Soil profile from Big Oak Island.

ID: 6506 ~ Source: Image courtesy of UNO Archaeology Lab.

This file appears in: Big Oak and Little Oak Islands

Shell middens can become massive in size. Big Oak Island, for instance, is 750 ft long, 60-80 feet wide, and up to 7 ft tall. There can be many distinct layers in shell middens representing everything from single events to long periods of gradual accretion.

This file appears in: Big Oak and Little Oak Islands

Big Oak and Little Oak Islands

By Joseph C. Cripple, Helen Bouzon, Charlotte Willcox & D. Ryan Gray

Big Oak Island and Little Oak Island are camps and habitation sites associated with the people of the Tchefuncte culture of the Lower Mississippi Valley, dating from as early as 800 BCE to as late as…