Forty years ago, the lettered olive was named the State Shell of South Carolina. The
highly polished shell is valued by collectors and abundant along the shorelines of the
Lowcountry.
The lettered olive was first recognized in 1834 by Dr. Edmund Ravenel, internationally
renowned as a pioneer conchologist. The cylindrical shells are approximately two and
one half inches long and cream to gray in color with brownish-purple zigzagged bands.
The zigzag markings, thought to resemble letters or ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, gave
rise the name “lettered.”
The lettered olive is a predatory sea snail common in shallow, sandy environments of
the Lowcountry coast. The empty shells often wash ashore on the beaches. South
Carolina Native Americans prized the glossy shells for jewelry making. Portieres
(curtains hung in doorways to give a sense of separation between rooms) were made
from lettered olives collected and strung by locals to be sold to tourists in the 1900s.
Hunting Island is a great spot for shell hunters. Take a stroll and you may just spy a
lettered olive among the cockles, jingles, augers and other myriad of wonders on the
amazing beaches of the Lowcountry.
