Seafarers and Shell Rings: Strange Formations on the American Coast a Hallmark of Faraway Visitors?
Just south of Awendaw, South Carolina, in the Francis Marion National Forest, is an example of a type of architectural artifact that still baffles archaeologists. For every explanation someone offers up, there are many more that refute it. Here's the story:
5,000 years ago, there lived a people by the sea who, in various locations along America's southeastern seaboard, piled up millions upon millions of clam and oyster shells in either a circle or U-shaped formation measuring, in some cases, more than 200 feet (61 meters) across and 10 to 12 feet (three to 3.5 meters) high. The usual place of construction was on estuaries, rich in resources.
Sewee Shell Ring, located south of Awendaw, South Carolina in Francis Marion National Forest, USA. (Public Domain)
Sewee Shell Ring. (Public Domain)
Piling up shells in a mound was common throughout ancient times. Such remains are called middens and are quite abundant. Basically, they are garbage dumps. People would feast on clams, mussels or oysters and throw the shells on a pile; nothing special there. But from the Sewee Shell Ring in South Carolina, and running down around the tip of Florida, the people didn't just make mounds of shells—they shaped these mounds very carefully into doughnut shapes. The question is, why?
A shell midden in a mound formation, Argentina. (Mikelzubi/CC BY-SA 4.0)
They continued the practice for a few thousand years and then stopped. No one knows the reason. As you can see from the map (below), it seems to be a custom practiced by a particular people who lived at a particular time in a rather small geographical area, most of which is in the coastal plain of South Carolina and Georgia, spilling down into Florida.
