A megamidden is basically a shell midden--a trash heap made up primarily of the shells of bivalves--with an extremely large volume, ranging from a few thousand to as much as 30,000 cubic meters of shell. Although there were numerous enormous shell mounds made by hunter-gatherers around the world, the term megamidden refers to those found on the Western Cape shoreline of South Africa, between Eland's Bay and Lambert's Bay, and were created during the roughly 12200 year period between ~3000 and 1800 years ago.
Megamiddens on the west coast of South Africa are generally composed of the shells of black mussels, Choromytilis meridionalis. Black mussels are a species of bivalve which is found in high densities on the southern and western coasts of South Africa. Megamiddens of black mussels are always located next to rocky platforms and within 200 meters (650 feet) of the intertidal zone where the mussels would have been harvested.
Megamidden Sites
- Deurspring 16 5620-2131 cal BP
- Malkoppan 4830-2349 cal BP
- Steenbokfontein Cave 4258-2011 cal BP
- Pancho's Kitchen Midden 3100-2600 BP
- Mike Taylor's Midden 2400-1700 BP
- Kreefbaai
- Grootrif
- Lamberts Bay Dump 2830-2614 cal BP
- Tortoise Cave
- Eland's Bay Open
- Eland's Bay Cave
- Mazeppa Island
- Mound Point
Sources
A bibliography has been collected for this project.
