Answer to the shell ring mystery

In Wednesday’s Packet I read that an archeologist from New York thinks that the Indian Shell Rings on Hilton Head Island were not used for defense, burials or for holding water, saying “no one really knows what these rings were used for, that is the million dollar question.”

I would like to claim that million dollars, professor. The shell rings are mounds of garbage tossed outside of the Stone Age summer visitors’ campground over many years. These piles of stinking shellfish refuse were covered with sand by the Indians to diminish the stench of their rotting garbage.

This story was originally published July 15, 2017 at 9:14 AM with the headline "Answer to the shell ring mystery."