Freshwater and estuarine shellfish began to be exploited in the southeastern United States between 9000 and 7000 b.p. Shortly thereafter, shell mounds appeared in the mid-South Shell Mound Archaic, along the St. Johns River in peninsular Florida, and, somewhat later, in the Stallings Island area along the middle Savannah River. On the lower Atlantic and Gulf Coasts, shell rings arose. Until recently, all these mounds were considered middens—the accumulations of the remains of simple meals of mobile peoples who visited the same areas for hundreds or thousands of years. More recent scholarship indicates that these mounds were deliberate constructions—some of the first sculpted landscapes created by Archaic peoples to memorialize the past, celebrate the present, and provide for the future. In this chapter, recent research on shell sites in these four areas is discussed. The emphasis is on changing perspectives about the peoples who built them.
Bioarchaeology of the American Southeast: Approaches to Bridging Health and Identity in the Past. SHANNON CHAPPELL HODGE and KRISTRINA A. SHULER, editors. 2018. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa. xx + 302 pp. $74.95 (hardcover), ISBN 978-0-8173-1991-5 – CORRIGENDUM