Shellmound Memorial "Layers"

The layers can tell many parts of a story. While the layers and character of this shellmound are often referrred to as "midden", that isn't wholly accurate. Archeologically, middens are how we refer to waste piles that are the product of human habitation. In the case of the Ohlone shellmounds, these depositories also served as a burial place, festival ground, and people lived upon them. It is thought that the burial of ancestors was part of how land claims were established amoung the community. In the case of this shellmound, you can see that there are layers of soil shells. Many of the shells would have been fragments. What is missing from this representation is the human fragments. When the shellmound got larger, a village was built on top (that gives you the sense of how large they were).