Shell Mounds and Mortuary Behavior in the San Francisco Bay Area

Abstract

The mortuary behavior of hunter-gatherers associated with a San Francisco Bay area shell mound is analyzed. Mortuary analyses in the region are reviewed and critiqued, highlighting the general difficulties associated with investigating the mortuary behavior of hunter-gatherers. Using the concept of inequality and its link to surplus, a mortuary analysis of an example of a shell mound in the area, CA-ALA-328, is then conducted. A formal cemetery located beneath the shell mound is identified, followed by a burial setting involving inhumation into the matrix of the shell mound. A decrease in the level of inequality is observed in the burials as the site transitions from a cemetery to a shell mound. The implications of this change in inequality are explored, and a new interpretation of mortuary behavior at shell mounds is presented. Finally, several areas where the analysis contributes to the development of archaeological theory are outlined.