Archaeology Of Precolumbian Florida

The books in the Florida and the Caribbean Open Books Series demonstrate the University Press of Florida’s long history of publishing Latin American and Caribbean studies titles that connect in and through Florida, highlighting the connections between the Sunshine State and its neighboring islands. Books in this series show how early explorers found and settled Florida and the Caribbean. They tell the tales of early pioneers, both foreign and domestic. They examine topics critical to the area such as travel, migration, economic opportunity, and tourism. They look at the growth of Florida and the Caribbean and the attendant pressures on the environment, culture, urban development, and the movement of peoples, both forced and voluntary. The Florida and the Caribbean Open Books Series gathers the rich data available in these architectural, archaeological, cultural, and historical works, as well as the travelogues and naturalists’ sketches of the area in prior to the twentieth century, making it accessible for scholars and the general public alike. The Florida and the Caribbean Open Books Series is made possible through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, under the Humanities Open Books program.

Given its pivotal location between the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, its numerous islands, its abundant flora and fauna, and its subtropical climate, Florida has long been ideal for human habitation. Yet Florida traditionally has been considered peripheral in the study of ancient cultures in North America, despite what it can reveal about social and climate change. The essays in this book resoundingly argue that Florida is in fact a crucial hub of archaeological inquiry. New Histories of Pre-Columbian Florida represents the next wave of southeastern archaeology. Contributors use new data to challenge well-worn models of environmental determinism and localized social contact. Indeed, this volume makes a case for considerable interaction and exchange among Native Floridians and the greater Southeastern United States as seen by the variety of objects of distant origin and mound-building traditions that incorporated extraregional concepts. Themes of monumentality, human alterations of landscapes, the natural environment, ritual and mortuary practices, and coastal adaptations demonstrate the diversity, empirical richness, and broader anthropological significance of Florida’s aboriginal past.

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 Mississipian southeast.

The books in the Florida and the Caribbean Open Books Series demonstrate the University Press of Florida’s long history of publishing Latin American and Caribbean studies titles that connect in and through Florida, highlighting the connections between the Sunshine State and its neighboring islands. Books in this series show how early explorers found and settled Florida and the Caribbean. They tell the tales of early pioneers, both foreign and domestic. They examine topics critical to the area such as travel, migration, economic opportunity, and tourism. They look at the growth of Florida and the Caribbean and the attendant pressures on the environment, culture, urban development, and the movement of peoples, both forced and voluntary. The Florida and the Caribbean Open Books Series gathers the rich data available in these architectural, archaeological, cultural, and historical works, as well as the travelogues and naturalists’ sketches of the area in prior to the twentieth century, making it accessible for scholars and the general public alike. The Florida and the Caribbean Open Books Series is made possible through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, under the Humanities Open Books program.

Methods, Mounds, and Missions offers innovative ways of looking at existing data, as well as compelling new information, about Florida’s past. Diverse in scale, topic, time, and region, the volume’s contributions span the late Archaic through historic periods and cover much of the state’s panhandle and peninsula, with forays into the larger Southeast and circum-Caribbean area. Subjects explored in this volume include coastal ring middens, chiefly power and social interaction in mound-building societies, pottery design and production, faunal evidence of mollusk harvesting, missions and missionaries, European iron celts or chisels, Hernando de Soto’s sixteenth-century expedition, and an early nineteenth-century Seminole settlement. The essays incorporate previously underexplored markers of culture histories such as clay sources and non-chert lithic tools and address complex issues such as the entanglement of utilitarian artifacts with sociocultural and ritual realms. Experts in their topical specializations, this volume’s contributors build on the research methods and interpretive approaches of influential anthropologist Jerald Milanich. They update current archaeological interpretations of Florida history, developing and demonstrating the use of new and improved tools to answer broader and larger questions. A volume in the Florida Museum of Natural History: Ripley P. Bullen Series

"An important book about a natural World Heritage site that also has a rich human heritage."--American Archaeology "As the only available synthesis of the archaeology of the Everglades, this book fills an important niche."--Choice "Adds immeasurably to our knowledge of South Florida archaeology."--Journal of Field Archaeology "Offers a vivid glimpse into a rich cultural past in an oftentimes misunderstood and overlooked region of our country."--H-Net "Detailed descriptions of archaeological surveys and test excavations dovetail nicely with broader chapters on settlement, subsistence, and social organization. This is a valuable reference work."--SMRC Revista "An extremely important work. . . . John has brought his unprecedented knowledge of the archaeology together with his anthropological and ecological insights, to provide the most thorough synthesis of the predrainage aboriginal use of this area. Now that Congress has mandated the restoration of the Everglades . . . this book will provide researchers as well as the general public with an understanding of what the Everglades were like prior to drainage and how humans utilized this natural wonder."--Randolph J. Widmer, University of Houston Originally prepared as a report for the National Park Service in 1988, Griffin's work places the human occupation of the Everglades within the context of South Florida's unique natural environmental systems. He documents, for the first time, the little known but relatively extensive precolumbian occupation of the interior portion of the region and surveys the material culture of the Glades area. He also provides an account of the evolution of the region's climate and landscape and a history of previous archaeological research in the area and fuses ecological and material evidence into a discussion of the sequence and distribution of cultures, social organization, and lifeways of the Everglades inhabitants. Milanich and Miller have transformed Griffin's report into an accessible, comprehensive overview of Everglades archaeology for specialists and the general public. Management plans have been removed, maps redrawn, and updates added. The result is a synthesis of the archaeology of a region that is taking center stage as various state and federal agencies cooperate to restore the health of this important ecosystem, one of the nation's most renowned natural areas and one that has been designated a World Heritage Site and a Wetland of International Importance. This book will make a key work in Florida archaeology more readily available as a springboard for future research and will also, at last, allow John Griffin's contribution to south Florida archaeology to be more widely appreciated. John W. Griffin, a pioneer in Florida archaeology, was an archaeologist for both the Florida Park Service and the National Park Service (NPS), director of the NPS Southeast Archeological Center in Macon, Georgia, and director of the St. Augustine Preservation Board. Jerald T. Milanich is emeritus professor at the University of Florida/Florida Museum of Natural History and author of numerous books about the native peoples of the Southeast United States. James J. Miller was state archaeologist and chief of Florida’s Bureau of Archaeological Research for twenty years and is now a consultant in heritage planning. A volume in the Florida Museum of Natural History: Ripley P. Bullen Series

Pre-Columbian artifacts are among the most popular items on the international antiquities market, yet it is becoming increasingly difficult to monitor these items as public, private, and digital sales proliferate. This timely volume explores past, current, and future policies and trends concerning the sales and illicit movement of artifacts from Mesoamerica to museums and private collections. Informed by the fields of anthropology, economics, law, and criminology, contributors critically analyze practices of research and collecting in Central American countries. They assess the circulation of looted and forged artifacts on the art market and in museums and examine government and institutional policies aimed at fighting trafficking. They also ask if and how scholars can use materials removed from their context to interpret the past. The theft of cultural heritage items from their places of origin is a topic of intense contemporary discussion, and The Market for Mesoamerica updates our knowledge of this issue by presenting undocumented and illicit antiquities within a regional and global context. Through discussion of transparency, accountability, and ethical practice, this volume ultimately considers how antiquities can be protected and studied through effective policy and professional practice. A volume in the series Maya Studies, edited by Diane Z. Chase and Arlen F. Chase

Yale University Publications In Anthropology, No. 47.