FLORIDA'S ANCIENT PEOPLES
Photographs of Artifacts & Historical Information
Showing Reverence.
Florida's first people. Artist: Marisa Renz
(available in Gift Shop)
Simpson (Paleo) Point. 11,000 years old.
Pendant crafted from a 5 million year-old extinct giant white shark tooth.
Bone pin, probably from a deer cannon bone.
Hernando Point. 1,800 to 2,500 years old
Citrus Point. Possible knife form of Hernando point. DeSoto County, FL.
Thonotosassa Point. Thrusting spear, dagger or knife. Peace River, FL.
Ceremonial axe head. Probably a traded item as this type of stone is not native
to Florida. Pine Island, FL. This artifact was donated to the Florida Museum of Natural History and is on display in their archaeology section.
AND THEN CAME MAN...
Excerpted from
"Fossiling in Florida:
A Guide for Diggers and Divers,"
by Mark Renz
Reprinted by permission - University Press of Florida
The role of early humans in Pleistocene extinctions
When did the first humans arrive in Florida? How did they get here?
What was their role in the demise of many prehistoric animals now
extinct in our state? How did Paleo humans survive in Florida? What
effect did climatic and environmental changes of 10,000 to 15,000
years ago have on the vegetation and wildlife, as well as the lifestyle
of these early settlers?
Since 1983, a small, ever-changing group of die-hard professional and
amateur scientists worked for a couple of months each year on what
became known as the Aucilla River Prehistory Project. Cosponsored
by the Florida Museum of Natural History, the Department of State's Division
of Historical Resources, and the National Geographic Society, the project
attempted to answer some of these questions.
The unspoiled Aucilla River begins its 69-mile flow to the Gulf of Mexico
in southern Georgia. A favorite waterway for canoists in Florida's Big
Bend, the river forms the boundary between Jefferson and Taylor counties. But
long before the river was considered a recreational getaway by modern man, it
had an extensive history of human habitation.
Here is what the project turned up:
- Seventy-five archaeological sites exist in or near the Aucilla River.
- More than 3,000 bone, stone and wood artifacts have been recovered from underwater
sights near Nuttall Rise alone.
- An 11,000 year-old Bison antiquus skull found in the Aucilla, provided the
inspiration for the project. Embedded in the skull was a broken spear tip.
- A 12,000-year-old, seven-and-a-half-foot mastodon tusk was found with butcher marks,
suggesting it was cut out of the animal's skull with stone knives, possibly
for ivory to make tools. The site is the earliest known "butcher" shop in
North America. Because the tusks are 700 years older than any site so far uncoverd
in the western United States, scientists wonder if humans may have migrated
to lower latitudes through an eastern passage rather than the far West as
traditionally thought.
- One of the world's richest collections of prehistoric-worked ivory was dontated to
the Florida Museum of Natural History by Dr. Richard Ohmes and his son, Donald. Found
in the Aucilla and Wacissa, the finds include a complete ivory foreshaft pin bearing
a decorative design on each side. It is the oldest artwork in North America.
- While the tossed and tumbled sediments along most of Florida's river and creek beds make
it tough to accurately date bones and other material, the Aucilla holds a well-layered
and preserved record of time.
- Well-preserved mastodon dung has been collected shedding light on this
unique proboscidian's diet, as well as providing additional proof of the site's
outstanding preservative qualities. DNA and the steroids have been extracted
from this material.
- From sediment samples which sometimes contain seeds, leaves, and twigs,
paleobotanists have already been able to decipher weather patterns, determine when a
plant or tree began growing in this part of the world, and when it altered
its form or died out altogether.
The Aucilla's numerous sites continue to offer scientists a chance to search
for in-place human artifacts to more accurately date the approximate century--even
the season--they were last used. We know that humans had at least a minor role
in forcing some of the larger prehistoric mammals into extinction because they were
all creatures we hunted. But it's still too early to determine if our role
was a major one, or if environmental changes may have brought on the mass
extinctions.
Perhaps we will soon find out exactly what wiped out such unusual animals as saber-toothed
cats and giant ground sloths. Or we will discover precisely when humans first entered
peninsular Florida and from which direction. When all is said and done,
maybe we'll discover that the earliest residents were snowbirds from Ohio, and that their
first observation was how much better things were in the North.
Flint chopping tool, Gilchrist County, FL.
Archaeology - Continued
Showing Reverence. Florida's first people. Artist: Marisa Renz
(available in Gift Shop)
Simpson (Paleo) Point. 11,000 years old.
Pendant crafted from a 5 million year-old extinct giant white shark tooth.
Bone pin, probably from a deer cannon bone.
Hernando Point. 1,800 to 2,500 years old
Citrus Point. Possible knife form of Hernando point. DeSoto County, FL.
Thonotosassa Point. Thrusting spear, dagger or knife. Peace River, FL.
Ceremonial axe head. Probably a traded item as this type of stone is not native to Florida. Pine Island, FL. This artifact was donated to the Florida Museum of Natural History and is on display in their archaeology section.
AND THEN CAME MAN...
Excerpted from
"Fossiling in Florida: A Guide for Diggers and Divers,"
by Mark Renz
Reprinted by permission - University Press of Florida
The role of early humans in Pleistocene extinctions
When did the first humans arrive in Florida? How did they get here?
What was their role in the demise of many prehistoric animals now
extinct in our state? How did Paleo humans survive in Florida? What
effect did climatic and environmental changes of 10,000 to 15,000
years ago have on the vegetation and wildlife, as well as the lifestyle
of these early settlers?
Since 1983, a small, ever-changing group of die-hard professional and
amateur scientists worked for a couple of months each year on what
became known as the Aucilla River Prehistory Project. Cosponsored
by the Florida Museum of Natural History, the Department of State's Division
of Historical Resources, and the National Geographic Society, the project
attempted to answer some of these questions.
The unspoiled Aucilla River begins its 69-mile flow to the Gulf of Mexico
in southern Georgia. A favorite waterway for canoists in Florida's Big
Bend, the river forms the boundary between Jefferson and Taylor counties. But
long before the river was considered a recreational getaway by modern man, it
had an extensive history of human habitation.
Here is what the project turned up:
- Seventy-five archaeological sites exist in or near the Aucilla River.
- More than 3,000 bone, stone and wood artifacts have been recovered from underwater
sights near Nuttall Rise alone.
- An 11,000 year-old Bison antiquus skull found in the Aucilla, provided the
inspiration for the project. Embedded in the skull was a broken spear tip.
- A 12,000-year-old, seven-and-a-half-foot mastodon tusk was found with butcher marks,
suggesting it was cut out of the animal's skull with stone knives, possibly
for ivory to make tools. The site is the earliest known "butcher" shop in
North America. Because the tusks are 700 years older than any site so far uncoverd
in the western United States, scientists wonder if humans may have migrated
to lower latitudes through an eastern passage rather than the far West as
traditionally thought.
- One of the world's richest collections of prehistoric-worked ivory was dontated to
the Florida Museum of Natural History by Dr. Richard Ohmes and his son, Donald. Found
in the Aucilla and Wacissa, the finds include a complete ivory foreshaft pin bearing
a decorative design on each side. It is the oldest artwork in North America.
- While the tossed and tumbled sediments along most of Florida's river and creek beds make
it tough to accurately date bones and other material, the Aucilla holds a well-layered
and preserved record of time.
- Well-preserved mastodon dung has been collected shedding light on this
unique proboscidian's diet, as well as providing additional proof of the site's
outstanding preservative qualities. DNA and the steroids have been extracted
from this material.
- From sediment samples which sometimes contain seeds, leaves, and twigs,
paleobotanists have already been able to decipher weather patterns, determine when a
plant or tree began growing in this part of the world, and when it altered
its form or died out altogether.
The Aucilla's numerous sites continue to offer scientists a chance to search
for in-place human artifacts to more accurately date the approximate century--even
the season--they were last used. We know that humans had at least a minor role
in forcing some of the larger prehistoric mammals into extinction because they were
all creatures we hunted. But it's still too early to determine if our role
was a major one, or if environmental changes may have brought on the mass
extinctions.
Perhaps we will soon find out exactly what wiped out such unusual animals as saber-toothed
cats and giant ground sloths. Or we will discover precisely when humans first entered
peninsular Florida and from which direction. When all is said and done,
maybe we'll discover that the earliest residents were snowbirds from Ohio, and that their
first observation was how much better things were in the North.
Flint chopping tool, Gilchrist County, FL.
Flint chopping tool, Gilchrist County, FL.