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…
CENTURY: A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF CHARLOTTE COUNTY James Abraham is a former journalist who now edits and publishes books. His Book-broker Publishers, which he founded in 2004, has produced or edited more than 500 books in a variety of genres. Abraham is a popular writing coach, critic, and lecturer. A…
THE ANTHROPOGENIC MOVEMENT OF LIGHTNING WHELK DURING THE ARCHAIC: A WELL-TRAVELED MOLLUSK Michelle Calhoun Lightning whelk is a fairly common sight on our southwest Florida, Gulf coast beaches. In fact, eastern Gulf of Mexico lightning whelk population studies show that 82% can be found between Charlotte Harbor and Ten Thousand…
Dive into the legend of the infamous pirate Gasparilla and the lasting impact it’s made on southwest Florida’s coast. While exploring the local origins of the legend, we’ll uncover the historical background of how a “big fish” story captured a railroad tycoon and made its mark on our coast forever….
This presentation will cover a project in Collier County, FL that devised a system for prioritizing cultural sites based on when they are likely to flood due to sea level rise, how vulnerable they are to flooding, and the consequences if the sites are lost. Hopefully this project will start…
FLORIDA ICE AGE (PLEISTOCENE) MAMMALS The sedimentary sequence in Florida began in the Eocene during the Cenozoic period, which is Earth’s current geological era. The Pleistocene era, commonly known as “The Ice Age,” began approximately 2.6 million years ago and lasted until approximately 12,000 years ago, with megafauna, described as…
EMERGENCE OF THE CALUSA KINGDOM When Spaniards first arrived, the Calusa, a fishing people, were the most powerful native society in Florida. We now have evidence from Mound Key of mound-building, monumental architecture, large-scale food processing, watercourt use and construction, and the sixteenth-century Spanish fort and mission of San Antón…
SHARK TEETH FROM OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES AND SURFACE FOUND COLLECTIONS –MORE THAN JUST HOPEWELL Although rare, fossil shark teeth from outside of Ohio have been recovered from Ohio archaeological sites and as surface finds throughout much of the state. The source of these fossil shark teeth has been the subject…