A Reconsideration of Shellmounds with Respect to Population and Nutrition

Abstract

A good many years ago Nelson and Gifford made a careful and extensive survey of the shellmounds of San Francisco Bay, in the course of which they utilized quantitative methods of analysis to determine the probable age of the cultures represented. In the years since their publications, new deposits have come to light in various parts of the Americas to which their methods might be applied, and a great deal more knowledge is now available which is applicable to the field of primitive dietetics.