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!
With [Shellmounds San Francisco Bay Area]
ReplyDeleteThere 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
With [Shellmounds Mountain View] and [Shellmounds Rice Lake WI]
DeleteShellmound 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
Searched [Shellmounds Mexico] and there are. However site charges 35 USD to read.
Delete[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/
from your found sf article, San Bruno
DeleteYelamu = 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
the making of a modern "shellmound"
Deletehttps://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
you may be interested in this – kinda related -
Deletenative peoples/fishing, desert/sea… ebb&flow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SL_gHqnA9IA
speaking of the Paris games…
Deletethere 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."
Out of topic but interesting
DeleteFlorida 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
“submitted for your approval”… well, anyway
ReplyDelete"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
https://maps.app.goo.gl/n3NN1hrm6nHXHHNd7
ReplyDeleterecent photos:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/PdBzhGvz6RBJ2fX39
https://legacy.sfgenealogy.org/sanmateo/history/smcady_q.htm
ReplyDeleteOhlone - 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/
who knew big rocks were so pervasive?
ReplyDeletestone 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
an Octo diversion -
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/qdNIdMUxWyI?si=yMgehdnlaghQHOAf
Florida
ReplyDeletehttps://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/
wandering…
ReplyDeletedime-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
up the coast:
ReplyDeletehttps://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/
recorded by Nels Nelson, 1909
ReplyDeletehttps://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)]