Archeology is Applied Stream Ecology

Robert Scott, ARAS-Parkin Research Station

Sites containing mussel shell in amounts ranging from a few scattered shells to dense accumulations can be found along streams in every physiographic region of Arkansas. Native Americans used mussel shell to make various kinds of tools or utensils (e.g., digging implements, spoons) and personal ornaments (e.g., ear pins and beads). The majority of bivalve (two-shelled animals like mussels)  remains recovered from archeological sites, however, are food remains. Many of the research questions archeologists try to answer about past people’s lifeways by analyzing archeological shell concern subsistence: What was the contribution of mussels to the diet? Did the intensity of shellfish exploitation change through time? Is there evidence of human overexploitation of mussel populations through time? Unionoid (freshwater mussel)  remains are also useful for studying ecological and environmental change, and, through isotope analysis, provide information on the seasonality of shellfishing (Classen 1998; Colins et al 2020; Peacock and Jenkins 2010). Beyond purely archeological concerns, mussel shell is also important from an applied perspective in that they provide information on the distribution, diversity, and abundance of mussel taxa in streams and lakes prior to modern impacts (channelization, impoundment, agricultural run-off, chemical pollution, etc.; Mitchell and Peacock 2014; Peacock et al 2011; Peacock et al 2016).

Freshwater mussels are one of the most imperiled faunal groups in the world today. Nearly 80 percent of freshwater mussel species in the United States are believed to be endangered. In Arkansas alone, over half of the 85 species of freshwater mussels found within the state are considered endangered or critically imperiled (Harris et al 2009). An important component of mussel conservation efforts has been to identify the original geographic ranges of mussels and how they have changed over time. Applied zooarchaeology is the use of archeologically recovered animal remains in modern conservation efforts to establish “accurate historical baselines for species reintroductions or habitat restoration” (Peacock et al 2012:1446). Archeological shell data can “provide spatial and temporal characterizations of mussel distributions and abundance that are complementary to other sources” (Peacock et al 2011:2), such as the results of scientific surveys of mussel communities. More importantly, shell-bearing precontact sites for which archeologically recovered bivalve assemblages exist are available from locales where modern biological surveys have not been carried out or were done following extensive habitat degradation from historic era impacts to mussel communities (Peacock et al 2011:3).

Consequently, analyses of precontact mussel shell have resulted in new river records for many taxa, and, sometimes, has led to major extensions in known geographical ranges (Mitchell 2018:178; Mitchell and Peacock 2014; Peacock et al 2016). For example, Cyprogenia aberti, which today has a geographic range limited largely to streams that drain the Ozark and Ouachita Mountains, has been reported from sites in north Louisiana, the Yazoo River Basin, and multiple locations in southeast Arkansas (Bogan 1987; Peacock et al 2013). The widespread distribution of C. aberti is significant from a conservation standpoint given that it is endangered in the state of Arkansas (Harris et al 2009).

In north Arkansas, a new stream record for the Little Red River led to a notable range extension for Epioblasma triquetra. Test excavations near Heber Springs in 1979 in Cleburne County at a Late Woodland (700-1000 AD) “midden mound” resulted in the recovery of over 14,000 mussel shells. Twenty-seven species of freshwater mussels were identified in the assemblage including E. triquetra. It is one of the rarest freshwater mussel species found in the state of Arkansas today (Harris and Gordon 1990; Harris et al. 2009:69), and the most recent review of the conservation status of freshwater mussels in Arkansas ranked the species as critically imperiled, meaning that it is at high risk of extinction due to extreme rarity or steep population declines (Fowler and Anderson 2015). Modern surveys, so far, have only identified E. triquetra in the Kings, Buffalo, Spring, and Strawberry rivers at locations in the Ozark Highlands (Fowler and Anderson 2015:980–981). Identification of the species at Heber Springs indicates that its distribution was more widespread in Arkansas than previously thought. Unanalyzed collections from other precontact sites could be examined to determine the full pre-modern geographic range of E. triquetra in Arkansas.

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References

Bogan, Arthur
1987  Molluscan remains from the Milner site (22YZ515) and the O’Neil Site (22YZ624), Yazoo County, Mississippi. Pages D1-D11 in Data Recovery at the Milner site (22YZ515) and the O’Neil Site Creek (22YZ624) sites, Yazoo County, Mississippi. Report submitted to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Vicksburg District, by Heartfield, Price and Greene, Louisiana, USA.

Classen, Cheryl P.
1998   Shells. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Fowler, Allison, and Jane Anderson
2015   Arkansas Wildlife Action Plain. Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, Little Rock.

Harris, John L., and Mark E. Gordon
1990   Arkansas Mussels. Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, Little Rock, AR.

Harris, J. L., W. R. Posey II, C. L. Davidson, J. L. Farris, S. R. Oetker, J. N. Stoeckel, B. G. Crump, M. S. Barnett, H. C. Martin, M. W. Mathews, J. H. Seagraves, N. J. Wentz, R. Winterringer, C. Osborne, and A. D. Christian
2009   Unionoida (Mollusca:Margaritiferidae, Unionidae) in Arkansas, Third Status Review. Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science 63:50–86.

Mitchell, Joseph, and Evan Peacock
2014   A Prehistoric Freshwater Mussel Assemblage from the Big Sunflower River, Sunflower County, Mississippi. Southeastern Naturalist 13(3):626–638.

Mitchel, Joseph
2018   Prehistoric Molluscan Faunas of the Yazoo River, Mississippi, USA: Archaeological Perspectives for Modern Conservation.  Environmental Archaeology 23(2):177-186.

Peacock, Evan, and C. Jenkins
2010   The Distribution and Research Value of Archaeological Mussel Shell: An Overview from Mississippi. Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology 35:91–116.

Peacock, Evan, Cliff Jenkins, Paul F. Jacobs, and Joseph Greenleaf
2011   Archaeology and Biogeography of Prehistoric Freshwater Mussel Shell in Mississippi. British Archaeological Reports, International Series 2297. Hadrian Books, Oxford, UK.

Peacock, Evan, Charles R. Randklev, Steve Wolverton, Ronald A. Palmer, and Sarah Zaleski
2012   The “cultural filter,” human transport of mussel shell, and the applied potential of zooarchaeological data. Ecological Applications 22(5):1446-1459.

Peacock, Evan, Amy Moe-Hoffman, Robert Scott, and Marvin D. Jeter
2013   Prehistoric Freshwater Mussel Faunas from Bayou Bartholomew, Southeast Arkansas. Southeastern Archaeology 32:1–13.

Peacock, Evan, Joseph Mitchell, and Cliff Jenkins
2016   Pre-Columbian freshwater mussel assemblages from the Tallahatchie River in the Lower Mississippi River Alluvial Basin, U.S.A. American Malacological Bulletin 34(2):121-132.

Peacock, Evan, Joseph Mitchell, and C. Andrew Buchner
2017   Applied Zooarchaeology of Freshwater Mussels (Bivalvia:Unionidae) Shell from Golson (22HU508): A Deasonville-Period Site on the Yazoo River, Mississippi. Environmental Archaeology 22:1-8.