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A Shellmound in Marin County, California

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Extract

Mrn 20, the site described in this report, is one of the 5 located on Strawberry Point, a peninsula which juts out into Richardson's Bay, an arm of San Francisco Bay, in southern Marin County (Fig. 22). Situated on a southwestern slope, Mrn 20 overlooks the bay and town of Marin City. It is of interest to note that most of the shellmounds on Strawberry Point are on the western side, even though this is buffeted by cold winds and rain during the fall and winter, while the less inhabited eastern side is more sheltered. The hills surrounding Mrn 20 are rather gentle and are covered with pasture grasses, with an occasional clump of scrubby, wind-blasted oaks and a few spotty buckeyes. The western face of the site is overgrown with poison oak; the remainder is clothed with a thick matting of grass. The surrounding soil is a yellow clay, which takes on a reddish appearance in some sterile areas beneath the midden.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1955

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