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Shell rings (also called middens) are circular and semicircular deposits of shell, bone, soil, and artifacts created by Native Americans occupying the coastal zone during the Late Archaic Period (4,200 to 3,000 years ago). Although shell remains comprise the majority of these features, they also contain evidence of a wide variety of other animal and plant resources that Native groups relied on for food. Located along the barrier islands and coasts of Georgia, shell rings often contain multiple midden sites within close proximity to one another, which suggests that they may have served as the center of year-round communities for the residents.

The geographic range of shell ring building appears to expand 50 km further north than previously documented, particularly in Georgetown County. The use of deep learning to systematically explore spatial extents of cultural practices offers the promise of identifying more archaeological sites, including shell rings and mounds, with fewer field surveys than previous methods. With further ground-verification, these findings could lead to a better understanding of the nature of year-round villages in Archaic South Carolina and Georgia.

The presence of these new potential shell rings provides a rare opportunity to assess the distribution and size of year-round settlement patterns in the American Southeast. The large number of rings identified opens up the possibility of conducting comparative analyses between ring populations across the region in order to understand the differences in subsistence strategies and mobility patterns among Archaic indigenous peoples. seashell ring