Exposed Again: Current Environmental Impact on Dugout Canoes---their Research and Care!
Author(s): Donna Ruhl
Year: 2015
Summary
Across Florida, severe drought in recent years lowered water levels, especially in 2000 and then again a decade later. Both times this resulted in the exposure of dozens and dozens of ancient dugout canoes. This trend occurred not only in Florida, but also the greater southeastern U.S. This paper discusses the concerted efforts of state and local agencies as well as private stewards to document the environmental impact on these canoe finds, as exposure to sun and elements accelerated their degradation. This destructive process nevertheless provided an opportunity to again record, map, photo, sample, identify, analyze and even preserve a few of these remains. Results of this analysis include many new C-14 dates that reveal insights about paleoenvironmental impacts, waterscapes, settlement change, economies, and overall significance of these typically overlooked yet unique artifacts. In addition, initiatives to exhibit and preserve selected dugout canoes has given way to innovative, green methods for their stabilization and care.
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Cite this Record
Exposed Again: Current Environmental Impact on Dugout Canoes---their Research and Care!. Donna Ruhl. Presented at The 80th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, San Francisco, California. 2015 ( tDAR id: 397703)
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Keywords
Geographic Keywords
North America - Southeast
Spatial Coverage
min long: -91.274; min lat: 24.847 ; max long: -72.642; max lat: 36.386 ;