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new acquisition
Saving A Huge Shell Midden
The Conservancy obtains a pristine shell midden in Florida.
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THE WALRAVEN SHELL MIDDEN is located in the middle of the St. Johns River on picturesque Drayton Island in northeast Florida. The 30-acre site was recently donated to the Conservancy by a private party. The site has been the home of numerous prehistoric peoples, most of whom existed during the Middle to Late Woodland periods from approximately 500 b.c. to European contact, around a.d. 1565.
The shell midden consists mainly of the remains of various types of mollusks that were eaten by the people living at Walraven. Archaeologist Chris Newman of Archaeological Consultants, Inc., a cultural resource management firm in Florida, and several island landowners visited the site in June of last year to determine its occupation and boundaries. Conservancy members Lisa Grant, Dan Hayes, and Pat Hamilton stand in front
A surface survey revealed that the of the deep shell midden at the Walraven site. shell midden covered several hundred yards and that, in some areas, it’s more than three feet deep. Newman also found numerous sand-tempered pottery sherds produced by the St. Johns culture. These people inhabited northeastern Florida along the St. Johns River and its tributaries, where they exploited the marine and fresh water resources and produced the St. Johns Plain and Check-Stamped pottery found at the site.
Newman concluded that the Walraven Shell Midden site is larger than first believed and that it could be an extension of the Drayton Island Shell Midden, which is located several hundred yards to the south. Based on her inspection of the artifacts and exposed midden along the shoreline, this appears to be a very large site that extends 260 yards east and west and 885 yards north and south.
Drayton Island is largely undeveloped. For that reason, and because the site is closely monitored by the few people who live there, Walraven Shell Midden is in pristine condition. The former landowner donated the site to the Conservancy to ensure it would remain so. —George Lowry american archaeology 49
