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Analysis of ∼47,500 freshwater mussel shells, representing 34 taxa, recovered from late Holocene archaeological sites located along the Upper Mississippi River in southwestern Wisconsin affords the opportunity to address variation in exploitation of shellfish by Woodland Tradition foragers (ca. 2,000–900 B.P.) and Oneota Tradition agriculturalists (ca. 800–500 B.P.). Woodland foragers targeted dense beds from which large numbers of mussels could be harvested relatively quickly. It is hypothesized that meat from mussels was dried, packaged, and transported to interior, upland locations to help alleviate anticipated food-resource deficits in the winter. Oneota agriculturalists harvested mussels in modest numbers from variety of riverine contexts for food and preferentially collected thick to medium-thick shelled taxa to serve as a source of temper in pottery manufacture. |
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