Sea Shells in fields

Step23

There is a field close to me with the ruins of a medieval church. While photographing the church after the last time the crops where cut I noticed quite a few sea shells, mostly concentrated to one area. A fair percent of the shells are intact.

I was wondering could these possibly belong to a midden that the plow has disturbed, I am doubtful these shells where used as fertilizer due to the concentration of the shells in one area.

Oh, also the field is probably 15 - 20km as the crows flies to the sea. So any idea why these shells might be here, could these be from a midden?

Thanks,

slowburner

Indeed it could be a kitchen midden, although the fact that you are seeing the remains on the surface would indicate a relatively recent deposit.
Accurate dating would mean excavation.
There might be associated dating material on the surface, such as glass, pottery etc., but only excavation would reveal the order of deposition.
Prehistoric middens tend to be located closer to the coast, so unless this area was close to the sea at some point in prehistory, the chances are that the midden is the product of a dwelling associated with the church.
Do you know how close the concentration was to habitation, or where dwellings might have been located, relative to the midden?
Medieval to C.19th shell middens, are not uncommon.
The house I grew up in, had an extensive midden extending out from an old coach house (sheet midden). It included oyster, cockle and mussel shells.
This house was about 4km from the sea.
Limpet shells might indicate earlier usage: for some reason or other, Limpets seem to have fallen out of favour.

You can't rule out fertilizer either.
The concentration might have been the original point from which the shells were distributed.
There was an interesting case (in the US, I think) where there was a collection of peculiar doughnut shaped middens. The explanation for the absence of shells in the centre was that the trees around which the shells had been placed as fertilizer, had died and rotted away leaving only the durable remains of the shells.

Yet another possibility is that the shells were collected as a source of lime for making lime mortar or whitewash.
Every parish had its lime kiln or two in the C.19th.

Nice little description of a midden excavation here.

BFDCH.

Step23 wrote: »

There is a field close to me with the ruins of a medieval church. While photographing the church after the last time the crops where cut I noticed quite a few sea shells, mostly concentrated to one area. A fair percent of the shells are intact.

I was wondering could these possibly belong to a midden that the plow has disturbed, I am doubtful these shells where used as fertilizer due to the concentration of the shells in one area.

Oh, also the field is probably 15 - 20km as the crows flies to the sea. So any idea why these shells might be here, could these be from a midden?

Thanks,

possibly in the production of dye/ink. Purple colour can be obtained from a type of whelk i think.
wiki backs me up
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyrian_purple
what type of shells are they?
also read that as monastary some how, so it's probably unlikely to be for the production of that colour.

Gee Bag

In Ireland Dog Whelks were used for making purple dye. Scoop out the inedible fleshy bit and leave it exposed to the air. The longer it isexposed the deeper purple it becomes.

It probably is a kitchen midden or some such. You tend to find very large oyster shells on high status late-medieval/post-medieval sites (well I always seem to do anyway). Oyster shell are broad, flat and roughly circular in shape. They also add a new layer to the shell every year, you can see the layers where the shell is broken at the rim. These oysters tend to be monsters compared to modern examples.

Step23

Thanks for the replies and sorry for my late responce.

Geebag is correct, they are oyster type shells. I have had a look in the field again as the crops have been cut, there are the odd shells in other parts of the field too. I haven't seen any dog whelks, thats for sure. Mostly oysters and the odd cockle.

Taking slowburners point into account that the shells could be fertilizer, it migt be a coincidence with the medieval church ruins.

Would there be any other hints that it is a midden? I could post a picture of the shells if anyone would like to see. I had picked up a few last year.


Thanks again