Past Its Best-Before Date?
This shell (Crassostrea virginica) is one of 85 collected from a 3800-year-old Oyster bed found at Evangeline Beach, Nova Scotia. Compared to today’s Bay of Fundy Oysters, it would have taken far fewer of these to make a meal – the shell you see is more than 15 centimetres long. Why so big? The channel from the Bay of Fundy to the Minas Basin had not yet opened up. That meant that tides in the area were not as extreme as they are now, making growing conditions much more favourable than today.
Object type:
Molluscs
Object #:
11652
Collection name:
Curator:
Date (age/made):
3800 years BP
Origin/place:
Evangeline Beach; Kings Co., NS
Materials:
Shell
Dimensions:
17 cm L x 10 cm W x 4.5 cm H