Revisiting the Submerged Shell Midden at Sabine Pass: Preliminary Core Results from the NOAA Exploration Mission: Paleolandscapes and the ca. 8000 BP Shoreline on the Gulf of Mexico Outer Continental Shelf

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Submerged Paleolandscape Investigations in the Gulf of Mexico" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Over 40 years ago Coastal Environments Inc. pioneered a phased approach to identify prehistoric occupations on the now submerged outer continental shelf of the Gulf of Mexico. This work homed in on a target in the Paleo-Sabine Valley and identified one of the first in situ, submerged prehistoric sites known in the Americas. The Sabine Pass Block 6 (SP6) site is 8 miles offshore the Texas-Louisiana border under 40 feet of water. The site consists of a possible shell midden and burned bone dating to 8000–8500 BP. Although unsettled, this discovery was thought to be more like archaeological than natural deposits. In June of 2020, new cores were recovered from SP6 as part of a NOAA funded expedition to investigate the Late Quaternary paleolandscapes and peoples of the submerged continental shelf. Preliminary data on core 109 from SP6 provides a more detailed picture of the SP6 “midden.”

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Submerged Paleolandscape Investigations in the Gulf of Mexico   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38471.0