Oyster shell question

[Nox63]

I live in central Pennsylvania, I find a lot of oyster shells in my yard when I’m digging, detecting. What is the time period for oyster shells? Is it 1700s or more 1800s? Any information about this would be awesome. Thanks hh

 

[jmaclen]

Hi,
it is possible that someone in your area consumed a lot of oysters in the past. Otherwise, most of central Pennsylvania is made up of sedimentary rocks that are reported to be between 350 million and 250 million years old (Paleozoic).
One of the important fossils from that time are the mollusks=oysters. Could be you are digging in really old oyster beds. Supposedly, the Paleozoic era ended with a global die off of just about every living thing from some kind of catastrophic event
like a kill shot from an asteroid or a super volcano eruption. Pretty cool.

 

[bootyhoundpa]

Hey nox, I can tell you here on the east side of the state a heavy concentration of oyster shells often reflects a time period of between 1880 to 1920s...obviously there still making oyster shells lol,but many times turn of the century (1800-1900) dumps and privys have a high concentration of them..finding coins or broken glass in the same area might narrow it down..

 

[Nox63]

Yes I know I read something about oysters being popular in a certain time period but I couldn’t remember when. I know we had the canals running through this area and then the railroad. I don’t how they were brought into the area to consume.

 

[chuck ky]

Sounds more like THE time frame of Noah and the Great Flood.

 

[IDXMonster]

A few years ago when I first started hunting an older park that’s actually an island in the middle of a millpond,I would find very deep silver at 8-10”, but found “shells” ABOVE that level at 5-8”. This was strange because this isn’t an old homesite. It came to me last year that they had done a renovation years back and dredged the millpond,depositing the material in the area I was digging in order to build it up a foot or so. The silver I was finding was mixed “shiny” and “tarnished”...and the tarnished pieces apparently came from the old swimming area that was part of the area they dredged. I was baffled at first...but the puzzle was solved afterward,just as I’m sure yours will be.

 

[mpmccann]

I read somewhere that oyster shells were commonly used on the east coast as "back fill" as well to level roads and lots to build on. Just something to consider.