Lightning whelk natural history and a new sourcing method

ABSTRACT

Artifacts made from sinistral (left-handed) whelk shells are commonly found at inland archaeological sites in eastern North America. Past attempts to source the coast of origin of these marine shells based on chemical analyses have provided tentative results. A knowledge of sinistral whelk natural history is essential before attempting shell sourcing studies. The common occurrence of sinistral whelks in the Gulf of Mexico and their uncommon occurrence along both the South Atlantic and Mid-Atlantic bights are documented. Critical biogeographical and morphological information is presented, as well as a new method of sourcing artifacts based on spire-angle measurements. Sinistral whelk artifacts from Spiro, East St. Louis, and Cahokia probably came from the eastern Gulf of Mexico.

KEYWORDS:

• Sinistral whelk
• lightning whelk
• sourcing
• Cahokia
• Spiro

Acknowledgments

We are indebted to collection managers who allowed access to specimens at both FLMNH and HMNS. These include John Slapcinsky, Tina Petway, and Gary Kidder. Ann and David Fairbanks graciously opened their home for Laura and this made the trip to Houston very special. We also thank Thomas Emerson who permitted use of the East St. Louis shell cup image. Nancy White helped us to identify the site from which a large lightning whelk was found. José Leal helped with general malacology inquiries. We thank Nasreen Phillips, who responded quickly to our queries on shell specimens housed at the Academy of Natural Science in Philadelphia. Betsy Reitz helped to shepherd the manuscript through the submission process and provided many helpful suggestions, as did all of the anonymous reviewers.

Data availability statement

All modern specimens with known locality information are housed either at the Florida Museum of Natural History or the Houston Museum of Natural Science. Archaeological specimens from the Spiro site are housed at the Sam Noble Museum at the University of Oklahoma, the Gilcrease Museum, Spiro Mounds Archaeological Center, and the National Museum of Natural History. Specimens from Cahokia and East St. Louis sites are at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana and the Illinois State Museum. A spreadsheet of data for all modern specimens is at the Illinois Data Bank (https://databank.illinois.edu/).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Laura Kozuch received her PhD from the University of Florida in 1998. She has served as Illinois State Archaeological Survey curator since 2002. She has identified faunal remains from a wide range of sites in the Southeast and Caribbean, and wrote a monograph on shark utilization as well as a guide to identifying shark vertebrae. Her research focus is faunal analysis and in particular the manufacture, use, and trade of animal bones and shells. Her life-long interest is the marine shell trade and bead crafting in North America.

Karen J. Walker is an environmental archaeologist who received her PhD from the University of Florida in 1992. She serves as a faculty scientist and collection manager for South Florida Archaeology and Ethnography at the Florida Museum of Natural History. She undertook the defining zooarchaeological studies of the Charlotte Harbor Estuarine System, and has published articles on Southwest Florida covering such diverse topics as ancient fishing technology, sea-level fluctuations, Calusa diet, the archaeology of twentieth-century logging camps, and the nineteenth- and twentieth-century archaeology of Useppa Island.

William H. Marquardt received his PhD in Anthropology from Washington University, St. Louis, in 1974 and is John S. and James L. Knight Curator of South Florida Archaeology and Ethnography at the Florida Museum of Natural History and Director of the Randell Research Center. He has done archaeological research in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Kentucky, Missouri, New Mexico, and Burgundy (France). Since 1983, he has directed the Southwest Florida Project, focused on the ancient domain of the Calusa Indians.

ORCID

Laura Kozuch http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8830-1577

William H. Marquardt http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1905-0951