The St. Joseph’s Sound Site

[Hal Gorges]

These are from a midden ( shell field ) along St. Joseph’s Sound, an inter coastal waterway off Dunedin Florida, Pinellas County..Shell dwellers who lived here had strong trade connections with folks a thousand miles away up the Mississippi. They traded large shells and columella used to make shell beads, no. 1.
.

No.2 this preform was obviously cut from a clam shell like the one shown, to be drilled,?..after it reached its destination..There were at least two, right?, there had to be more, enough for a necklace??..This was a shell preform manufacturing site during Mississippian times...The amount of shell preforms found here by bears this out.( hundreds).

If you’ve ever tried to cut or break shell you appreciate the time and effort that went into the making of one bead, much less thousands...I can’t imagine cutting a preform out of a clam shell.

as always, thanks for lookin

[redrocks]

That cool Hal!! They might have smashed the shell and ground down the edges

[Hal Gorges]

Looks like they cut a slice and it came out whole then ground the edges ( shell with patina is the example of negative image, I think that’s the right way to say it. pic.2. hard to see in photo.Thanks for lookin

[Cecilia]

O, O, O………and many, many more Os. Expect too many responses from me as time presents opportunity to gather thots, and references scattered around house…

I will share that among those references is a blip about an archeologist who tried to recreate shell tool by using only what the People had available. He could not because discovered subject just too hard, and finally he had to use modern equipment!

[Hal Gorges]

Thank you, so now if you would be so kind as to tell me by what method did they do it.

[Cecilia]

I guess you mean the People’s method, and not archeologist’s modern shortcut. That too is among my stuff that’s spread all thru house, but it’s time to gather it all up and out of its “special places”. It’ll be my pleasure to report back to you…

[Hoss]

Nice shell artifacts Hal. thanks for sharing.

[Cecilia]

Here ya go, Hal. This is only article I have that totally devoted to how shell tools were made. It’s from 1979, but it’s only 9 pages and it’s easy to read.

https://palmm.digital.flvc.org/islan...__Clues_from_S outh_Florida_by_John_F__Reiger.pdf

The passage about the present-day fella who tried and failed to make an expedient shell tool is from much longer (250 pages) thesis:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwi_pvzF4vzxAhWSVs0KHQpAAMcQFjAAegQIBBAD&url=https%3A%2F%2Fcore.ac.uk%2Fdownload%2Fpdf%2F71948886.pdf&usg=AOvVaw3e--Ps9KMGp1Ed0DrqqRE8

[Hal Gorges]

Have read, good info, thx.

[tomclark]

Most of the shell bead preforms, partially drilled preforms and broken bead preforms have been square shaped. I am also pretty sure they started with and drilled the square piece before finishing/rounding them off. A LOT of beads around here are actually square and some are somewhat crude. Some incredibly finished off. I've only found a few "barrel" beads that were made from pieces of columnella.

[Hal Gorges]

Thanks Tom, that’s why you’re called “The Professor”..