NOVEMBER 2017 SPEAKER: FGCU graduate student Katarina Stroh

THE WEDGWORTH MIDDEN FIELD SCHOOL & EXCAVATION

The Wedgworth Midden is a tree-island site located in Belle Glade, Florida; just south of Lake Okeechobee. This site, along with other tree-island sites, plays a significant role in the analysis of prehistoric life in the everglades. The Wedgworth Midden provides insight to the past environment of the northern Everglades and how the peoples who inhabited the tree islands utilized resources in that area. During the 2016 field school season, students from Florida Gulf Coast University had the opportunity to participate and learn from the site’s excavation. The field school allowed students to train in methods of archaeological data collection while also contributing to the growing information of prehistoric south Florida.

Katarina Stroh is a forensic studies masters student at Florida Gulf Coast University concentrating in human identity and trauma analysis. She received her bachelors of science from Florida Gulf Coast University in forensic studies, criminal justice, and legal studies with a special interest in anthropology. She participated in the Wedgworth field school in 2016 and continued research the following year, analyzing and identifying patterns within the faunal assemblage collected.