal de esta tesis es abordar el estudio de la organización del espacio social a partir de las diversas disciplinas que han podido estudiarlo: arqueología, etnografía y etnoarqueología. En primer lugar, se ha evaluado los debates e instrumentos conceptuales desarrollados desde estas disciplinas y desde las distintas teorías. En segundo lugar, y a partir de esta revisión del registro del Paleolítico Superior y Mesolítico en Europa, del registro etnográfico mundial y de los diferentes trabajos etnoarqueológicos, se ha visto la necesidad de plantear una nueva propuesta teórico-metodológica en coherencia con una teoría sustantiva (el materialismo histórico) y basada en el análisis de las interrelaciones espaciales. Una vez presentada, se ha contrastado con un ejemplo etnoarqueológico (Lanashuaia y Túnel VII, en la costa norte del canal Beagle). Los resultados ponen en evidencia el potencial de esta aproximación arqueológica que parte de la elaboración de categorías de análisis socialmente significativas, y no solamente descriptivas, y su capacidad al menos en un caso etnográfico conocido para inferir las normas sociales que se mantienen y transmiten mediante la organización del espacio social, como la división sexual del trabajo.

DESCARGAR: https://www.educacion.gob.es/teseo/mostrarRef.do?ref=1729083

Around 5000 BC, affluent village communities emerged along the South China Coast. Although traditionally regarded as ancestors of Austronesian migrants, whose farming economies expanded into the Asia-Pacific region, the new synthesis presented here shows that these coastal groups actually lived as hunter gatherers and fishers, with evidence of socio-cultural complexity. Around c. 3000–2500 BC, this ‘first layer’ of hunter-gatherers witnessed the arrival of a ‘second layer’, associated with rice farming and Austronesian assemblages. This new synthesis positions global coastlines as centres of socio-economic and political complexity, long-distance contact and technological advancement.

RESUMO. Apresentam-se os resultados preliminares dos trabalhos arqueológicos levados a cabo pela Universidade do Algarve em diversos concheiros pré-históricos da região da Costa Vicentina.
ABSTRACT. The aim of this paper is to present the preliminary results of the archaeological excavations made by the University of Algarve in several shell middens in the region of Costa Vicentina.

The archaeological site known as “El Faro” is located in the upper Gulf of California region of the Baja California peninsula. Archaeological work within this area of Baja California has been limited, and the investigation presented in this article is the most extensive to date in the region. This research, combining surface reconnaissance with three field seasons of excavation, has yielded data that allow for the reconstruction of the subsistence patterns of the site’s inhabitants through time. Additionally, we have been able to establish that the late occupation inhabitants of the El Faro site had a system of exchange with neighboring Yuman regions. The subsistence and trade evidence together allows us to comment on the proposed isolation and marginalization of the prehistoric groups in Baja California.

Article based on my Honours thesis, which examines the historical evidence of Aboriginal Australian burials within the Ballina shell mounds.
<https://www.aacai.com.au/publications/Journal/?fbclid=IwAR0cLPurJv3UAfvaAHCC5Tet-KFvQRpAAqAs97fmlLqUCKfwTiz9ygb2c2g>

FULL ABSTRACT:
There has been limited re-appraisal of the Ballina oyster mounds since  Geoff Bailey's pioneering investigations. The scale of these shell mounds deserves attention.  They were once commanding features in the landscape, extending for hundreds of metres along the North Creek river bank, and ranged in height from three to seven metres.  Here I highlight evidence overlooked in most archaeological interpretations of the shell mounds, namely that they contained human burials. Supported by Bailey’s evidence of the minor role the molluscs played in the local economy, it is clear that the mounds held more than just an economic significance for the Aboriginal people of the past. The monumental size of the mounds, evidence of re-visitation, as well as occurrence of burials, fits the description of the mounds as a ‘persistent place’ and indicates  the mounds had a marked importance in the social fabric of the local Aboriginal society.