Relating tools to tasks: shell hammers and oyster management on Florida's northern Gulf Coast

Abstract

ABSTRACT The purposeful management of oyster fisheries has increasingly been used to explain millennial-scale sustainability evident at shell-bearing archaeological sites throughout the Southeast and beyond. While the focus of oyster management has been on the oysters themselves, the tools related to sustainable practices must also be the subject of investigation. Crown conch hammers are common artifacts recovered from coastal sites in the Southeast although their purpose has remained ambiguous. Building on previous studies of this class of artifacts, this paper relates crown conch hammers to oyster processing, specifically the management practice of culling. Evidence presented herein was recovered from the Lower Suwannee region of the northern Gulf Coast of Florida.