Comparison of Surface Data Collection Methods at Freshwater Mussel Shell Rings in the Mississippi Delta: When is Enough, Enough?

Summary

For the most part, freshwater mussel shell rings in the Mississippi Delta have not been systematically tested to determine whether they are contemporary, what their function may have been, how they were created, etc. This is in part due to the massive undertaking it requires to pull the necessary data from the field. Controlled surface collection is one of the methods that have been used to do this, and while it is labor-intensive, it can provide a wealth of information about a site. This paper will compare the results from five mussel shell ring sites in the Mississippi Delta to determine if the methods employed were overkill, just enough, or if a compromise somewhere in the middle would have been adequate to glean the necessary information to answer the aforementioned questions.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage