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Five Thousand Years of Shell Symbolism in the Southeast (13 pages)
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Page: of 13
164 Aaron Deter-Wolf and Tanya M. Peres ~
the interior Mid-South is admittedly sparse at this point, and whether
future research will support the hypothesis of inland population movements remains to be seen. Ample data do exist in the form of artifact type/
style similarities to suggest that by the later portion of the Middle Archaic
(circa 5000 BP), sites below the Ohio-Missouri confluence were culturally
oriented toward the Gulf Coastal Southeast. Examinations of projectile
point styles (Nance 1986), bone pins (Jefferies 1997), and variations in
burial cache inclusions (Deter-Wolf 2004; McNutt 2008) reveal patterns
of association in which interior Archaic groups were “more closely affiliated” (Jefferies 1997: 481) with populations to the south.
Although traditional discussions of shell middens and mounds of the
interior Southeast have focused on these sites as an Archaic phenomenon, recent research (e.g., Deter-Wolf et al. 2010; Peacock 2002; Peres,
Deter-Wolf, and Myers 2012) reveals that in some areas of the Southeast,
shell midden formation continued during the ensuing Woodland (circa
3000-1000 BP) and Mississippian periods, albeit with some interruptions.
Radiocarbon dates from shell-bearing sites along the Cumberland River
west of Nashville reveal that the regional variant of the Shell Mound Archaic spanned the period circa 4800-7000 cal. BP, after which shell-bearing deposits disappeared for more than seven centuries. Shell middens
appeared again in the region around the onset of the Woodland period,
circa 3800 cal. BP (Deter-Wolf and Peres 2013; Miller et al. 2012; Peres,
Deter-Wolf, and Myers 2012).
Our recent examinations of shell-bearing sites in Middle Tennessee
have led us to conclude that the formation of Archaic shell mounds and
middens in that region represent deliberate modification of the landscape
at the intersection of riverine and riparian resource zones (Peres, DeterWolf, and Myers 2012). By processing and depositing shell in specific locales, inhabitants of shell-bearing sites gradually altered the natural landscape. These areas continued to be used for mollusk deposition and burial
of the dead for hundreds, if not thousands, of years and yet accumulated
very little of the detritus of everyday life. Excavations by the Middle Cumberland Archaeology Project at site 40DV7 along the Cumberland River
in 2012 revealed that the Late Archaic shell mound/midden was constructed between the period approximately 4100-5800 rcy BP (Peres and
Deter-Wolf 2013). The shell deposit was composed principally of small
aquatic gastropods and contained negligible amounts of lithic debitage,
stone tools, and vertebrate remains. The upper surface of the shell showed
"Five Thousand Years of Shell Symbolism inthe Southeast 165
signs of exposure and weathering but no evidence of having functioned as
a residential surface (Peres, Baluha, et al. 2012). Other Late Archaic shell
middens along this same stretch of the Cumberland River exhibit internal
stratigraphy and features but are similarly lacking in nonshell artifacts
(Deter-Wolf et al. 2010; Miller at al. 2012).
While the near-absence of daily activity within the shell middens implies their function as formalized, symbolically loaded areas, the inclusion
of burials within these landmarks affirms their role in consecrating and
claiming the landscape. Shell-bearing deposits containing human burials within the interior Southeast served to mark territory and identify
community ownership of land and resources. In other areas of the world,
cemeteries have long been recognized as territorial markers through
which groups laid claim to a specific habitation area or environmental
zone by virtue of their ancestral presence (e.g., Renfrew 1976; Zevelebil
2008). This same pattern has been noted in the lower Illinois River valley,
where Charles and Buikstra (1983) suggest that the presence of formal
cemeteries implies group membership and that these sites functioned as
territorial boundaries. Claassen (2010: 213) suggests that shell midden
mortuaries created sacred places and boundaries that transcended social
and territorial ones. The inclusion of ancestral remains within the shell
monuments of the interior Mid-South is critical to the role of those constructions not only as territorial (whether physical or spiritual) markers
but also as monuments to consecrate group identity and recall the ancestral homeland in the “great water.”
Prestige Goods and Differential Access
The earliest appearance of shell middens and mounds along the waterways of the interior Southeast, during the Middle to Late Archaic, coincided with changes in social structure, including but not limited to the
spread of exchange networks, a rise in social stratification, the appearance
of corporate burial grounds, and the presence of highly skilled craftspeople. All of these trends are exemplified by the exchange of, and differential
access to, exotic marine shell objects originating in the Gulf of Mexico.
Research’by Claassen and Sigmann (1993) used trace-element analysis
to identify the probable source of marine shells from nine archaeological
sites in the interior Southeast. Their findings reveal that marine shells distributed throughout the region during the prehistoric period originated