Florida Archaeology

The pace of change of Miami since its incorporation in 1896 is staggering. The seaside land that once was home to several thousand Tequesta is now congested with roads and millions of people while skyscrapers and artificial lights dominate the landscape. Ironically, Miami's development both continually erases monuments and traces of indigenous people and historic pioneers yet also leads to the discovery of archaeological treasures that have lain undiscovered for centuries

Assembles a variety of hard-to-find articles on two important Florida sites. Two of the most famous archaeological monuments in the southeastern United States--excavated first a century ago--are in Florida. Both Crystal River (near the Gulf Coast in Citrus County) and Mount Royal (on the St. Johns River just north of Lake George) help shape our appreciation of precolumbian Native American cultures.

This is the story of the great Spanish treasure fleet that sank of the Florida coast, and modern-day efforts to reclaim her cargo from the sea.

Prehistoric Florida societies, particularly those of the peninsula, have been largely ignored or given only minor consideration in overviews of the Mississippian southeast (A.D. 1000-1600). This groundbreaking volume lifts the veil of uniformity frequently draped over these regions in the literature, providing the first comprehensive examination of Mississippi-period archaeology in the state.      Featuring contributions from some of the most prominent researchers in the field, this collection describes and synthesizes the latest data from excavations throughout Florida. In doing so, it reveals a diverse and vibrant collection of cleared-field maize farmers, part-time gardeners, hunter-gatherers, and coastal and riverine fisher/shellfish collectors who formed a distinctive part of the Mississippian southeast.

In 1982, a backhoe operator working at what would become the new Windover Farms housing development in Titusville, Florida, uncovered a human skull. The bones of several other individuals soon emerged from the peat bog. It would be determined that the human remains uncovered at Windover were between 7,000 and 8,000 years old, making them 3,200 years older than King Tutankhamen and 2,000 years older than the Great Pyramids of Egypt. This was just the beginning of an archaeological adventure that continues today.

This volume aims to bring the archaeological study of Florida's Pre-Columbian past up to date, using new techniques, technologies and data to reveal that the Pre-Columbian natives were not isolated and environmentally segregated, as was previously thought.