Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T05:17:04.983Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Prehistoric shellfish-harvesting strategies: implications from the growth patterns of soft-shell clams (Mya arenaria)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Kent G. Lightfoot ,
Robert M. Cerrato  and
Heather V. E. Wallace
Kent G. Lightfoot
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Archaeological Research Facility, University of California, Berkeley CA 94720, USA
Robert M. Cerrato
Affiliation:
Marine Sciences Research Center, State University of New York, Stony Brook NY 11794-4364, USA
Heather V. E. Wallace
Affiliation:
Marine Sciences Research Center, State University of New York, Stony Brook NY 11794-4364, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Shellfish-gathering is the stuff of many a hunter-gatherer economy. It is technically hunting – the beasties are animals – but they conveniently sit in the mud and on the rocks ready to be gathered. A new means of studying growth-rings in clam shells gives insight into shellfish-gathering and the seasonal pattern of life-ways in southern New England.

Type
Notes
Information
Antiquity , Volume 67 , Issue 255 , June 1993 , pp. 358 - 369
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barber, R.J. 1982. The Wheeler’s Site: a specialized shellfish processing station on the Merrimack River. Cambridge (MA): Harvard University, Peabody Museum. Monograph 7.Google Scholar
Bernstein, D.J. 1987. Prehistoric subsistence at Greenwich Cove, Rhode Island. Ph.D dissertation, Department of Anthropology, State University of New York, Binghamton.Google Scholar
Brousseau, D.J. & Baglivo, J.A. 1987. A comparative study of age and growth in Mya arenaria (soft-shell clam) from three populations in Long Island Sound, Journal of Shellfish Research 6: 17–24.Google Scholar
Buckner, S.C. 1984. Aspects of the population dynamics of the hard clam, Mercenaria mercenaria L., in Great South Bay, New York. Ph.D dissertation, Marine Sciences Research Center, State University of New York, Stony Brook.Google Scholar
Cerrato, R.M. 1987. Microgrowth line analysis of hard clams from the Sungic Midden Site (2N3E 1-0), Shelter Island, New York, in Lightfoot et al.: 175–96.Google Scholar
Cerrato, R.M., Wallace, V.E. & Lightfoot, K.G. 1991. Tidal and seasonal patterns in the chon-drophore of the soft-shell clam Mya arenaria, Biological Bulletin 181: 307–11.Google Scholar
Claassen, C. 1986. Shellfishing seasons in the prehistoric southeastern United States, American Antiquity 51: 21–37.Google Scholar
Clark, G.R. 1980. Study of molluscan shell structure and growth lines using thin sections, in Rhoads & Lutz (ed.): 603–6.Google Scholar
Hancock, M. 1982. The determination of archaeological site seasonality using the remains of Mya arenaria (L.): examples from the Central Maine coast. MA thesis, Institute for Quaternary Studies, University of Maine, Orono.Google Scholar
Hancock, M. 1984. Analysis of shellfish remains: seasonality information, in McManamon (ed.): 121–56.Google Scholar
Jones, T.L. 1991. Marine-resource value and the priority of coastal settlement: a California perspective, American Antiquity 56: 419–43.Google Scholar
Kennish, M.J. 1980. Shell microgrowth analysis: Mercenaria mercenaria as a type example for research in population dynamics, in Rhoads&Lutz (ed.): 255–94.Google Scholar
Kerber, J.E. 1985. Digging for clams: Shell midden analysis in New England, North American Archaeologist 6: 97–113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lightfoot, K.G., Kalin, R. & Moore, J. 1987. Prehistoric hunter-gatherers of Shelter Island, New York: an archaeological study of the Mashomack Preserve. Berkeley (CA). Contribution of the University of California Archaeological Research Facility46.Google Scholar
Lightfoot, K.G. & Cerrato, R.M. 1988. Prehistoric shellfish exploitation in coastal New York, Journal of Field Archaeology 15: 141–9.Google Scholar
Macdonald, B.A. & Thomas, M.L. 1980. Age determination of the soft-shell clam Mya arenaria using internal growth lines, Marine Biology 58: 105–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mcmanamon, F.P. (ed.). 1984a. Chapters in the archaeology of Cape Cod I 2. Boston (MA): National Park Service.Google Scholar
Mcmanamon, F.P. 1984b. Prehistoric cultural adaptations and their evolution on Outer Cape Cod, in McManamon (ed.): 339–417.Google Scholar
Mcmanamon, F.P. & Bradley, J.M. 1986. The Indian Neck ossuary and Late Woodland prehistory in southern New England, in Mcmanamon, F. et al. (ed.), The Indian Neck ossuary, chapters in the archaeology of Cape Cod 5: 3–47. Boston (MA): National Park Service.Google Scholar
Mcmanamon, F.P. & Bradley, J.M. 1988. The Indian Neck ossuary, Scientific American 256: 98–104.Google Scholar
Malione, B.R. 1987. Analysis of growth in Mya arenaria using internal growth lines. MS thesis, Marine Sciences Research Center, State University of New York, Stony Brook.Google Scholar
Meehan, B. 1982. Shell bed to shell midden. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies.Google Scholar
Meehan, B. 1983. A matter of choice? Some thoughts on shell gathering strategies in northern Australia, in Grigson, C. & Clutton-Brock, J. (ed.), Animals and archaeology 2: Shell middens, fishes, and birds: 3–17. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports. International series S183.Google Scholar
Newell, C.R. 1982. The soft-shell clam Mya arenaria L.: growth rates, growth allometry, and annual growth line formation. MS thesis. Department of Zoology, University of Maine, Orono.Google Scholar
Quitmyer, I.R., Hale, H.S. & Jones, D.S. 1985. Paleoseasonality determination based on incremental shell growth in the hard clam, Mercenaria mercenaria, and its implications for the analysis of three Southeast Georgia coastal shell middens, Southeastern Archaeology 4: 27–40.Google Scholar
Rhoads, D.C. & Lutz, R.A. (ed.). 1980. Skeletal growth of aquatic organisms. New York (NY): Plenum.Google Scholar
Sokal, R.R. & Rohlf, F.J. 1981. Biometry. New York (NY): Freeman Google Scholar
Spiess, A.E. & Heddon, M.H. 1983. Kidder Point and Sears Island in prehistory. Augusta (MA): Maine Historie Preservation Commission. Occasional Publication in Maine Archaeology 3.Google Scholar
Walker, R.L. & Tenore, K.R. 1984. The distribution and production of the hard clam, Mercenaria mercenaria, in Wassow Sound, Georgia, Estuaries 7: 19–27.Google Scholar