Late Prehistoric Florida: Archaeology at the Edge of the Mississippian World

413 Pages·2012·27.4 MB·English

by  Keith Ashley

Late Prehistoric Florida
Florida Museum of Natural History: Ripley P. Bullen Series
University Press of Florida
Florida A&M University, Tallahassee
Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton
Florida Gulf Coast University, Ft. Myers
Florida International University, Miami
Florida State University, Tallahassee
New College of Florida, Sarasota
University of Central Florida, Orlando
University of Florida, Gainesville
University of North Florida, Jacksonville
University of South Florida, Tampa
University of West Florida, Pensacola
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Late Prehistoric Florida
Archaeology at the Edge of the Mississippian World
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EditEd by
Keith Ashley and Nancy Marie White
University Press of Florida
Gainesville · Tallahassee · Tampa · Boca Raton
Pensacola · Orlando · Miami · Jacksonville · Ft. Myers · Sarasota
Copyright 2012 by Keith Ashley and Nancy Marie White
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America. This book is printed on Glatfelter Natures
Book, a paper certified under the standards of the Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC).
It is a recycled stock that contains 30 percent post-consumer waste and is acid-free.
17 16 15 14 13 12 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Late prehistoric Florida : archaeology at the edge of the Mississippian world / edited by
Keith Ashley and Nancy Marie White.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8130-4014-1 (alk. paper)
1. Mississippian culture—Florida. 2. Excavations (Archaeology)—Florida. 3.
Florida—Antiquities. I. Ashley, Keith H. II. White, Nancy Marie.
E99.M6815L37 2012
975.9’01—dc23 2012000879
University Press of Florida
15 Northwest 15th Street
Gainesville, FL 32611-2079
http://www.upf.com
Contents
List of Figures vii
List of Tables ix
Preface and Acknowledgments xi
1. Late Prehistoric Florida: An Introduction 1
Keith Ashley and Nancy Marie White
2. Southwest Florida during the Mississippi Period 29
William H. Marquardt and Karen J. Walker
3. Mississippian Influence in the Glades, Belle Glade, and East
Okeechobee Areas of South Florida 62
Robert S. Carr
4. The Indian River Region during the Mississippi Period 81
Thomas E. Penders
5. Early St. Johns II Interaction, Exchange, and Politics: A View from
Northeastern Florida 100
Keith Ashley
6. The Alachua of North-Central Florida 126
Vicki Rolland
7. An Overview of the Suwannee Valley Culture 149
John E. Worth
8. Safety Harbor: Mississippian Influence in the Circum–Tampa Bay
Region 172
Jeffrey M. Mitchem
9. Fort Walton Culture in the Tallahassee Hills 186
Rochelle A. Marrinan
10. Fort Walton Culture in the Apalachicola Valley,
Northwest Florida 231
Nancy Marie White, Jeffrey P. Du Vernay, and Amber J. Yuellig
11. Defining Pensacola and Fort Walton Cultures in the Western
Panhandle 275
Norma Harris
12. The Mississippi Period in Florida: A View from the Mississippian
World of Cahokia 296
John E. Kelly
References Cited 311
List of Contributors 363
Index 365
Figures
1.1. Areas covered by volume chapters 2
1.2. Location of major Florida rivers, lakes, and bays 5
1.3. Florida and the Mississippian world 11
2.1. The Charlotte Harbor–Pine Island Sound–San Carlos Bay estuarine
system 30
2.2. Climatic fluctuations, sea-level episodes, and cultural chronologies
for southwest Florida and the greater Southeast, ca. 100 B.C.–A.D.
1700 32
2.3. Topographic map of Mound Key 48
2.4. Topographic map of the Pineland Site Complex 50
2.5. Topographic model of the Pineland Site Complex before twentieth-
century land modification 52
3.1. Map of southeastern and south-central Florida depicting principal
sites 63
3.2. Late Woodland– through historic-period chronology of southeastern
and south-central Florida 65
3.3. Nicodemus Earthworks 74
3.4. Shell-mask gorget uncovered in Palm Beach County 77
3.5. Shell gorget vulture uncovered at 8Da1081 in the Everglades 78
4.1. Indian River region 82
4.2. Major sites discussed in the chapter 91
4.3. Known radial and arc burial sites in Florida 94
5.1. Mill Cove Complex and Mt. Royal archaeological site locations 102
5.2. St. Johns II site locations in northeastern Florida 103
5.3. Copper long-nosed maskettes recovered from Grant Mound by C. B.
Moore in 1895 105
5.4. Spatulate celt #1 recovered from Shields Mound by C. B. Moore in
1895 106
5.5. Spatulate celt #2 recovered from Shields Mound by C. B. Moore in
1895 106
5.6. Mill Cove Complex showing location of Grant Mound, Shields
Mound, and Kinzey’s Knoll 108
viii · Figures
5.7. Broad view of the greater Southeast 113
6.1. Location of Alachua heartland and greater distribution of Alachua
ceramics 128
6.2. Gainesville-area sites 129
6.3. Examples of Prairie Cord Marked rim treatments 131
6.4. Alachua period pottery 131
7.1. Map showing major Suwannee Valley and Suwannee Valley–related
sites and site clusters 153
7.2. Ceramic types associated with the Suwannee Valley culture 160
8.1. Core of the Safety Harbor culture area in central peninsular Gulf
coast Florida 173
8.2. Englewood Incised pottery from Tatham Mound 177
8.3. Partial Safety Harbor Incised vessel from Tatham Mound 177
9.1. Tallahassee Hills region and adjacent territory 191
9.2. Diagrammatic representation of the Lake Jackson site (8Le1) 197
9.3. Chert projectile points excavated from Mound 3, Lake Jackson
210
9.4. Fort Walton Incised ceramic rim sherds from Mound 3, Lake
Jackson 211
9.5. Ceramic disks excavated from Mound 3, Lake Jackson 212
10.1. Map of Fort Walton sites in the Apalachicola/lower Chattahoochee
Valley 232
10.2. Schematic map of Fort Walton mound sites in Apalachicola/lower
Chattahoochee Valley 234
10.3. Celts from Fort Walton burials at the Corbin-Tucker site 236
10.4. Fort Walton ceramic types 238
10.5. Fort Walton Incised partial vessels 239
10.6. Lake Jackson rims showing attributes 240
10.7. Relative frequencies of Lake Jackson rim attributes 245
10.8. Fort Walton Incised design styles classified by Yuellig 250
10.9. Copper disks from the Corbin-Tucker site cemetery 254
10.10. Test Unit G at the Corbin-Tucker site, showing elite burials 255
10.11. Yon mound and village site 257
11.1. Western Florida panhandle 276
11.2. Counties of the western panhandle surrounding Pensacola,
Choctawhatchee, and St. Andrews bays 277
11.3. Geographic limits of Fort Walton and Pensacola pottery 278
11.4. Bowls with similar incised decorations from Pensacola and
Choctawhatchee bays 289
Tables
4.1. Recorded radial and arc burial patterns in peninsular
Florida 95
6.1. Commonly accepted Alachua chronology and associated
pottery types 130
6.2. Calibrated radiocarbon dates from Alachua sites 134
6.3. Frequency of Alachua surface treatments from
Rocky Point 135
7.1. Calibrated radiocarbon dates for Fig Springs, South End Village
(8Co1) 157
7.2. Ceramic types identified within the Suwannee Valley series at Fig
Springs, 1990 159
7.3. Decorative overtreatments identified within the Suwannee Valley
series at Fig Springs, 1990 161
7.4. Rim profile distribution by ceramic type at Fig Springs, 1990 163
7.5. Indigenous food taxa identified from all Suwannee Valley
contexts, including mission-era Jefferson components, Fig Springs,
1988–1990 168
9.1. Radiocarbon dates cited in text 194
9.2. Archaeological history of the Lake Jackson site (8Le1) 198
9.3. Overview of the Lake Jackson mounds 200
9.4. Summary of site development and ceramic chronology at the Lake
Jackson site 203
9.5. Summary of mortuary data from Lake Jackson Mound 3 205
9.6. Mound sites in the Tallahassee Red Hills area 213
10.1. Details of Fort Walton radiocarbon dates discussed in this
chapter 242
10.2. Temper in two diagnostic Fort Walton ceramic types in the Perry
Collection, Curlee site (8Ja7) 248
10.3. Maize from Fort Walton sites in the Apalachicola/lower
Chattahoochee Valley 264
11.1. Total Mississippi-period sites in five northwest Florida
counties 280