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Contextual and Nutritional Analysis of Freshwater Gastropods from Middle Archaic Deposits at the Hayes Site, Middle Tennessee

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Walter E. Klippel  and
Darcy F. Morey
Walter E. Klippel
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996-0720
Darcy F. Morey
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996-0720
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Abstract

The role of shellfish in the diet of hunter-gatherers in North America is poorly understood. Specifically, the interpretation of freshwater gastropods from archaeological sites as food remains has been a subject of professional debate. Data from the Hayes site (40ML139), a stratified Archaic midden on the Duck River in Tennessee, suggest that freshwater gastropods were procured in considerable quantities and utilized as a food resource. Evidence supporting this interpretation includes (1) quantities of gastropods in the midden, (2) stratigraphic relationship between shell-bearing strata and shell-free strata, and (3) pH analysis of associated sediments. Although gastropods provide relatively little meat and are a poor source of food energy compared to other animal species such as deer, they contain relatively high concentrations of several important vitamins and minerals. Thus, their primary value may have been nutrient content rather than food energy. This consideration, coupled with seasonal variation in their availability, suggests summer and/or fall as most likely periods of gastropod procurement.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 51 , Issue 4 , October 1986 , pp. 799 - 813
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1986

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