Artifacts are objects that have been manufactured or modified (made) by human action. Examples of artifacts in Sarasota County include pottery, shell tools, stone tools, bone ornaments, and mound building.
Time Periods
The prehistory of Florida is a period of time before written records, and subsequently, archaeologists have tried to make sense of a very complex puzzle. Florida archaeologists have divided the prehistory of Sarasota County into different time periods and have assigned names to these culture groups.
Archaeological Sites
An archaeological site is a geographic area, which shows evidence of human activity. A site typically has artifacts and/or features. They range in size from large mounds and middens to a single artifact.
Florida Archaeology Month
Florida Archaeology Month is an annual statewide event held every March to encourage both residents and visitors to learn more about the archaeology and history of Florida and to preserve Florida’s rich cultural heritage. This event is sponsored by the Division of Historical Resources, Florida Department of State, Secretary of State, Katherine Harris, Florida Anthropological Society, Florida Archaeological Council, Florida State Parks, National Park Service, and U.S. Forest Service. Florida Archaeology Month is planned by the Florida Anthropological Society with its chapters throughout the state. Numerous events planned throughout the state by various groups and individuals include workshops, special exhibits, archaeological displays, lectures, and site tours.
Native Americans of Sarasota County
Information provide by Sarasota History Center
The early Spanish explorers recorded many of the historic names that we have today. The first official voyage to Florida occurred in 1513 under the direction of Juan Ponce de León who likely stowed his sails and landed south of Charlotte Harbor. Records of the these early explorers provide archaeologist with some of the tribal names but when you compare this to the fact that people have been living in Florida for the past 12,000 years it excludes a lot of tribal names that have been lost to the ages. Furthermore, many of the Native American groups that existed in the state did not have day-to-day contact with the Spanish. Tribes located in the south and within the interior were largely ignored by the Spanish who concentrated most of their contact and missionization in North Florida and the Panhandle.
So who were these groups of people that wandered our coast? With want for a better name, archaeologists call the first known populations within Florida “Paleoindians.” Named after the Paleolithic period in the Old World, these are the nomadic hunters and gathers that are believed to have entered in the New World from East Asia. Currently the dates for the first emergence into the new world are being pushed further and further into the past. But in Florida, we find the earliest evidence of these people a little over 12,000 year ago.
As time passed the nomadic hunters that settled in the Florida region dramatically changed their lifestyle. The changes were such that archaeologists classify the descendants of the Paleoindians as the Archaic peoples. The people of the Archaic lived from 7500 B.C. to 500 B.C. This time is known as the Archaic period and is broken down into three subperiods the early, middle, and late Archaic. Within each subperiod archaeologists can detect the subtle changes of the lifestyles of the Archaic populations and that allows us to track development of societies in Florida.
After 500 B.C. things really start happening in Florida. During this time, which in many places is called the Formative or Woodland period, regional cultures begin to develop. This regionalization is, in many ways, similar to what we have here in Florida today with the various regional and ethnic variations that make up this state. The first of these regional cultures in the Sarasota area was the Manasota. First identified by local archaeologist George Luer and Marion Almy, Manasota describes the culture of coastal dwellers that subsisted heavily on marine resources and lived in Sarasota from 500 B.C. to A.D. 800/1000. The term Manasota is a combination of the names of the two counties in which this culture is known to exist, Sarasota and Manatee. These people are responsible for the construction of many of the early shell middens that used to be located along our coasts.
Native American Shell Midden
Trade in prehistoric Florida
Information provide by Sarasota History Center
In general, these trade networks developed to exchange exotic goods such a decorative ceramics and highly specialized craft items simply because basic foodstuffs were gathered locally or regionally. However, not all basic items could be obtained locally. One of the main items traded into Sarasota County were rocks. Suitable lithic (stone) resources for the production of stone tools are not located within Sarasota County. The closest known quarry site is located in the northern Tampa Bay area. Anyone who has ever tried to dig down into his or her own backyard, there is no fear of hitting a solid immovable boulder. This is because of the underlying geological strata of Sarasota County is composed of quartz sand, clay, shell and limestone.
Fishing in Prehistoric Florida
Information provide by Sarasota History Center
Florida Native populations were expert fishermen and women by the time of Spanish contact in the 1500s. They used a variety of devices to catch their prey. The variety of tools for the harvest included nets, traps, weirs, hooks, spears, and harpoons. With such a tackle box they were able to catch a whole variety of fish including today’s favorite grouper. Using simple dugout canoes, they would often tackle these large fish out in Florida’s waters. However, these were not the most difficult to bring in for there is also evidence that Florida Natives often took on sharks and even whales
The evidence that we have for the hunter of sharks comes primarily from the shark’s teeth that are recovered from archaeological sites. Sharks teeth, which are naturally sharp, make fine cutting instruments. A simple tooth hafted on a stick could be used for fine engraving. A series of teeth hafted into a club can turn a weapon into an extremely deadly weapon. But all of this is beside the point, since sharks were primarily hunted for meat and the teeth were a bonus. Evidence from sites has shown that sharks from nurse to great whites were hunted. Sharks could have been caught in nets, speared or harpooned and with all of the fishing that was going on it would not have taken much to have drawn one close enough.
Evidence for the hunting of whales comes from Spaniards who actually witnessed hunts going on while ships traveled up and down the coast. One such Spaniard was Fray Andres de San Miguel, who in 1595, had been a shipwrecked sailor along the Georgia coast. Having made his way to St. Augustine, he was eventually sent down the coast to Cuba where he would again joining the Spanish fleets sailing to Spain. While sailing down the east coast, he his journal recounts how the natives would wait for whales to come into the shoals to feed. The natives would then paddle out to whales. Once along side the animal, the hunter would jump to the whales back and hold on for a ride. These actions would scare the whales into diving into the shallow water where they would quickly encounter the bottom and return to the surface. Whereupon the taking of the whale’s first breath, the hunter would have an opportunity to drive a wooden stake into the blowhole. Once blocked, the whale would die and wash up on the shore to serve as a bountiful harvest.
The expertise of Florida Natives in obtaining marine resources should never be under estimated. The ability to tackle some of the most intelligent and deadliest of species shows a level of expertise that today is not often found with out special equipment such as depth finders and expensive rods and reels. So the next time your visiting one our coastal shell middens, remember that the big one often did not get away and in fact more often showed up roasting over that nights fire.
Information for this article was obtained from Fray Andres de San Miguel.
2001 An Early Florida Adventure Story. Translated by John Hann. University of Florida Press. Gainesville
John Brown.
1994 Florida’s First People. Pineapple Press. Sarasota
Dan Hughes Archaeologist.
The Late Archaic Period in Sarasota County
Information provide by Sarasota History Center
The Late Archaic is period of incredible importance in Florida. This was a period when settlement and subsistence strategies were developed that would not change substantially until Spanish contact. This was also an age of technological advances as new lithic technologies were applied to the making of tools and the earliest forms of ceramics were developed.
Previously in the earlier periods, Florida’s Native populations practiced a non-sedentary way of life. They moved from location to location, hunting and gathering as they moved throughout what we know of as the state of Florida. It is during the late archaic when archaeologist begin to see the development of sedentary or semi-sedentary groups who spend long portions of the year living within single settlements or multiple settlements within a much smaller region.
This development of permanent or semi-permanent villages is developed in conjunction with a change in dietary practices. Until this time, the native groups had subsisted on hunting and gathering of terrestrial resources but as the coastline stabilized and the interior became increasingly wet, new resources developed that were ripe for exploitation. Thus, native populations shifted their hunting and gathering strategies to include marine and wetland resources. The abundance of food now available allowed people to stay in regions for longer periods of time.
Technological advances also enhanced the quality of life during this period. The most important of these advances would be the development of pottery. The creation of simple fired pots allowed natives to place cooking vessels directly against a fire for heating. Previously, vessels were made of tightly woven plant fibers, wood, or gourds. The new vessels that were created were constructed of fiber-tempered clays. Fiber-tempered pottery were hand-coiled clays that had various forms of fiber such as Spanish moss used as a tempering agent within the clay to add cohesion.
By the end of this period, we see increasing populations along coastal Sarasota County with ties to larger inland groups existing along the major rivers. Large shells middens would start to develop and populations became more sedentary. New technologies were developed. During the next 2000 years, cultures would rise and fall, but many of the same life-strategies developed during this brief period of time would remain until Spanish contact vastly changed the cultural landscape.
Dan Hughes, Archaeologist
Sites Along Sarasota Bay
Information provide by Sarasota History Center
By: Dan Hughs, Archaeologist
Prior to its development, Sarasota was a large Native American town, standing along the shores of Sarasota Bay. The town was inhabited by a large population that mainly subsisted on marine resources. These peoples formed what is today called the Manasota culture and inhabited the region over 2,500 years ago. They formed a large complex society with ranked divisions. Latter, these same people around 1,200 years ago developed into the what is called the Safety Harbor culture and live along the bay until arrival of Spanish explorers in 1500’s at which time their population underwent massive devastation due to new diseases which that spread across all of Florida.
Located within the immediate vicinity were five archaeological sites. Four of these were shell middens and the fifth was a large burial mound. In 1916, Captain R.D. Wainwright visited Sarasota to investigate many of the Native American sites that were located in and adjacent to the city. Just south of the city, he reported a large shell area that was three feet high and by 1916 had many streets cut through it. The shell midden was reported to have been comprised of conch, clam, and mussel shells. He also observed the large mound located at the corner Mound Street and Gulfstream Ave. Little did he know that within four short years a house would be placed on top of it, significantly impacting the archaeological site.
Today little is known about all of the archaeological sites and their inter-relationship. All of them have been built upon and the archaeological remains destroyed. However, limited excavations were conducted on two of the sites. In 1968, the Sarasota Historical Commission arranged for excavation of the remaining portions of the large mound. Several poorly preserved skeletons were excavated that has allowed us to date some of the occupation to the Manasota period but little else. In 1994, an excavation on a portion of one of midden sites provided a glimpse of the village life. Faunal remains recovered from the site indicated that the inhabitants subsisted on over 9 species of fish, 19 species of gastropods and 21 species of bivalves. Radiocarbon dates from the site indicate that it was occupied from 700-1220 A.D.
Today the village along the bay that existed for over two thousand years has been completely hidden through modern development. The land that was along the shore has been filled in and the shoreline pushed further to the west. So the next time you’re at the bay turn and face the town that once was. Imagine the large mound and surrounding middens. Imagine the smoke rising out of the structures as groups people rushed about on their daily routines of hunting and fishing. Image what once was and never will be again.
Information for this article was obtained from:
Grismer, Karl H. 1946 The Story of Sarasota. Flowers Growers Press, Tampa
Janus Research
1995 Limited Archaeological Excavations at the Pinard Midden (8SO99), Sarasota County. Ms. on file at the Sarasota County History Center.
Capt. R. D. Wainwright
1916 Two Month’s Research in the Sand and Shell Mounds of Florida. The Archaeological Bulletin 7(6): 1401-141
Dan Hughes, Archaeologist.
The Englewood Mound
Information provide by Sarasota History Center
Dan Hughes, Archaeologist
The excavations revealed a mound that had been constructed in two episodes. In the lowest levels of the mound, Newman discovered that the mound had originally been a pit, into which 124 individuals were interred in a mass burial episode. After the placement of burials, a think layer of red ocher (a red clay containing iron) was placed over the burials. A mixture of red ocher and sand forming a slight mound followed this layer. Afterwards, plain brown sand was piled on top to form a small mound to reach a height of approximately five feet.
The second episode of mound construction was not as elaborate as the first episode. The second episode is believed to have occurred shortly after the first mound had been completed. The size of the mound was now more than doubled in the second episode as new yellow sand was placed on top. Burials were randomly placed in the yellow sand and occasionally they penetrated into the first mound. From this period of use, 139 burials were added raising the total number of burials to 263.
Today as we look back at the early work of Dr. Newman, we can elaborate on the significance of his early work. For instance, we now know that the Englewood Mound was constructed and used during what is now called the Englewood Phase of the Safety Harbor culture, spanning the time period from A.D. 900-1100. The society that built this structure was socially organized into a chiefdom, whereby there was centralized authority and ranked classes. The first internment may represent the death of a significant individual who may have been buried with his or her followers, their remains having been stored awaiting the significant person’s death. The later burials and additional mound building may have been the work of a successor, as the burial mound was used as a communal burial location from multiple nearby sites.
When we look back, we can understand better where we have come from. The Englewood Mound provided archaeologists some of the clues to cultural formations with southern Sarasota and northern Charlotte counties. We can think of this period of the 1920s and 30s as a golden era, where the amount of questions we sought answers to equaled the available resources. Today, intact Burial Mounds are very rare and we have many more questions than resources. Archaeologists of today must search for every scrap of information and often they find themselves researching in collections of the past; excavating the excavations of this golden era.
Information for this article was obtained from Gordon Willey, Archaeology of the Gulf Coast 1949 and George Luer, An Introduction to the Maritime Archaeology of Lemon Bay, Florida in the Florida Anthropological Society Publication No. 14 1999
