Quantifying South Basin Salish Sea Midden Sites: Empirical Data for Cultural Resource Management

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Shell midden sites on the Salish Sea record the history of Coast Salish shellfish harvesting and can contain objects and features associated with seasonal camping and long-term residence. These places represent patterns of Coast Salish prehistory/history (Criterion A of the National Register of Historic Places), provide important archaeological data on Coast Salish heritage (Criterion D of the National Register of Historic Places), and are protected against unmitigated impacts in Washington State under RCW 27.53.060. Hundreds of these sites are recorded along the Puget Sound shoreline, where they are susceptible to impacts from development, shoreline armoring, erosion, and even shoreline restoration efforts. What methods are we using to identify these places in cultural resource management, and how can we better predict the locations of these sites? This poster presents the results of our research into shell midden archaeological site patterns in the southern Puget Sound.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 54001