The Archaeology, Art, and Iconography of Florida’s Watery Landscapes

Frank Hamilton Cushing’s 1896 excavations at Key Marco revealed astonishing carved and painted objects of wood rarely seen by archaeologists. Those following in Cushing’s footsteps have assembled a corpus of aesthetic objects from Florida, often in perishable materials. These range from an embarrassing number of dugout canoes, to the elaborate paddle-stamped pottery of Swift Creek, and from the wooden animal carvings of Fort Center’s mortuary pond to the owl totem of Hontoon Island. Connections to neighboring areas have been sought with some success; in general, however, the diversity of imagery often makes comparison a challenge. The papers in this symposium explore new discoveries and revisit existing museum collections, asking new questions or employing innovative analytical techniques. Cushing concluded his slim Key Marco report with the surmise that the boundless life of the sea provided the energetic impulse behind the artworks that he uncovered. While we might reach a different conclusion today, it’s clear that ancient Florida is difficult to comfortably place within the Southeast or Caribbean and that much of that difficulty arises from the iconography born of Florida’s watery landscapes.