Publisher description for Deciphering a shell midden / edited by Julie K. Stein.
Bibliographic record and links to related information available from the Library of Congress catalog
Information from electronic data provided by the publisher. May be incomplete or contain other coding.
This book presents the latest research on shell middens: sites that contain shell and are located near coastal and fluvial settings around the world. The shell imparts certain characteristics to sites such as complex discontinuous strata, low densities of artifacts, large volumes of deposits, alkaline chemistry and proximity to fluctuating sea level. The shell midden is often a product of
both cultural and non-cultural events, such as saturation of the lower portion of the midden by rising sea level, or differential weathering of shell and bone. These non-cultural events affect cultural interpretations. The book aims to provide a detailed history of shell midden research and a description of procedures and analyses using an example of a Northwest Coast shell midden.
Key Features
* Excavation strategy
* Use of microartifacts
* Classification of fire-cracked rock
* Detection of burned bone
* Use of grain-size analysis on shell
* Stratigraphic and sedimentological analysis
Library of Congress subject headings for this publication: Kitchen-middens, Coastal archaeology, Great Britain Antiquities, Indians of North America Northwest Coast of North America Antiquities