Archaic shell middens are conspicuous features of the landscape in many riverine settings in the Eastern Woodlands of North America. These sites are remarkable, because they represent a shift from a previously mobile hunter-gatherer adaptation to increasing sedentism and social complexity. There are two predominant models explaining this shift in adaptation: subsistence intensification (cf. Dye 1996; Janzen 1971, 1977; McBride 2000) or mortuary/ceremonial elaboration (cf. Bender 1978; Claassen 1996; Crothers 1999; Marquardt 1985; Marquardt and Watson 1983). These models unnecessarily dichotomize the economic and social aspects of society. Alternatively, examining shell mounds in terms of the landscape in which they are situated provides a more complete picture of historic, social, and environmental contexts contributing to this cultural change.

As a case study, Shell Mound Archaic sites of the Falls of the Ohio region are examined from a landscape perspective. Existing archaeological and environmental data were collected and studied within a Geographic Information System (GIS) platform in order to model and reconstruct Shell Mound Archaic landscape contexts. A variety of GIS spatial analyses and spatial statistics techniques are used, including: linear distance modeling, cost-distance and corridor modeling, and nearest neighbor analysis. The results of this study suggest that shell mound locales are not randomly placed on the landscape, but represent complex relationships in both economic and social realms of the Archaic life.