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Shell Middens and Coastal Archaeology in Southern South America

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Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology

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State of Knowledge and Current Debates

Introduction

Shell middens appear in many coastal environments of southern South America. They are normally called “concheros” or “conchales,” in Argentine and Chilean coasts, and “sambaquis,” in southeastern part of Brazil. These cultural accumulations are shell-bearing middens which can vary in size from a few centimeters to approximately 30 m high and where shell is the major constituent of the sediment matrix. Proportions of sediments, shell, and cultural inclusions and features vary. Different kinds of activities are represented in those archaeological contexts. Features of dwellings, distributions of artifacts, and animal remains indicate domestic activities. Other shell-bearing middens have been represented as campsites or processing stations. These deposits also served as mortuary contexts all around the coasts of southern South America. They were even used as formal places for mortuary activities, accumulating a large number of human...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratorio de Antropología, Centro Austral de Investigaciones Científicas (CADIC – CONICET), Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina

    Atilio Francisco Javier Zangrando

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  1. Atilio Francisco Javier Zangrando
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Correspondence to Atilio Francisco Javier Zangrando .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, Flinders University, Adelaide, SA, Australia

    Claire Smith

Section Editor information

  1. Newcastle University, Newcastle, UK

    Ndukukhaye Ndlovu

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Zangrando, A.F. (2020). Shell Middens and Coastal Archaeology in Southern South America. In: Smith, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-30018-0_3024

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