Due to the North Port special election of May 13th, the WMS/LSS Archaeological Society will meet the second WEDNESDAY of the month (May 14th) at our new time and meeting place: North Port Public Library 13800 Tamiami Trail at 6:30 PM (Veranda Room). Speaker will be in-person. The speaker will…
PALEO RECONSTRUCTION OF FLORIDA Robin Speidel This project entails a comprehensive paleo reconstruction of Florida spanning an incredible 200 million years. Through meticulous research, advanced mapping techniques, along with a passion for geology, we will embark on a visual journey through Florida’s geological past while highlighting the geologic framework which…
BEYOND THE EXCAVATION: INTERPRETING ANGOLA Jean L. Lammie IN PERSON SPEAKER PRESENTATION (Zoom might be available at this link Meeting ID: 875 9116 9750 Passcode: 049553) Where enslavement exists, so too does the desire for freedom. Prior to the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, many enslaved individuals ran from their enslavement…
WHAT ARTIFACTS?: EXPLORING HOW GEOARCHAEOLOGISTS INFER PAST HUMAN BEHAVIOR Dr. Anthony Tricarico Archaeology is the study of past human activity through the artifacts left behind. But how can archaeologists study and infer past human behavior without the recovery of material culture? Geoarchaeology is an interdisciplinary field combining the methods of…
EVIDENCE OF THE 1492 LANDING OF COLUMBUS IN THE AMERICAS Kathy Gerace ZOOM REGISTRATION LINK Meeting ID: 875 9116 9750 Passcode: 049553 We are pleased to welcome WMS/LSSAS president, Kathy Gerace, to our January 14 meeting to present an update of her October 2017 presentation. Kathy will be presenting via…
COASTAL MIGRATIONS AND INTERREGIONAL EXCHANGE: COONTIE ISLAND AND THE ORIGINS OF THE THORNHILL LAKE PHASE Dr. Jon Endonino Analysis of Archaic chipped and groundstone artifacts from Coontie Island has enhanced our understanding of interregional exchange between Florida and the greater southeastern coastal plain. Beads, bannerstones, and bifaces signal connections between…
A SHORT HISTORY OF THE FORGOTTEN COLONY Stephen Valdes Florida was the first colony to have its own militia, by 1567, during its time as a territory of Spain. Tensions between England and Spain played out across East and West Florida over the next 200 years. British West Florida was…
ANCIENT HIGHWAYS: TRAILS AND WATERWAYS Steven H. Koski When Europeans “discovered” the “New World,” it was not new at all to the Indigenous inhabitants of North and South America, who purportedly entered the continent from Asia, ca. 14,000 to 20,000 years ago, or more. Over those many millennia, Indigenous Peoples…
EVIDENCE OF THE 1492 LANDING OF COLUMBUS IN THE AMERICAS Kathy Gerace We are pleased to welcome back WMSLSSAS president Kathy Gerace, co-founder of the Gerace Research Center with her late husband, Donald Gerace, for a topic most appropriate for October, the landing place of Columbus. She kindly presented this…
WEEDS AND SEEDS: A HISTORY OF DINING IN SOUTHERN FLORIDA Cattle, citrus, and many other common foods today were brought to Florida by the Spanish, so what were people eating before then? This talk covers what people would have had for dinner in Southwest Florida 2,000 years ago. Topics of…
Dr. Jeffrey M. Mitchem After graduating high school in Lakeland, Florida, Dr. Mitchem intended to go into veterinary medicine, but instead earned a Bachelor of Arts with honors in Anthropology at the University of Florida. He then attended the University of South Florida (Tampa) for a M.A. in Public Archaeology…
WHAT CAN SHELL TELL? OYSTERS AND ARCHAEOLOGY Dr. Jessica A. Jenkins Thousands of oyster middens and mounds filled with billions of oyster shells line the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of North America. In the past, archaeologists did not pay much attention to these shells except to note their presence, oftentimes…
FORENSIC ARCHAEOLOGY: RECONSTRUCTING THE PRE-CONTACT ARCHAEOLOGICAL LANDSCAPES OF NORTH PORT Dr. Maranda Kles This society is named for two famous archaeological sites in North Port- Warm Mineral Springs (8So19) and Little Salt Spring (8So18). However, did you know that there is a third spring site with similar archaeological findings? This…
HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT: CHACHAPOYA MORTUARY ARCHAEOLOGY ON CLIFFS IN HIGHLAND PERU Dr. J. Marla Toyne Traditional archaeological practice involves mapping and excavating ancient settlements and cemeteries, but bioarchaeological research of the cliff tombs in the Chachapoyas region of northeastern Peru is stymied by natural and technological challenges. Exploring these…
STICKS OF FIREDr. Thomas Pluckhahn It is a story repeated so often as to be widely accepted as fact: the city of Tampa—and by extension Tampa Bay—take their names from a word for “sticks of fire” in the language of the Calusa. But this is just one of several purported…
Archaeological Investigations at the 1559-1561 Tristán de Luna Settlement in Pensacola, Florida Dr. John Worth, Professor of Anthropology at University of West Florida Dr. Worth will provide an overview of archaeological work by the University of West Florida at the site of the terrestrial settlement of the Tristán de Luna…
WHAT THE HECK IS THE ROBERT S. PEABODY INSTITUTE OF ARCHAEOLOGY AND WHAT DOES IT HAVE TO WITH FLORIDA? We are excited to welcome, virtually, to our October 12 meeting, the eighth director of the Robert S. Peabody Institute of Archaeology, Dr. Ryan Wheeler. The Peabody name is synonymous with…
THE HISTORY OF FLORIDA MULLET Manager of Sarasota County Division of Historical Resources, Dr. Joshua Goodman At first blush, most folks would not think of mullet as a very interesting fish. Some may not even be aware that a mullet is a fish and not just a hairstyle! Kidding aside,…
PLEISTOCENE SURVIVORS As the last Ice Age came to a close much of the mega-fauna in North America went extinct. However, there were survivors, and the story is not only often overlooked, but also important to understanding the current mass extinction we are now going through. This presentation will focus…
ARCHAEOLOGICAL DOCUMENTATION OF PENSACOLA’S SUBMERGED HISTORY (AND OTHER WORTHY PURSUITS) For more than 460 years, Pensacola’s waterways have been navigated by Spanish colonization ships, British warships, Civil War schooners, and numerous fishing and lumber vessels. Hurricane activity, warfare, and intentional abandonment sent many of these ships to the bottom of…
THE MILL COVE COMPLEX: DAILY LIFE, FEASTING, AND FARAWAY CONNECTIONS Located near the mouth of the St. Johns River in northeastern Florida, the Mill Cove Complex was one of the most significant Indigenous communities in Florida 1,000 years ago. While daily life centered around the exploitation of estuarine resources, these fisher-hunter-gatherers…