What is a Midden

In the role of an anthropologist studying the Historos Cave in South Africa, I will seek to answer the following questions about the photographs of shells found in the cave.

How did the shells get there?
Were the animals inside eaten?
Were the shells used as jewelry?

To our early ancestors living in the Historos Cave, marine shells and the animals that once lived in them were useful to survival and a part of their culture. When excavating the cave floor, we found a large amount of shells, or a midden. The shells came from the nearby coastline, most likely gathered by the women. The mollusks would have been a good source of protein and fat for our developing brains. Another finding where the shells have holes through them make me think they are artifacts and that the shells where also used as jewelry. Certainly, the mollusks and the shells stopped our early ancestors from starving when they didn’t have any other sources of food from hunting.