Where can shell middens be found?
Freshwater shell middens are found along river banks and flood plains, near swamps and lakes, and in sand dunes. They are sometimes found in dry areas, where fresh water was once present. Freshwater mussel shells may also be found in Aboriginal oven mounds, but usually only in small quantities.
What are coastal shell middens?
Shell middens are the remains of meals of shellfish once gathered and eaten by Aboriginal people. Aboriginal people gathered a range of shellfish species. They were gathered from rock platforms and from the sandy shores of ocean beaches, river inlets, estuaries and bays.
What are oyster middens?
A midden is an archaeological term for a pile of trash left by humans long gone, and oyster middens are some of the oldest and largest piles of intact garbage dating from after the late ice age.
What is an undersea midden?
Introduction. Shell middens—shell matrix deposits in which the discarded shells of mollusc food are the dominant physical constituent—occur in their tens of thousands on coastlines across the world.
What does a midden look like?
Middens usually look like a low mound and are often found eroding from sand dunes, river banks or road cuttings. The presence of charcoal, burnt stone or blackened soil tells us that it is from human origin rather than just a natural accumulation of shells.
What are middens and why are they used by historians?
Middens are an archive of ancient coastal lifeways and environments. Archaeologically, middens preserve a record of thousands of years of coastal occupation.
How are middens formed?
Middens are a type of archaeological feature, consisting of localized patches of dark-colored earth and concentrated artifacts which resulted from the deliberate discard of refuse, food remains, and domestic materials such as broken and exhausted tools and crockery.
What are middens in history?
What did middens provide?
Middens provide evidence of prior occupation and are generally protected from mining and other developments. One must exercise caution in deciding whether one is examining a midden or a beach mound.
What other archeological remains are found in shell middens?
Midden deposits can contain a variety of archaeological material, including animal bone, feces, shell, botanical material, vermin, sherds (fragments of pottery), lithics (stone works and the chips or flakes of stone produced from carving, known as debitage), and other artifacts and ecofacts (natural objects not touched …
Why are middens an important source of information for archaeologists?
Because the decomposition of the shells buffers Maine’s typically acidic soils, shell middens provide a more complete record of the lifeways of ancient coastal inhabitants than interior archaeological sites. Away from the coast, only burned (calcined) bone, lithics, and ceramics are preserved in the soil.