What’s For Dinner: An Examination of Animal Resources Utilized in the Okeechobee Basin Area of Florida.

Summary

In order to gain a better understanding of the faunal diet composition of Native Americans in south-central Florida, an examination was conducted to determine which types of animals appeared most frequently within tree island assemblages. Of the 19,149 bones examined from a 2016 excavation, all were identified to at least an animal’s taxonomic order, although identification to the species level was usually not possible due to the fragmentary nature of the sample. This information was compared with radiocarbon data to determine changes to diet through time as well as with oral histories from Seminole community members in order to compare stated dietary preferences with prehistoric evidence. The study determined that the three most prominent animal types present are turtle, fish, and snake, and that there were fluctuations in animal composition present throughout time which may indicate a changing environment and differential resource availability and exploitation. There is strong evidence that climatic changes, specifically the Little Ice Age, had an impact on the diets of tree island inhabitants. Understanding the environmental changes through time and their impacts on subsistence patterns indicate the ways in which tree island inhabitants reacted to these environmental changes.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 20457