Excavations at Fort Boonesborough (established in 1775) on the Kentucky River in the Ohio River Valley recovered several species of mussels and a seed bead in primary context with an interior foundation within the stockaded fort. The fort occupants definitely interacted with Native Americans but it was generally adversarial. There's a fair amount of evidence to suggest that beads were worn and used by the settlers so finding beads in an 18th century site in Kentucky (and a number of examples have been found; I've illustrated some of them on my Facebook page) is not unusual and doesn't seem to indicate a Native American presence. Kentucky settlers often took the opportunity to collect "plunder" that could have included beaded articles on their raids into Native American territory and there are a few accounts that mention beads on leggings or in other contexts. The mussel shell ran the gamut from fragments to intact bivalve halves (including one complete specimen still closed) and were from species that would have been inhabiting deeper water habitats in the Kentucky River next to the site. I can't claim to be an expert on the history of shellfish consumption but I know that oysters were commonly sold at stores in Kentucky later on in the 19th century. And it seems the Dutch were attempting to control overharvesting of oysters in New York as early as the 1650s. Perhaps mussels were a substitute in places where the shellfish people were accustomed to back East were not available. A look at historic cookbooks to determine when shellfish recipes start being published might be instructive. 

URL for Kentucky's Frontier Highway, by Karl Raitz and Nancy O'Malley
http://kentuckypress.com/live/title_detail.php?titleid=3070

Nancy O'Malley
Assistant Director
William S. Webb Museum of Anthropology and
Office of State Archaeology
1020A Export Street
University of Kentucky
Lexington, Kentucky 40506
Ph. 859-257-1944
FAX: 859-323-1968
www.uky.edu/~omalley/




________________________________________
From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Bill [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thursday, January 24, 2013 9:05 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Freshwater mussels on 18th century sites

Recent excavations on an early 18th century site in central Delaware
recovered some freshwater mussel shells amongst the faunal remains.
Normally freshwater mussels are associated with Native American sites in the
Middle Atlantic region.  This presents the possibility of a Native American
presence or interaction with the European inhabitants of the site (circa
1720 to 1735).  Several glass seed beads recovered from floatation further
support this theory.  My question is: Has anyone found freshwater mussel
shells on non-Native American 18th century sites in the region?

Thanks for your input in advance!

Bill Liebeknecht, MA, RPA
Principal Investigator
Hunter Research, Inc.
Trenton, New Jersey