According to a forensic anthropologist at the University of Alabama, the fire area, littered with more than a thousand bones and shells, is consistent with campsites of western castaways who subsisted on anything that they could find to eat.
Stone tools and spear points, along with the remains of food such as animal bones and shells, were also uncovered, as was ochre, a naturally occurring clay rock that was one of the most important painting materials used traditionally by Aboriginal people.
For example, ancient middens, essentially preserved dumps of food waste such as bones and shells, were studied to glean the historical diets of the Aleuts.
Remnants of vertebrates' bones and mollusc shells were also distinguished.
Although they preserved the general structure of the bone-and-shell script, they were considerably elaborated and beautified.
Bone, tooth, mineralized tendon and sea shells are nanocomposites of protein and mineral with superior mechanical properties.
If it was an area of deposition like a floodplain, more material would be being piled on top, or an area with little activity has little change (or perhaps has not much rock exposed, such as on a savannah), but where the rocks are on the surface and eroding, the bones and shells within will be exposed.
The regular diet of vitamin-supplemented mixed millet seed, fresh water, cuttlefish bone and crushed oyster shells was supplemented once a week with fruits, vegetables and protein paste.
Water, cuttlefish bone and crushed oyster shells were available ad libitum throughout the training phase.
