Re: oyster middens >1 Ma? (Re: aquatic nonsense (Re: Evolution of human nakedness

From: Nick Maclaren (nmm1_at_cus.cam.ac.uk)
Date: 11/26/04 

Date: 26 Nov 2004 14:35:30 GMT

In article <co5a7p$bk3@library2.airnews.net>,
wbarwell <wbarwell@munnnged.mylinuxisp.com> writes:
|> >
|> > Evidence for oyster middens from over a million years ago
|> > would certainly be very strong evidence for SOME gathering
|> > animal, but there would need to be more than just that to
|> > link them to humans. However, I am a little doubtful, as
|> > my understanding is that oysters are not the most likely
|> > shellfish to be gathered and eaten by hominids.
|>
|> Dunno, I know that here in Texas, the Karankawa indians
|> that lived along the Gulf of Mexico did indeed eat a lot of oysters.
|> Because they were relatively easy to get. Of couse they ate
|> fish, and sometimes hunted deer also.
|> But oysters, if you have good oyster beds are almost ridiculously easy
|> to get. Crabs are too, where you have good edible species,
|> in Texas we have the excellent blue crab.

Yes, I know that but, as I understand it, many other shellfish
in those waters are equally common and easier to shuck. Now,
in the UK, oyster shells are often found in middens as much
because of the durability of the shells as the dominance of
the shellfish in the diet. So I am only a LITTLE doubtful.

The serious point is that we need some evidence both of the
existence of the middens and of hominid involvement.

Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

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