Shell Midden

mid·den (mĭd′n)

n.

1. A dunghill or refuse heap.

2. Archaeology A mound or deposit containing shells, animal bones, and other refuse that indicates the site of a human settlement.

 

This may look like just a pile of shells that visitors dumped here recently after a clambake, but it is in fact, a historic shell midden. It was created by the Native Americans who congregated here on Plum Island in the summertime, just as we do now!

 

The Massachusetts Historical Commission studied the area closely and wrote the MHC Reconnaissance Survey Town Report for the town of Newbury, which includes this portion of Plum Island, in 1985.

 

Here is an excerpt from the section of the report that talks about the shell middens:

 

C. Settlement Pattern

 

Few Woodland period sites and no Contact period sites are known

for the Newbury area. However, environmental variables and later

17th century documentary sources indicate sites of this period

should be present. For example, the mouth of the Indian and

Artichoke Rivers at the Merrimack River may have been good site

locations as well as other locations along the Merrimack River.

In addition to habitation and village type sites, special purpose

sites such as fishing sites, shell middens and burials were also

probably present. These sites may have been located along the

Merrimack River or along the periphery of interior wetlands such

as ponds, swamps and streams. In view of the environmental

potential of West Newbury and known Native American activities to

the north and south the West Newbury area is likely underreported

for the Contact Period. Sites of this period should be present in

the township.

 

D. Subsistence Pattern

Native Americans in the Newbury area subsisted on a variety of

seasonally determined activities, including hunting, fishing, the

collecting of wild plants and shell fish and horticulture.

Hunting was a major activity focusing on larger mammals such as

deer and smaller fur bearers. Sea mammals such as seals may also

have been available along the Merrimack River. Upland game birds

and ducks were also hunted particularly in eastern Newbury and the

Plum Island Sound area.

Larger coastal rivers such as the Mill and Parker Rivers also

contained seasonal runs of smelt, alewives, shad, salmon, sea-run

trout. A variety of marine species of fish would have been

available in the Plum Island Sound and Atlantic Ocean. Several

species of terrestrial as well as freshwater plants in the Newbury

area provided a valuable food resource. Gathering also focused on

shell fish, particularly the Plum Island Sound area. This

regionally important she1 1 fish bed presently contains several

species of shellfish which may have been available during the

Contact period, and Native American shell midden sites verify this

expectation.

 

ANSH66 - scavenger6

Done