September 14, 2021 Speaker: Dr. Victor Thompson

CALUSA AND SPANISH HISTORIES AT MOUND KEY We welcome Dr. Thompson, to our September 14 Zoom meeting. His topic is of local and familiar interest, the Calusa of Mound Key, Charlotte Harbor, and the bays and estuaries of southwest Florida. In 1566, Pedro de Menéndez de Aviles arrived at the…

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May 11, 2021 Speaker: Dr. April Watson

PREHISTORIC FOOD RESOURCES IN COASTAL SOUTH FLORIDA Dr. April Watson How do archaeologists investigate the ways people have eaten through time? The study of these leftovers give us a powerful tool for understanding past human behavior. Leftovers such as bones, scales, and shells can help archaeologists explore the ways that…

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April 13, 2021 Speaker: Jeff Moates

AMPLIFIED: AFRICAN AMERICAN CEMETERIES IN TAMPA BAY Jeff Moates, Director of the West Central and Central Regional Centers of the Florida Public Archaeology Network April 13, 2021 Zoom Meeting In 2020 groups in the Tampa Bay area began a quest to replace, buildover, and destroyed African American cemeteries. These places…

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March 9, 2021 Speaker: Frank Cassell

SARASOTA COUNTY HISTORY As part of our Sarasota County 2021 Centennial Celebration, we welcome historian Dr. Frank Cassell, author of Creating Sarasota County (2017), and Suncoast Empire, Bertha Honore Palmer, Her Family, and the Rise of Sarasota (2019). Frank will recount the dramatic history and tales of the men and…

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JANUARY 2021 SPEAKER: Dr. Edward González-Tennant

EXCAVATING ROSEWOOD: AN ARCHAEOLOGY OF VIOLENCE AND HOPE Rosewood was a prosperous African American community hard-won from the swampy hammocks of north Florida. Although the town was destroyed in 1923, the community continued, scattered across the state of Florida and beyond. Now, nearly 100 years after this tragic event the…

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OCTOBER 13, 2020 SPEAKER: Eric Prendergast

A JAR FULL OF LOVE LETTERS AND OTHER ADVENTURES IN TAMPA ARCHAEOLOGY Recent archaeological work in downtown Tampa focused on parts of former Fort Brooke, an important military installation from the Period of Indian Removal in early American Florida. The work uncovered the location of the fort’s lost cemetery, buried…

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SEPTEMBER 8, 2020 SPEAKER: Michelle Calhoun

SHELL TOOL ANALYSIS FROM SNAKE ISLAND New College of Florida undergraduate student and WMS/LSSAS member Michelle Calhoun will be the speaker at our April 14 meeting. Her topic, “A Preliminary Analysis of Columella Tools and Gastropod Hammers from Snake Island, Sarasota County, Florida (8So2336). Snake Island is a small island…

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MARCH 10, 2020 SPEAKER: Lindsay Ogles

FINDING OVERTOWN – SARASOTA’S FIRST AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY Few newcomers to Sarasota County would know that the Rosemary District in Sarasota was once known as Overtown and part of the original plat of the Town of Sarasota in 1885. Beginning in the 1890’s African Americans settled there. It was north…

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FEBRUARY 11, 2020 SPEAKER: William Locascio

EVERGLADES ARCHAEOLOGY Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) Assistant Professor, William Locascio, will be the speaker at our February 11 meeting. His topic will cover recent excavations by his FGCU students in the Everglades Agricultural Area. He has shown that the Everglades was inhabited for thousands of years in the Archaic…

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JANUARY 14, 2020 SPEAKER: Ted Ehmann

RETHINKING CALUSA Upon retiring to Charlotte County in 2016, author Ted Ehmann was curious why after over twenty-five years of researching and visiting the Indian mounds of the Hopewell and Mississippian cultures of North America, there was not one mention of the Calusa and the mound building cultures in Charlotte…

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DECEMBER 10, 2019 SPEAKER: Rick Kilby

THE MAGICAL SPRINGS OF OLD FLORIDA (Presentation Description Provided by Speaker) “As I traveled the state while working on my book, Finding the Fountain of Youth, I observed that many Florida springs shared a similar history. First, the Native Americans who inhabited the state considered the pristine waters of springs…

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NOVEMBER 12, 2019 SPEAKER: Dr. Anna Dixon

MARKS OF IDENTITY: THE ETHNOBOTANY OF TATTOOING The resurgence of interest in traditional tattooing, as well as concern about the safety of commercial inks, has led to a search for “natural,” “traditional,” products for tattoos. Scientific techniques for visualizing and analyzing ancient tattoos preserved on mummified human remains have been…

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OCTOBER 8, 2019 SPEAKER: Dr. Charles Cobb

EARLY SPANISH CONTACT IN THE NEW WORLD  On October 8, we welcome Florida Museum of Natural History Curator and Professor, Dr. Charles Cobb, who will present a program on one of his research projects titled, “The Remains of the Fray: Native American Re-purposing of Spanish Expedition Objects”. He will discuss…

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SEPTEMBER 10, 2019 SPEAKER: Gene Dole

FINDING LUCY – OUR 3.5 MILLION-YEAR-OLD ANCESTOR The 1972 and 1973 International Afar Research Expeditions were groundbreaking in what they discovered. The presentation on September 10 by Gene Dole will discuss his personal involvement in the expeditions, the formation of the first truly multinational paleontological research team, the geological background…

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MAY 2019 SPEAKER: Xenia-Paula Kyriakou

BIOARCHAEOLOGY OF MONASTICISM: THE UNRULY NUNS OF CYPRUS This month we welcome FGCU visiting professor, forensic anthropologist Xenia Kyriakou who will present a program on one of her research projects titled, “Bioarchaeology of Monasticism: the unruly nuns of Cyprus.” The presentation will cover the discovery of the human remains from…

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APRIL 2019 SPEAKER: Maranda Kles

FLORIDA’S ARCHAIC AND MANASOTA PERIOD POPULATIONS: DISTANT COUSINS OR UNRELATED NEIGHBORS ? We welcome back bio archaeologist and forensic archaeologist Maranda Kles to our April 9 meeting. With the discovery of the submerged burial site off Manasota Key, there has been a surge of interest in the relationships of pre-contact Native American…

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MARCH 2019 SPEAKER: Robert S. Carr

NEW DISCOVERIES OF THE EVERGLADES LANDSCAPE: LOST CREEKS AND PREHISTORIC SITES Archaeological testing of agricultural fields in the eastern Everglades has resulted in the discovery of creeks and prehistoric sites buried beneath the muck. This creek system had been previously unknown and was undetected during earlier assessments. Aerial photographs taken…

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FEBRUARY 2019 SPEAKER: Theresa Schober

THE MAKING OF ESCAMPABA: THE KINGDOM OF CARLOS Remnants of elevated mounds and ridges, sculpted canals and water courts remain a visible yet subtle reminder of the once thriving Calusa chiefdom that controlled the southern third of the Florida peninsula by the 16th century. Mound Key — the Calusa principal village, located…

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JANUARY 2019 SPEAKER: Heather Walsh Haney

THE SCIENCE AND ART OF READING BONES On January 8, 2019 we welcome Forensic Anthropologist Dr. Heather Walsh Haney for a presentation titled “The Science and Art of Reading Bones.” Dr. Walsh-Haney is an Associate Professor at Florida Gulf Coast University who studied at the University of Florida under Dr….

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DECEMBER 2018 SPEAKER: Christian Davenport

THE PREHISTORY OF PALM BEACH COUNTY Similar to Sarasota County, Palm Beach County has a Historical Preservation Element in their Comprehensive Plan and includes an Archaeological and Historic Preservation Ordinance in their Unified Land Development Code. Mr. Davenport will give an overview of the prehistory of Palm Beach County in…

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NOVEMBER 2018 SPEAKER: Dr. Anthony Randazzo

GEOLOGIC HISTORY AND SIGNIFICANCE OF WARM MINERAL SPRINGS AND LITTLE SALT SPRINGS Warm Mineral Springs and Little Salt Springs are well known for their warm mineralized water and importance ecologically, archaeologically, and recreationally. The intimate relationship between land and sea have sculpted these features which represent unique geologic entities whose…

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