A Further Note on the Squibnocket Cliff Shell Heap

Extract

In the recently published paper Two Sites on Martha's Vineyard, the section devoted to the Squibnocket Cliff site included speculation as to the manner of accumulation of the midden deposit, and included a statement that of the portion of the site remaining, the most complicated in structure lay near the edge of the cliff. It was further implied that the center of the deposit had vanished into the sea, and that only the outer fringes remained.

Doubtless these passages created an impression that the authors felt that there was a center of occupation on which the site grew up, perhaps not in concentric layers, for it was specified that horizontal overlapping of strata occurred, but in eccentric overlapping layers. Certainly the cross section through the site shown in our Fig. 13 suggests that the center of occupation had been in the south end of the trench, shown in the upper part of the figure.