Fig Island has remarkable examples of shell rings

Associated Press ^ | Sun, Apr. 17, 2005 | Joey Holleman

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[V]egetation disguises one of the most important, and least appreciated, cultural history sites in the country, archaeologists say. Much of Fig Island was built by man, not nature. Three of the four separate pieces of high ground that make up the 40-acre island were constructed about 4,000 years ago. Oyster shells - with some conch-type shells, broken pottery and a few animal bones mixed in - were crafted into stadium-like rings and crescents for reasons that remain a mystery... The Fig Island complex features one ring with the largest open interior plaza (slightly more than an acre), another ring with the smallest plaza (about the area of a basketball court) and the largest mound by volume of any of the known shell enclosures. The oyster shells brought to Fig Island to build the mounds would fill 12 Olympic-size swimming pools.

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[blam]

We have some shell mounds just down the road from me:

Dauphin Island Shell Mounds

[Rudder]

Oyster shells - with some conch-type shells, broken pottery and a few animal bones mixed in - were crafted into stadium-like rings and crescents for reasons that remain a mystery...

Garbage dump.

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