Analysis of the materials excavated from Lot III-17 at Useppa Island is nearly finished.
See the Friends of the Randell Research Center Newsletter Vol. 6, No 1. March 2007.
Radiocarbon dates show that the entire deposit accumulated about 3,000 years ago, over perhaps a 100 to 200-year period.
Michelle LeFebvre and Meggan Blessing have identified the shells and bones contained in two samples, finding that an abundance of oysters and scallops were eaten, as well as clams, certain conchs and whelks, and sea urchins. Fish taken in nets included herring, shad, grunt, pigfish, and mullet.
Meanwhile, Irv Quitmyer and Doug Jones will soon finish their report on the seasons in which people lived on Useppa some 3,000 years ago, and on the climate as revealed by the water temperatures in which the clams lived. For example, the shells of surf clams, Spisula solidissima, record annual changes in the concentration of the stable isotopes of oxygen 18O/16O in seawater.
The ratio of these two isotopes is strongly temperature-dependent and thus the shells represent a record of seawater temperature. The yearly variation is discovered by isotopic analysis of tiny samples taken from the ancient shells. Irv will also determine what times of the year the Indian people collected the clams for food by measuring growth bands in cross-sectioned shells. Like tree rings, these growth structures have a predictable annual progression and can be used to interpret the seasons in which the clams were harvested.
This article was taken from the Friends of the Randell Research Center Newsletter Vol 6, No. 3. September 2007.