List of shell ring sites

This List of shell ring sites includes archaeological sites with confirmed and possible shell rings. Shell rings have been reported from Colombia, Peru, Japan, and the southeastern United States. Some sites have two or more shell rings, including some with two more or less equal rings joined together, or a main ring with smaller rings attached to it. About half of the sites with shell rings in the United States are in the Sea Islands of South Carolina, Georgia, and northeastern Florida.

Colombia

• Puerto Hormiga - Late Archaic shell ring.^[1]

Japan

• Aya-yashiki - Jōmon period circular shell mound.^[2]
• Futatsumori Shell Mound - Late Early to Middle Jōmon period horseshoe-shaped shell mound.^[3]
• Horinouchi shell mound site - Late to Latest Jōmon period horseshoe-shaped shell mound.^[2][4]
• Kasori - Two Middle to Late Jōmon period circular shell mounds.^[5][6]
• Kidosaku shellmound site - Middle to Late Jōmon period circular shell mound.^[7]
• Kotehashi Shell Mound - Late to Latest Jōmon period horseshoe-shaped shell mound.^[8]
• Kowashimizu - Jōmon period circular shell mound.^[2]
• Soya - Jōmon period horseshoe-shaped shell mound.^[2]
• Ubayama Kaizuka - Middle to Late Jōmon period horseshoe-shaped shell mound.^[9]

United States

South Carolina Sea Islands

• Auld Mound, or Yough Hall Plantation Shell Ring (38CH41) - Late Archaic shell ring, listed in National Register of Historic Places (NRHP).^[10]
• Barrows (38BU300) - Late Archaic shell ring.^[11][12]
• Bull Island (38BU475) - Shell ring of undetermined date.^[13]
• Buzzard's Island Site (38CH23) - Late Archaic shell ring, listed in NRHP.^[14]
• Chester Field (38BU29) - Late Archaic shell ring, listed in NRHP.^[15]
• Coosaw Island (38BU1866) - Four shell rings, two conjoined, at least three are Late Archaic.^[16]
• Crow Island (38CH60) - "C"-shaped mound, possible shell ring.^[17]
• Fig Island Site (38CH42) - Three Late Archaic shell rings, one with several attached rings, listed in NRHP, National Historic Landmark (NHL).
• Guerard Point (38BU21) Reported as a ring in 1897, now completely leveled.^[18]
• Hanckel Mound, or Leadenwah Creek Mount (38CH7) - Late Archaic shell ring, listed in NRHP.^[19]
• Horse Island (38CH14) - Late Archaic shell ring, listed in NRHP.^[20]
• Lighthouse Point Shell Ring, or Parrot's Point Shell Ring (38CH12) - Late Archaic shell ring, listed in NRHP.^[21]
• Patent (38BU301) - Late Archaic shell ring.^[11][22]
• Sea Pines (38BU7) - Late Archaic shell ring, listed in NRHP.^[23]
• Sewee Mound (38CH45) - Late Archaic shell ring, listed in NRHP.^[24]
• Skull Creek (38BU8) - Two conjoined Late Archaic shell rings, listed in NRHP.^[25]
• Stratton Place (38CH24) - Late Archaic shell ring.^[26]

Georgia Sea Islands

• Barbour Island (9MC320) - Late Archaic possible shell ring.^[27]
• Bony Hammock (9GN53) - Late Archaic possible shell ring.^[28]
• Busch Krick (9MC87)- Late Archaic shell ring, damaged.^[29]
• Cane Patch (9CH35) - Late Archaic possible shell ring, has been mined.^[30]
• Cannon's Point (9GN57) Late Archaic shell ring.^[31]
• Long Field Crescent/St. Catherines Island Shell Ring (9LI231) - Late Archaic shell ring, listed in NRHP.^{[32][33][34][35]}
• McQueen Shell Ring - Late Archaic shell ring.^[33][36]
• Odingsell (9CH111) - Late Archaic possible shell ring.^[37]
• Oemler (9CH14) - Late Archaic possible shell ring.^[38]
• Osabaw 77 (9CH203) - Late Archaic possible shell ring.^[39]
• Sapelo Island (9MC23) - Three Late Archaic shell rings, Sapelo 1 largely intact, Sapelo 2 heavily damaged, Sapelo 3 may represent either early stages in construction of a ring or a very heavily damaged ring.^[40]
• Skidaway Island
  • Large and Small Skidaway 9 (9CH63) Two shell rings, possibly pre-ceramic.^[41]
  • Skidaway 21 (9CH75) - Possible shell ring.^[42]
  • Skidaway (9CH77) - Late Archaic shell ring, highly modified.^[43]
• West (9GN76) - Late Archaic shell ring.^[44]

Florida

Sea Islands

• Grand Shell Ring (8DU1) - Early St. Johns II culture (900-1250) shell ring associated with a sand mound, listed in NRHP.^[45]
• Oxeye (8DU7478) - Late Archaic shell ring.^[46]
• Rollins (8DU7510) - Late Archaic large shell ring with many smaller rings attached.^[47]

East Coast

• Guana (8SJ2554) - Late Archaic shell ring.^[48]
• Joseph Reed (8MT13) - Late Archaic shell ring.^[49]

Southwest

• Bonita Bay (8LL716, 8LL717) - Shell ring with associated mound of uncertain date.^[50]
• Chokoloskee - Possible shell ring with associated shell works, destroyed by development.^[51]
• Dismal Key - Two Glades culture shell rings with associated shell works.^[52]
• Dismal Key Southeast Ring - Shell ring.^[53]
• Everglades City No. 7 - Two late Archaic/Glades culture shell rings.^[54]
• Everglades City No. 9 - Two late Archaic shell rings.^[55]
• Everglades City No. 10 - Two late Archaic shell rings.^[56]
• Everglades City South Ring - Glades culture shell ring.^[57]
• Fakahatchee Key - Two Glades culture shell rings with associated shell works.^[58]
• Fakahatchee Key 3 - Shell ring.^[59]
• Hill Cottage (8SO2) - Late Archaic shell ring.^[60]
• Horr's Island archaeological site (8CR206, 8CR207, 8CR208, 8CR209, 8CR211) - Late Archaic shell ring with associated mounds.^[61]
• Key Marco - Possible Glades culture shell ring with associated shell works, destroyed by development.^[62]
• Russell Key - Glades culture shell ring with associated shell works.^[63]
• Sandfly Key - Two late Archaic/Glades culture shell rings with associated shell works.^[64]
• Santina Horseshoe - Possible shell ring.^[65]
• West Pass - Possible shell ring (crescent shaped midden) with associated shell works.^[66]

Panhandle

• Bernath - Santa Rosa-Swift Creek culture shell ring.^[67]
• Buck Bayou (8WL90) - Late Archaic, possible shell ring, possible connections to Poverty Point.^[68]
• Fourmile Point - Santa Rosa-Swift Creek culture shell ring.^[69]
• Gulf Breeze - Santa Rosa-Swift Creek culture shell ring.^[69]
• Hammock Point - Santa Rosa-Swift Creek culture shell ring.^[69]
• Horseshoe Bayou - Santa Rosa-Swift Creek culture shell ring.^[70]
• Meig's Pasture (8OK102) Late Archaic ring, but little shell.^[71]
• Strange Bayou - Santa Rosa-Swift Creek culture shell ring.^[69]
• Third Gulf Breeze - Santa Rosa-Swift Creek culture shell ring.^[70]

Alabama

• Indian Mound Park (Dauphin Island, Alabama) Mississippian period (1100 -1550) possible shell ring.^[72]

Mississippi

• Cedarland (22HC30) - Late Archaic shell ring with a number of differences compared to Atlantic coast rings.^[73]
• Claiborne (22HC35) - Late Archaic shell ring with a number of differences compared to Atlantic coast rings.^[74]

Citations

References

• Bense, Judith A. (1998). "Santa Rosa-Swift Creek in Northwest Florida". In Mark Williams and Daniel T. Elliott. A world engraved: archaeology of the Swift Creek culture. Tuscaloosa, Alabama: The University of Alabama Press. pp. 247–273. ISBN 0-8173-0912-8. 
• Crusoe, Donald L. and Chester B. Depratter (March 1976). "A New Look at the Georgia Coastal Shell Mound Archaic". The Florida Anthropologist. 29 (1): 1–23. Retrieved 7 December 2011. 
• Francis P. McManamon, ed. (2009). "Ancient Earthen and Shell Architecture". Archaeology in America: Northeast and Southeast. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 210–216. Retrieved 20 November 2011. 
• "National Register of Historic Places in South Carolina" (PDF). Retrieved 6 December 2011. 
• Russo, Michael (2006). "Archaic Shell Rings of the Southeast U. S." (PDF). National Park Service. p. 10. Retrieved 10 November 2011. 
• Russo, Michael (2009). "Ancient Sites and Architecture on the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts". In Francis P. McManamon. Archaeology in America: Northeast and Southeast. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 217–222. Retrieved 20 November 2011. 
• Schwadron, Margo (2010). Landscapes of Maritime Complexity: Prehistoric Shell Works sites of the Ten Thousand Island, Florida (Ph.D.). University of Leicester. Retrieved 8 December 2011.