Manasota Key Cemetery: New Burial Pattern Interpretations from the Florida Gulf Coast

Summary

The Manasota Culture prospered from around 500 B.C. to A.D. 800 along the Florida coastline that stretches from Tampa Bay to the northern end of Charlotte Harbor. The Manasota Key Cemetery in Englewood, Florida, is one of the largest known Manasota burial sites with one hundred and twenty-two documented burials. Wilbur "Sonny" Cockrell excavated the site along with a team of Florida archaeologists and local volunteers from 1988 to 1989. Very few publications discuss the Manasota Key Cemetery. Of the few publications that do discuss the cemetery, none focus on interpreting the burial patterns present at the site. Due to the site’s size and overall importance for understanding the archaeology of the Florida Gulf Coast, it is necessary to attempt to decipher the burial patterns at the cemetery. Through such an analysis, it is possible to gain insight into the lives and beliefs surrounding death of the people interred within the cemetery. This poster presents new interpretations of the site’s burial patterns and examines what these interpretations may suggest about the Manasota people.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage