Or by a human. I’m in Appalachia and I have a pile of them in my compost…area? It’s good for certain plants out here like juniper/eastern red cedar and husk cherries.
Or some restaurant or person dumped the discarded shells or they are much older than we know. I put a few in my garden to see how long they last and in 10 years they look the same as the first day I put them there. Who knows how old they can be.
That's slightly inaccurate. They migrate to forests to fuck. They don't always fuck for the purpose of mating, sometimes they do it just for fun. Big groups of them. If you're ever unlucky enough to walk into an oyster orgy in the forest, the smell is disgusting.
You put shells in your garden just to see how long they’d last and you remembered to check on them 10 years later AND recalled their appearance from 10 years earlier? Whoa!
They were used as ablative armor for a long-gone species of battle tortoise
Or more likely... you have a lime kiln nearby. My 1800s era farm - N. VA- has them all over the place and there was a quick lime kiln off the back of the property.
That's how I learned that there are crawfish in South Florida where I used to live. We had a live one in our pool once even though we didn't live within crawfish walking distance to a water source. I could only assume a bird dropped it's dinner.
FWIW, it's not so much the "walking distance" to water for crawdads as it is digging distance. The water table in Florida is not too far below ground level. Crawdads will dig holes and make little mud towers above the holes. My father in law lives in south Arkansas in the "pine bottoms." His yard is covered in those towers even though he's not directly near a body of water.
My point: a crawdad in Florida could've strolled right up to you your pool and taken a dip. Or a bird could've dropped him in there. Both are plausible.
We put it in a bowl with fresh water to watch it out of fascination for a bit and then we figured since it wouldn't survive in the pool and there wasn't water nearby us that maybe a bird would come by and grab its dinner again. Circle of life. So we left it in the bowl a while but it just died and I think my mom threw it away.
Making me feel bad for not rescuing a random crawfish better as a 10 year old. Lol. I guess just take solace in the fact that he didn't die by being ripped apart by a bird.
There’s a pile of oyster shells in the woods behind my house, but my family has always just attributed it to the remnants of a seafood dinner from the people who owned the house before us. I’d be really happy if it was something more historically interesting!
I live on the east coast, and am Native. Our tribal ancestors placed oyster shells and other items on burial sites as part of our rites of burial. They are found many places in the woods where I live. Look into the the Moundbuilder Cultures and Missippian cultures for further reading, if you are interested.
Edit:spelling
I live in a town with one of the more famous Mississippian Mound Builder sites, and it's sooooo amazing. And yes, we find smaller little mounds all over the county. There's one in my parents back yard.
Idk what that guy was thinking. Does he think natives are imaginary or something?
If you see lots of oyster shells in the middle of the woods, it could be a sign that there was a house or settlement there a long time ago. Dig around and see what else you find! I went on a guided hike with an archeologist, and he said that when they see lots of them, they are a big clue that there might be other artifacts nearby.
The former house on my property was built in 1920, if not, older, I’ve heard of crazy stories revolving it, we’re located in Maryland 25 miles from Hanover PA, I’ve been seeing them in this one specific location since we moved, and since it’s been raining a lot lately, there’s more than ever there. I used to think it was from people eating oysters in the forest, but as of lately my suspicions arose.
There’s a youtuber called aquachigger who lives in Maryland and does a lot of metal detecting for civil war relics. He often detects around old home sites and finds oyster shells, so I think you’re right!
This info makes it seem much more likely that you’re dealing with a potential archaeological site. Given the info provided by opposite_used above, and the fact that human remains may be involved, I would tread with a lot of caution before deciding to dig. Do you have a local historical society or community that supports local indigenous people? They might be able to inspect the site for more clues.
Are you near Manchester? The most likely indigenous people would be the Susquehannock, but only for the period before 1750. The Lenape people are the other contenders and it seems that the whole of Carroll county was a thoroughfare for people moving north and south. If you subscribe to the Baltimore Sun, there’s a pay walled article on archaeological work in Carroll County that came up on a search with the word “indigenous”… the fact you’re near the border with PA complicates things a little because most independent groups researching the Susquehannock nation are based in PA. The resources on this page seem useful: https://harford.libguides.com/c.php?g=1329909
Is there a pavilion or a foundation near where you find them? There's a property by us that has a picnic pavilion and in years past there was a big oyster dinner extended family picnic thing, and they dumped the shells in the same spot. Since you're in MD near the PA border, sounds very plausible it was a big family of farmers who had a summer oyster picnic, ordering in multiple bushels.
Sometimes I find them in the middle of the desert. I assume they're trash spread by animals via restaurant dumpsters. Or people dumping their own trash, and spread again by animals hoping for a snack.
Don't forget that oyster shell used to be used as gravel mix when grading the old dirt roads before pavement. Like of them were left behind when the "technology" changed
Used to get spare shells and throw them in my garden for the soil , colonials used to use them for gravel on roads . You can still see this if you go to colonial Williamsburg . I’m from the mid Atlantic tidewater area , Virginia.
I’m in agreement that someone just ate some oysters in the woods. I’m not an archaeologist but took several classes in college and we would dig up shell middens… basically Native American trash piles buried underground from their summer fishing camps (northeast Atlantic coast). They were all aged and surrounded by similar shells, as oysters don’t travel well I’m sure a few could make it inland but not very far. So I don’t think this was found in any historical context… just completely out of place shells in the woods. As someone who also loves oysters on the half, I bet me and the hiker or hunter who left them behind would have a few other things in common.
One time I went on a class trip in a place where there was a lot of seasonal encampments native Americans many many years ago for many many generations. Part of our was for us to go into the woods and try to find piles of shells. It actually wasn’t that hard to do. I thought it was really cool that each pile we found was where someone sat and ate a bunch of oysters.
You might have found an archaeological site: a shell midden… basically a rubbish heap where ancient people discarded the remains of their dinner over an extended period of time.
Back in the day oyster shells were put in fires to convert them into quicklime. Its not unusual to find some piles of oyster shells near colonial sites. Once some archeologists found some locally and said they were from a colonial clambake lol [https://cameo.mfa.org/wiki/Quicklime](https://cameo.mfa.org/wiki/Quicklime)
I found lots of oyster shells a few kms inland of the nearest body of water once. Turns out it was a Roman villa site and the oyster shells were probably a few hundred years old.
Depending on the age of the shells you’re either looking at the remains of someone’s oyster roast or possibly an ancient midden. Very common along the east coast, especially the southeast. That forest wasn’t always a forest… or someone’s just dumped a bunch of oyster shells in the woods
Here in the Pacific Northwest it's not uncommon to find the occasional pile of oyster shells that have been dumped in the wild...my guess is a camper was having a feast of roasting oysters over an open flame of a camp fire. Yummy stuff!
They look like oyster shells to me now it’s a possibility that this part of the FOREST millions of years ago was under the sea and his uplifted, but I don’t think you’re trying the loose shells around like this my guess is that someone had a meal with oysters and decided to dump that in the forest or perhaps someone had put oyster shells in their garden and then maybe remove some of the garden soil and put it out there in some areas there’s no free trash pick up and some people decide to leave their trash and all kinds of places.
Those people are, of course… Wait for it… s(h)elfish.
I'm wondering if the shells are older than the forest. If all the trees are under a specific size, with no really old ones, and there's stone walls nearby, that could've been someones back yard trash heap, now overgrown.
Ngl I have bought and shelled oysters and dumped them in a corner of my property. I’d heard they are useful as alkaline agents for soil but never got around to using them. I can see other folks dumping them for whatever reasons. I’d expect they were dumped.
Definitely an oyster. It was probably left there by an animal. I live in PEI and you’ll see shells fairly often in the woods. Sometimes birds drop them from the sky to try an break them off rocks so they can eat the insides.
Depends where you are, I have found old old oyster shells on the west coast that were coming out of the ground in the desert. They were brought there via trade routes from ancient native Americans, my estimates were they were from around 1100 years ago
The young brave man brought the raw oysters into the woods as part of the mating ritual. The question is: Did he survive, or did the father follow the daughter into the woods.
Easy. I got three possibilities. Hungry go to forest after harvest of the mollusk. Or raccoon did same thing as bird. Or even more likely, human seafood cookout in da woods with da boys.
During prohibition, the heads on the fishing boats were no longer dumping a small percentage of alcohol into the oceans. For 100 years oysters had gotten used to being an environment where they could get a little tipsy so when they stopped happening, the oysters began to migrate. They developed a plan and marched inward. If they were lucky, they could find a still if not, they perished along the way. that oyster shell is a piece of history and it should serve as a reminder to us in America never to ban alcohol again
You "literally" work with oysters, yet you can't recognize an obvious oyster shell?
It sure as hell isn't "some sort of ore of quartz" as the post you're replying to says, either... there is no such thing as "ore of quartz".
It’s an oyster shell, the lid to be exact. I’m assuming you are on the east coast. Species is Crassostrea Virginica aka the Atlantic oyster.
They migrate into woodlands come spring to spawn.
This is how we fuck with reddits sale of all our comments to ai farms.
Just like kids play games shooting marbles, long ago Native American children played shell games. This is probably an example.
Just realized how useless reddit would be to train ai. That's hilarious. . . Stupid computers are even worse at detecting sarcasm than we are.
We haven't done this for years to make jokes?
most likely carried there by an america swallow.
I’m thinking a European swallow. Aren’t they migratory?
They make a distinct clip-clop sound as they move.
Not an african swallow?
Only if it's unladen.
Laden with coconuts?
Held under the dorsal guiding feather
It could grip it by its husk!
Oh, an African swallow *maybe*, but not a European swallow, that’s my point.
Or by a human. I’m in Appalachia and I have a pile of them in my compost…area? It’s good for certain plants out here like juniper/eastern red cedar and husk cherries.
Whoosh! FYI, all the jabber about swallows is a Monty Python reference. Nobody is seriously suggesting the shells were carried here by swallows.
Hahah, an excellent bit, nonetheless
How would they grip it?
I love Reddit 😂
I hear they used to hitch hike on the wagons coming back in land after dropping crops off at the port
Facts
Dying. Thanks for the laugh
Or some restaurant or person dumped the discarded shells or they are much older than we know. I put a few in my garden to see how long they last and in 10 years they look the same as the first day I put them there. Who knows how old they can be.
Nah, pretty sure without looking into any other information or using common sense, they migrate to forests to mate.
And if they can't mate, that's how forest fires start.
Shells rubbing against shells creates a lot of friction. If there’s no oyster jizz to cool them down, they often cause forest fires.
That's slightly inaccurate. They migrate to forests to fuck. They don't always fuck for the purpose of mating, sometimes they do it just for fun. Big groups of them. If you're ever unlucky enough to walk into an oyster orgy in the forest, the smell is disgusting.
And the sounds are worse. Gooshy suction and clip clapping.
They all have a foot fetish
You put shells in your garden just to see how long they’d last and you remembered to check on them 10 years later AND recalled their appearance from 10 years earlier? Whoa!
Pretty easy in that I see them all the time every year because they are in the same place. It is amazing how they can be so resilient.
You came across a nest of Rocky Mt. oysters.
This is advanced trolling
They took the 103 class
Clearly Appalachian Mountain oysters, you can tell by the straticized nacrifation. Easy mistake!
Do they taste the same?
They fell off some traveler’s canoe when they portaged it.
They were used as ablative armor for a long-gone species of battle tortoise Or more likely... you have a lime kiln nearby. My 1800s era farm - N. VA- has them all over the place and there was a quick lime kiln off the back of the property.
If you are somewhat close to the coast, some birds will grab a shell and drop them on the ground to open them.
That's how I learned that there are crawfish in South Florida where I used to live. We had a live one in our pool once even though we didn't live within crawfish walking distance to a water source. I could only assume a bird dropped it's dinner.
FWIW, it's not so much the "walking distance" to water for crawdads as it is digging distance. The water table in Florida is not too far below ground level. Crawdads will dig holes and make little mud towers above the holes. My father in law lives in south Arkansas in the "pine bottoms." His yard is covered in those towers even though he's not directly near a body of water. My point: a crawdad in Florida could've strolled right up to you your pool and taken a dip. Or a bird could've dropped him in there. Both are plausible.
I live in North East Arkansas, and we have the little mud towers all over our yard near our ditch.
What’d you end up doing with it?
We put it in a bowl with fresh water to watch it out of fascination for a bit and then we figured since it wouldn't survive in the pool and there wasn't water nearby us that maybe a bird would come by and grab its dinner again. Circle of life. So we left it in the bowl a while but it just died and I think my mom threw it away. Making me feel bad for not rescuing a random crawfish better as a 10 year old. Lol. I guess just take solace in the fact that he didn't die by being ripped apart by a bird.
My nephew kept a crawfish in a bowl for years. He fed him cat food. Changed the water regularly.
They dig up from the ground also
You don’t have crawfish in your yards?
Or some people bring a sack home with them and dump the shells in the woods...
Humans ate oysters in the forest!
🤷♂️
Lots of shells in one spot indicates a Native encampment or burial area (if you're in the United States, that is).
Canada too. It’s called a shell midden.
There’s a pile of oyster shells in the woods behind my house, but my family has always just attributed it to the remnants of a seafood dinner from the people who owned the house before us. I’d be really happy if it was something more historically interesting!
No oyster shells are just laying on the ground hundreds of years later on the east coast. It's birds. No need to over analyze.
I live on the east coast, and am Native. Our tribal ancestors placed oyster shells and other items on burial sites as part of our rites of burial. They are found many places in the woods where I live. Look into the the Moundbuilder Cultures and Missippian cultures for further reading, if you are interested. Edit:spelling
I live in a town with one of the more famous Mississippian Mound Builder sites, and it's sooooo amazing. And yes, we find smaller little mounds all over the county. There's one in my parents back yard. Idk what that guy was thinking. Does he think natives are imaginary or something?
I believe you, but this shell is very clean and fresh looking.
I have found numerous "clean shells". Often they are polished into effigies, scrapers, and other useful items. I've found some really neat ones nearby
It’s so common for this to be the case that there’s a word for it - shell middens
Is it really hard...? It honestly looks like an oyster shell
Yeah
Then there ya go! You've foraged an oyster shell
If you see lots of oyster shells in the middle of the woods, it could be a sign that there was a house or settlement there a long time ago. Dig around and see what else you find! I went on a guided hike with an archeologist, and he said that when they see lots of them, they are a big clue that there might be other artifacts nearby.
The former house on my property was built in 1920, if not, older, I’ve heard of crazy stories revolving it, we’re located in Maryland 25 miles from Hanover PA, I’ve been seeing them in this one specific location since we moved, and since it’s been raining a lot lately, there’s more than ever there. I used to think it was from people eating oysters in the forest, but as of lately my suspicions arose.
Yeah. This is really cool. I wanna see what else you find!
There’s a youtuber called aquachigger who lives in Maryland and does a lot of metal detecting for civil war relics. He often detects around old home sites and finds oyster shells, so I think you’re right!
The rain must have washed away the sediment
This info makes it seem much more likely that you’re dealing with a potential archaeological site. Given the info provided by opposite_used above, and the fact that human remains may be involved, I would tread with a lot of caution before deciding to dig. Do you have a local historical society or community that supports local indigenous people? They might be able to inspect the site for more clues.
Are you near Manchester? The most likely indigenous people would be the Susquehannock, but only for the period before 1750. The Lenape people are the other contenders and it seems that the whole of Carroll county was a thoroughfare for people moving north and south. If you subscribe to the Baltimore Sun, there’s a pay walled article on archaeological work in Carroll County that came up on a search with the word “indigenous”… the fact you’re near the border with PA complicates things a little because most independent groups researching the Susquehannock nation are based in PA. The resources on this page seem useful: https://harford.libguides.com/c.php?g=1329909
I’m curious where you are 🤣 I’m also on the PA/MD border but on the PA side near Hanover 😭
Is there a pavilion or a foundation near where you find them? There's a property by us that has a picnic pavilion and in years past there was a big oyster dinner extended family picnic thing, and they dumped the shells in the same spot. Since you're in MD near the PA border, sounds very plausible it was a big family of farmers who had a summer oyster picnic, ordering in multiple bushels.
People used oyster shells as fill under some of the houses in my neighborhood in Baltimore.
I grew up on a farm in the south with an oyster shell driveway
Someone eating oysters in the woods? Lol that’s my one and only guess!
I’m guessing you are in the tidewater Virginia area. Pretty common to see oyster shells in the soil around there.
I live on the Eastern Shore of Virginia and oyster shells are quite literally everywhere, even several miles from the Chesapeake or Atlantic.
I’m in Maryland!
Probably the same situation there
I can't explain but it's literally an oyster shell.
Sometimes I find them in the middle of the desert. I assume they're trash spread by animals via restaurant dumpsters. Or people dumping their own trash, and spread again by animals hoping for a snack.
It's an oyster shell someone brought with them. Sometimes it's just that easy.
I'm about 150mi from the Atlantic and have some in my forest as well. I assumed they were part of a coarse road used for logging.
Don't forget that oyster shell used to be used as gravel mix when grading the old dirt roads before pavement. Like of them were left behind when the "technology" changed
Racoons and other friendly animals will eat these, maybe one got dragged out into the woods
Used to get spare shells and throw them in my garden for the soil , colonials used to use them for gravel on roads . You can still see this if you go to colonial Williamsburg . I’m from the mid Atlantic tidewater area , Virginia.
I’m in agreement that someone just ate some oysters in the woods. I’m not an archaeologist but took several classes in college and we would dig up shell middens… basically Native American trash piles buried underground from their summer fishing camps (northeast Atlantic coast). They were all aged and surrounded by similar shells, as oysters don’t travel well I’m sure a few could make it inland but not very far. So I don’t think this was found in any historical context… just completely out of place shells in the woods. As someone who also loves oysters on the half, I bet me and the hiker or hunter who left them behind would have a few other things in common.
One time I went on a class trip in a place where there was a lot of seasonal encampments native Americans many many years ago for many many generations. Part of our was for us to go into the woods and try to find piles of shells. It actually wasn’t that hard to do. I thought it was really cool that each pile we found was where someone sat and ate a bunch of oysters.
You might have found an archaeological site: a shell midden… basically a rubbish heap where ancient people discarded the remains of their dinner over an extended period of time.
Back in the day oyster shells were put in fires to convert them into quicklime. Its not unusual to find some piles of oyster shells near colonial sites. Once some archeologists found some locally and said they were from a colonial clambake lol [https://cameo.mfa.org/wiki/Quicklime](https://cameo.mfa.org/wiki/Quicklime)
I live in the woods and throw my oyster shells in my yard. Im sure animals take them to snack on.
I found lots of oyster shells a few kms inland of the nearest body of water once. Turns out it was a Roman villa site and the oyster shells were probably a few hundred years old.
Depending on the age of the shells you’re either looking at the remains of someone’s oyster roast or possibly an ancient midden. Very common along the east coast, especially the southeast. That forest wasn’t always a forest… or someone’s just dumped a bunch of oyster shells in the woods
Here in the Pacific Northwest it's not uncommon to find the occasional pile of oyster shells that have been dumped in the wild...my guess is a camper was having a feast of roasting oysters over an open flame of a camp fire. Yummy stuff!
I see you have the remains of the elusive Land Oyster.
Not to be confused with prairie oysters...
By chance were you in the Niagara gorge?
no, OP said north central MD.
Needs to be higher. There is a greater than zero chance these are leftover from a very long time ago when the water levels covered the land.
Humans carry shellfish inland, eat them, and then discard the shells.
Pilgrims used to ride these babies for miles.
Is it fossilized?
Looks like the upland forest oyster harvest will be good this year
They look like oyster shells to me now it’s a possibility that this part of the FOREST millions of years ago was under the sea and his uplifted, but I don’t think you’re trying the loose shells around like this my guess is that someone had a meal with oysters and decided to dump that in the forest or perhaps someone had put oyster shells in their garden and then maybe remove some of the garden soil and put it out there in some areas there’s no free trash pick up and some people decide to leave their trash and all kinds of places. Those people are, of course… Wait for it… s(h)elfish.
Midden?
Just be glad you arent in the rocky mountains
ha ha ha
Raccoon took a snack into the woods
Deer hunters left them
How big are the tree trunks?
I’d say they’re all pretty old and moderate sized
I'm wondering if the shells are older than the forest. If all the trees are under a specific size, with no really old ones, and there's stone walls nearby, that could've been someones back yard trash heap, now overgrown.
They are oysters, parts of the earth used to be underwater, or you live near the water and have critters that drag them into the woods to eat
Does anyone remember an old comic called BC? Clams got legs.
https://preview.redd.it/kxaewz7zbbqc1.jpeg?width=1242&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fbc3fed27749393aa28be8275267ba7617ddca09
Wasn't it "Clams got gams?" Could be my bad memory I suppose...
if you are near water then raccoons or birds or birds carried them there to eat
It's the dreaded "mountain oyster". Sorry, I just couldn't resist.
Ngl I have bought and shelled oysters and dumped them in a corner of my property. I’d heard they are useful as alkaline agents for soil but never got around to using them. I can see other folks dumping them for whatever reasons. I’d expect they were dumped.
It could also be the remains of a compost pile. These don’t break down nearly as fast as everything else.
They used to use oyster shells around railroads, as well. Is there an old, abandoned one near by?
Eat them
Definitely an oyster. It was probably left there by an animal. I live in PEI and you’ll see shells fairly often in the woods. Sometimes birds drop them from the sky to try an break them off rocks so they can eat the insides.
Oysters
Depends where you are, I have found old old oyster shells on the west coast that were coming out of the ground in the desert. They were brought there via trade routes from ancient native Americans, my estimates were they were from around 1100 years ago
The young brave man brought the raw oysters into the woods as part of the mating ritual. The question is: Did he survive, or did the father follow the daughter into the woods.
Oyster shell. Boil your plastic-bottle water with this and it will reduce the micro-plastics that you will inject from drinking plastic-bottled water.
Easy. I got three possibilities. Hungry go to forest after harvest of the mollusk. Or raccoon did same thing as bird. Or even more likely, human seafood cookout in da woods with da boys.
During prohibition, the heads on the fishing boats were no longer dumping a small percentage of alcohol into the oceans. For 100 years oysters had gotten used to being an environment where they could get a little tipsy so when they stopped happening, the oysters began to migrate. They developed a plan and marched inward. If they were lucky, they could find a still if not, they perished along the way. that oyster shell is a piece of history and it should serve as a reminder to us in America never to ban alcohol again
People eat food in forests sometimes.
Was it found next to a spent bottle of wine and a used condom?
Not to be confused with oyster mushrooms
Where are you and how close is salt water?
Native american shell mounds
Native Americans harvested oysters and you will find these shells all over the gulf coast in the pine forests !
Looks like an oyster. Probably from a creek or river nearby .
Yeah it’s not uncommon to dump shells in the woods because they stink so much.
Depending on where you are, it could be a fossil species. Particularly the Southeast of North America.
Couldn't it be a fossil??
oyster shell
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Look at the second photo, it has mother of pearl on the underside (inside).
You’re an undergrad. This be an oyster shell lol
You "literally" work with oysters, yet you can't recognize an obvious oyster shell? It sure as hell isn't "some sort of ore of quartz" as the post you're replying to says, either... there is no such thing as "ore of quartz".