View of Taperinha shellmound. Roosevelt et al. (1992) excavated the site in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Although exploited commercially for shell for years, the site still stands about 6 meters tall. The results from the team's excavations of early Holocene strata near the base of the mound produced a series of radiocarbon dates on shell, charcoal, and pottery and TL dates on pottery, which ran between about 7100 and 5700 years ago. The team has recovered about 100 sherds of Archaic and Formative period pottery, a small percentage of which bears gemoetric incised rim decoration. Subsistence remains include abundant fishbone and fresh water pearly shellfish, small turtles, and amphibians. The team first published the site in Science (1992).