The Belle Glade Culture Revisited

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)

The Belle Glade culture is one of the least understood prehistoric cultures. The culture area is confined to the bounds of the Kissimmee River valley and Lake Okeechobee basin and terminates somewhere in the northern Everglades. Early investigations lacked the opportunities that methods and theories afford today. Many of the early conclusions regarding this culture were drawn from other regions and applied without the benefit of data-driven testing of these hypotheses. The lectures presented in this symposium will discuss the results and inferences made from recent investigations using modern methodologies in the Belle Glade region.

Other Keywords
Earthworks • Belle Glade Culture • bioarchaeology • Paleodemography • Remote Sensing • Landscape • LiDAR • ontology • Monumentality • Monumental Construction

Geographic Keywords
North America - Southeast

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-7 of 7)

  • Documents (7)
Documents
  • Belle Glade Circular Earthworks: A New Interpretation (2016)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Robert Carr.

    A summary of prehistoric circular earthworks in the Lake Okeechobee and northern Everglades is provided. Their forms and their relation to the area's wetlands is discussed, and a hypothesis as to their function is provided.

  • Belle Glade Monumental Construction Examined (2016)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Christian Davenport.

    Some of the densest concentrations of prehistoric monumental construction in Florida are located within the Kissimmee River valley/ Lake Okeechobee basin areas. Based on 1930s-1940s aerial images and limited field investigations archaeologists have created typologies for the various circle ditch and linear earthworks. However, these studies did not examine the intra-relationships of the subcomponents that comprise the individual mound complexes, nor the intersite relationships to the physical...

  • Defining Boundaries: An Investigation of Boynton Mounds (8PB100) (2016)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Rebecca Stitt.

    In fall of 2013 preparations began for a limited study of the Boynton Mounds (8PB100) archaeological site. This group of earthwork lies nestled between the Okeechobee basin and East Okeechobee areas in central Palm Beach County Florida. Investigations aim to reveal similarities and dissimilarities between the two areas, which, in turn, may lead to a better understanding of regional variation in South Florida. The primary objective of this study is to identify which culture region Boynton Mounds...

  • Exploring the use of LiDAR Remote Sensing Data to Illuminate Belle Glade Earthworks (2016)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Donna Selch. Mark Rochelo. Chris Davenport.

    Locating and mapping methodology of archaeological earthworks for the prehistoric Native American Belle Glade culture can be improved by applying airborne LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) employing FUSION software and the Ground Filter program to these remote areas. This study compares the standard utilization of vendor created classes for ground classification to FUSION's software ground filter program. The two case study locations contain Belle Glade type B circular–linear earthwork...

  • Gathering Relations in an Aqueous World: Monumentality, Ontology, and the Belle Glade Landscape (2016)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Nathan Lawres. Matthew Colvin.

    Recent research on Pre-Contact South Florida has reinforced the notion that the peoples dwelling in the region inhabited a past material world much different from our own and from neighboring areas. In particular, the hydrologic characteristics of a subtropical landscape centered on the Lake Okeechobee basin are one of the central features of both the epistemology and ontology reflected in the earliest monumental architecture in the region. Yet these worldviews and worlds were not static...

  • Prehistoric Ceramics From the Boyer Survey of Lake Okeechobee in the Northern Everglades (2016)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Dorothy Block.

    In 2007, severe drought conditions at Lake Okeechobee, in the northern Everglades revealed 6 prehistoric archaeological sites. These were the Caleb Boyer , Ritta Island , Kreamer Island and three sites referred to as the Pelican Bay series. Since Phase 1 investigations failed to yield intact strata or datable carbon, it became necessary to assign each site’s temporal position based on their artifact assemblages. This paper presents and a detailed summary of the sites’ ceramics and concludes that...

  • Rethinking Population Dynamics of the Belle Glade Prehistoric Culture (2016)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Catherine Smith. Clifford T. Brown.

    The Belle Glade prehistoric culture of central peninsular Florida is very poorly known. Through standard osteological analyses of 78 individuals from Belle Glade Mound (8PB41), type site for the culture, estimates for age, sex, and stature were calculated and observations of dental and skeletal pathologies were noted. Sex could be estimated for 26 males and 25 females. Age distributions varied stratigraphically but were dominated by young adults aged 20-35 and middle adults aged 35-50. The age...