The Pineland Site Complex: A Southwest Florida Coastal Wetsite

Summary

South Florida is internationally known for its waterlogged sites, Key Marco and Fort Center being perhaps the best known. In 1990, the Florida Museum of Natural History was given a marvelous carved wooden bird figurehead, 27.4 cm in length, later interpreted as part of a mechanical waterbird figurehead (ca. A.D. 865-985). It had been found in 1971 in a spoil pile adjacent to a mosquito-control ditch at the southern boundary of the Pineland complex. That such an important but normally perishable artifact was found in good condition had us wondering what Pineland’s potential was for presenting wet deposits. Less than two years later, we discovered an intact waterlogged midden along one of the earlier (ca. A.D. 200-250) shorelines. We excavated a 4-x-1-m area (30-cm depth) of it, recovering unburned wood, cordage, and seeds, in addition to the usual shell, bone, and ceramic materials. More recently, in 2015 at another shoreline location, we excavated a 2-x-3-m area (40-cm depth) of waterlogged midden (ca. A.D. 500-600), again recovering unburned wood, seeds, and cordage, including a large fragment of knotted cordage. We comment on these discoveries in terms of intra-site location and temporality, and the predictability of future finds at Pineland and elsewhere.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• The Archaeology, Art, and Iconography of Florida’s Watery Landscapes

Keywords

Spatial Coverage