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Quahog Mercenaria Shell tool cultural preference for LEFT valves in FL

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  • Quahog Mercenaria Shell tool cultural preference for LEFT valves in FL

    If you walk middens along west central gulf coastal FL you will find they are made of mostly broken shells from food refuse. Among the eaten shells are clams, Mercenaria, the Southern Quahog. Some of the largest ever measured have come from small coves at the tip of my county, Pinellas.

    *** Native American Culture and Lifestyle Point**** For some apparently cultural reason (like right handedness??), they reserved the LEFT valve of the quahog for use as tools and the right valves are broken. I've walked middens after major storms and seen many quahog valves on the beach and at least 90 percent of the whole shells are left valves. Most if not all of these whole left valves are tools or are "blanks" for making tools. They made hammers and anvils, as well as choppers, scrapers, even cordage "reels", out of these valves. Over 90 percent of the quahog shell artifacts I have are Left valves. A lot has been written about this but there has never been a definitive answer as to why the use of the left valve over the right. I think it may just be right handedness... or perhaps the right side was the Evil Valve...

    They used the rounded top of the shell as a hammer/anvil, and with enough wear it will produce an indentation, even a hole. The edges of a clamshell is also chipped/knapped to make choppers. They are common artifacts around here.
    Professor Shellman
    Tampa Bay

  • #2
    Good info, thanks professor.
    Searching the fields of NW Indiana and SW Michigan

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    • #3
      Yes very interesting
      boom

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      • #4
        That is some awesome information Professor. Thanks for sharing.
        TN formerly CT Visit our store http://stores.arrowheads.com/store.p...m-Trading-Post

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        • #5
          Evil valve!..Hilarious..Hey Tom, Seriously, I never knew all that, thanks.
          Floridaboy.

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          • #6
            That's interesting. Is one side thicker than the other (easier to break), or just more natural for a right handed person to hold the shell that way to expose the part you want to break with a shell hammer?

            I'm probably going to get the right/left part switched around on the way whelk shells spiral, but I read somewhere that most of the Glacial Kame Sandal Sole gorgets around the Great Lakes are from right handed lightning whelk shells. (The vast majority of that type of whelks spiral the other way.)

            They can tell which way the shell spirals by looking at the lines in the gorget from the narrow end to the wider end where the shell bulges out. For some reason, there was a selection bias that put a preference on an extremely rare shell which was cut down and polished anyway. The remaining spiral isn't usually visible without magnification, and other Glacial Kame groups weren't as selective using exclusively the more common spiral.
            Hong Kong, but from Indiana/Florida

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            • tomclark
              tomclark commented
              Editing a comment
              Yes, Lightning Whelks have the "left" right in their name. Busycon Sinistrum or Sinistrofulgur sinistrum. Their spiral is left and that is opposite of most all other gastropods, which are right. The shell is coiled in an anti-clockwise direction, so that when viewed from the front (ventral view) with the spire uppermost, the opening or "aperture" appears on the left. I think the Tibetan special shell is also a left spiral. Auspicious?? There are "Dextral (right handed) Freaks" that occur rarely with the left handed Lightning Whelk....!! The use of quahog clam left valves, most people think along the same lines as you did. Right handedness and Cultural Significance. Wow that's a complex subject LOL.
              Last edited by tomclark; 01-26-2021, 11:23 AM.

          • #7
            Maybe it had to do with what hand they were more dominant with like right handed . Maybe the rest were reserved for the minority lefties. I can tell what hand the hammer stones were created for . Most were right but since I’m left handed I am able to tell the grip ect. The larger holes in the pitted hammer stones I find have the larger holes for thumbs .

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