Wednesday, July 24, 2024

SearchResearch Challenge (7/24/24): Can you find the shellmounds?

 Some ancient constructions are not made of stone... 

Shellmound in Emeryville, CA, party torn apart. From Publications in American Archaeology and
Ethnography Journal, V 23 (1926)

... but are giant piles of debris.  Throughout much of the world, these middens or shellmounds, or shell heaps are built up over centuries.  

While driving over to Berkeley the other day, I crossed a road called Shellmound Street, which apparently was originally the road leading to the shellmound shown above.

There are lots of stories about the shellmound on Shellmound Street.  It apparently once had a dance hall on top of it, and an amusement park off to the side. It was there until 

Over the years I've seen shellmounds and "regular" Native American mounds at various places around North America.  While the Emeryville shellmound is probably the biggest one I've lived near, the size of it made me wonder if there weren't a few others in the San Francisco Bay area. 

Today's SearchResearch Challenge is fairly simple, but getting a good quality answer might be tricky.  

1. I want to know if I NOW live near any Native American shellmounds. (By "near," I mean within 5 miles / 8km.)  Can you find a map that shows an extensive set of shellmounds in the SF Bay Area?  Are any of those near Mountain View, CA?   (Extra credit: Can you find any images of the nearest shellmounds?)   

2. A big part of my family hails from the area around Rice Lake, WI.  Are there any Native American mound structures there?  If so, where?  

Let us know HOW you found the answer to these Challenges!  They're not hard, but as I suggested, sometimes it's difficult to find a really high resolution map that we can use to answer the questions. 

Keep Searching! 



  


17 comments:

  1. With [Shellmounds San Francisco Bay Area]


    There Were Once More Than 425 Shellmounds in the Bay Area.

    In 1909, a UC Berkeley archaeologist named Nels Nelson counted 425 shellmounds around the Bay Area....of those,roughly four can still be seen, in such places as San Bruno, Fremont and Richmond.

    https://www.kqed.org/news/11704679/there-were-once-more-than-425-shellmounds-in-the-bay-area-where-did-they-go

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. With [Shellmounds Mountain View] and [Shellmounds Rice Lake WI]

      Shellmound at San Bruno Mountain

      https://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=Shellmound_at_San_Bruno_Mountain
      About Rice like, the site didn't open correctly. I'll keep searching

      Delete
    2. Searched [Shellmounds Mexico] and there are. However site charges 35 USD to read.

      [Shellmounds Canada]

      Historic Maps. Utilizing the fine detail of the U.S. government’s 1856 Coast Survey map, landscape architect Chris Walker and filmmaker Toby McLeod set out to illustrate 150 years of changes to the landscape of the West Berkeley Shellmound through a series of 15 map overlays:

      https://shellmound.org/resources/maps/

      Delete
    3. from your found sf article, San Bruno
      Yelamu = SF
      Rammay-tuš people:
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramaytush
      https://www.google.com/search?q=Siplichiquin&rlz=1CAACAC_enUS1032&oq=Siplichiquin&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.1808j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
      https://www.tpl.org/media-room/historic-burial-site-could-be-protected-ca
      https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2006/05/12/trekking-through-history-mountain-hikes-to-explore/
      https://www.missiondolores.org/old-mission
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_San_Francisco_de_As%C3%ADs
      https://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=Mission_Dolores

      Delete
    4. the making of a modern "shellmound"
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_briefcase
      a Euro-version
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letters_of_last_resort
      in Oakland
      https://oaklandgeology.com/2023/02/06/the-oakland-shellmound/
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSpyroEgB3Y
      https://www.newday.com/films/shellmound
      3/2024
      https://www.berkeleyside.org/2024/03/12/berkeley-shellmound-spengers-lot-sogorea-te-settlement
      https://www.gocomics.com/getfuzzy/2024/07/25
      https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2024/07/25
      …anyway

      Delete
    5. you may be interested in this – kinda related -
      native peoples/fishing, desert/sea… ebb&flow
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SL_gHqnA9IA

      Delete
    6. speaking of the Paris games…
      there must be a new event — ;^P
      "July 25th, 2024
      Organizers of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris are preparing to host 14,500 athletes in the Olympic village by stocking up on 300,000 condoms."

      Delete
    7. Out of topic but interesting

      Florida sufre por la ola de calor: los dueños de un zoológico usan todo su ingenio para refrescar a los animales.

      Palm Beach Zoo

      https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.mundodeportivo.com/us/actualidad/20240725/695959/ingeniosa-estrategia-zoo-florida-refrescar-animales-dura-ola-calor.html%3ffacet=amp

      Delete
  2. “submitted for your approval”… well, anyway
    "The Emeryville Shellmound, in Emeryville, California, is a sacred burial site of the Ohlone people, a once-massive archaeological shell midden deposit. It was one of a complex of five or six mounds along the mouth of the perennial Temescal Creek, on the east shore of San Francisco Bay between Oakland and Berkeley.
    Address: 5633 Bay St, Emeryville, CA 94608"

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emeryville_Shellmound
    https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/anthpubs/ucb/text/ucp012-003.pdf

    https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/anthpubs/ucb/text/ucp007-006-007.pdf
    https://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=25142
    https://sacred-sites.org/emeryville-shellmound/
    https://sacred-sites.org/lost-and-damaged-sites-2/
    https://sacred-sites.org/2004-update/
    [list of shell mounds in WI]
    https://www.travelwisconsin.com/article/native-culture/ancient-earthworks-where-to-see-wisconsins-native-american-mounds
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_burial_mounds_in_the_United_States
    http://www.wisconsinmounds.com/RiceLakeMounds.html
    https://maps.app.goo.gl/5HF6qZydx8SzKd4v5
    "Submitted for your approval or at least your analysis: One Patrick Remmij McNulty, who at age 41 is the biggest bore on earth. He holds a ten-year record for the most meaningless words spewed out during a coffee break. And it's very likely that, as of this moment, he would have gone through life in precisely this manner, a dull, argumentative bigmouth who sets back the art of conversation a thousand years. I say he very likely would have, except for something that will soon happen to him, something that will considerably alter his existence and ours. Now, you think about that now, because this is The Twilight Mound."
    Kanamit "Shell" Mound:
    https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/Kanamits

    ReplyDelete
  3. https://maps.app.goo.gl/n3NN1hrm6nHXHHNd7
    recent photos:
    https://maps.app.goo.gl/PdBzhGvz6RBJ2fX39

    ReplyDelete
  4. https://legacy.sfgenealogy.org/sanmateo/history/smcady_q.htm
    Ohlone - Mountain View/Palo Alto -
    https://www.montaloma.org/monta-loma/history/
    Castro Indian mound:
    https://legacy.sfgenealogy.org/sanmateo/history/smcady_q.htm
    https://cymbalinesite.wordpress.com/2018/05/27/the-indian-mounds-memorial-rock/
    https://www.flickr.com/photos/dollar_bin/15212360697
    https://www.flickr.com/photos/dollar_bin/15217767300/

    ReplyDelete
  5. who knew big rocks were so pervasive?
    stone tupperware? not sure that the lids are snap-on…
    the T-parties must have been something.
    https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tupperware-a-blast-from-the-past/

    Air Force archaeology on the Plain of Jars…
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otq9TgrIhNM
    https://youtu.be/zw8thIA-wVQ?si=OppspQK0ERqq19Fl

    meanwhile, in Utah:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdYiItXR01I

    off to bob in the Seine, with many other bobbers…
    kinda like the East River (diving)
    https://www.wnyc.org/story/what-lies-below-new-yorks-east-river-and-the-diver-who-braved-its-depths/
    not forgetting the Hudson-
    https://www.grunge.com/471586/heres-how-many-dead-bodies-have-been-found-in-the-hudson/
    https://images.indianexpress.com/2024/07/2024-07-17T133514Z_731755771_RC20X8A1XASH_RTRMADP_5_OLYMPICS-2024.jpg?w=640
    https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-global/paris-seine-poop-problem-olympics-9461170/
    (REUTERS/Pawel Kopczynski)
    https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20240726-paris-braces-itself-for-high-risk-olympics-opening-ceremony-along-seine-river
    Snoop pictured
    https://www.threads.net/@pawekop/post/C8kUiZxNcSk
    different shells -
    https://www.worldofinteriors.com/story/dans-le-seine-exhibition

    ReplyDelete
  6. an Octo diversion -
    https://youtu.be/qdNIdMUxWyI?si=yMgehdnlaghQHOAf

    ReplyDelete
  7. Florida
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtle_Mound
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Mound
    https://web.archive.org/web/20080705023158/http://www.volusiahistory.com/green.htm
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Columbian_era#North_America
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cahokia
    https://www.nps.gov/natr/learn/historyculture/american-indian-mounds-along-the-natchez-trace-parkway.htm
    [largest shell midden]
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whaleback_Shell_Midden
    https://digitalmaine.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1457&context=mgs_publications
    overseas
    https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/kasori-shell-mounds
    some building material source background -
    Texas
    https://www.newworlder.com/border-series-oyster-bed-wildlife-border-wall/
    VA
    https://expmag.com/2019/10/i-started-an-oyster-garden-and-then-ate-it/

    ReplyDelete
  8. wandering…
    dime-sized:
    https://pnwmussels.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/FreshwaterMollusks.pdf
    https://pnwmussels.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Guide_to_ID_Mollusks.pdf
    see ecology:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinch_River
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mussel
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biofouling#Mussel_adhesive_proteins
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MEMS#
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioadhesive#
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shellac

    ReplyDelete
  9. up the coast:
    https://www.beachconnection.net/news/shellmidd030316_915.php
    another coast…
    " 2,000 shell heaps on the coast of Maine"
    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/19/science/native-americans-shell-middens-maine.html
    Dr. Alice Kelley -
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyavgZfVgXs
    https://umaine.edu/earthclimate/people/alice-kelley/

    ReplyDelete
  10. recorded by Nels Nelson, 1909
    https://shellmound.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/John_Blanchard_SHELLMOUNDS_NELSON_FINAL-MAP.pdf
    text —
    https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/Shell-Mounds-in-SF-Bay.jpg
    https://www.foundsf.org/images/9/96/BayShellmounds-001.jpg
    https://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=Searching_for_the_Yelamu_in_San_Francisco
    Bay tribe locations:
    https://thewatershedproject.org/gearing-up-for-earth-day-through-east-bay-map-appreciation/
    2017 info + descriptions —
    https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Map-of-SCRI-333-Color-online-coast-Grier-2014-Mathews-2014-and-the-San-Francisco_fig1_316839206
    [used shell middens map for SF Bay area (images)]

    ReplyDelete