Post by Moon Seeker on Dec 3, 2005 12:01:46 GMT -5
Storm exposes Chadwick Mound to allow closer look
By Kevin Lollar
klollar@news-press.com
Originally posted on December 03, 2005
The dark clouds of Hurricane Charley may end up having a silver archaeological lining.
Before Charley made landfall Aug. 13, 2004, Chadwick Mound, a Calusa settlement on the north end of Captiva Island at South Seas Resort & Yacht Harbour, was obscured by vegetation.
But the storm's 145-mph winds knocked down trees and blew away leaves, exposing the site. So the owners, Plantation Development Limited and the Mariner Group, decided the time had come to get some serious archaeology done.
Among the most important aspects of the project is extensive radiocarbon dating, a technique archaeologists hope will reveal the site's age and its various stages of development.
"For years, the site has been hidden, and not many people knew about it," Mariner's Ray Pavelka said.
"After Charley, it's a very obvious landscape feature, and there's a need to properly protect it. To do that, we need to find out more about it, and to do that, we need to get archaeologists out here."
The owners have put up about $50,000 in a contract with the University of Florida anthropology department to do the work. The effort will include excavations of five pits by professional archaeologists, volunteers and students.
Eventually, the site may be open to the public on a limited basis.
At the time of contact with Europeans in 1513, the Calusa were the dominant people in South Florida. They demanded tribute from as far away as Lake Okeechobee, Miami and the Keys.
Within 250 years of contact, the Calusa had been wiped out by European diseases and war with Spaniards and other Indians.
Chadwick Mound is a relatively small Calusa settlement — about 3 acres compared to 240 at the Pineland Site Complex on Pine Island — but it shares certain features with larger sites, including:
• Bifurcated mounds: two mounds separated by a gently sloping valley. The valley
would have been the pathway to the mounds.
• A low, bowl-like area, which archaeologists at other sites have suggested were used to collect drinking water.
"I don't think it could hold enough water," project leader Corbett Torrence said. "We've found a lot of tools in there, so it might have been an area with houses on stilts."
In all, the site has three high mounds, the tallest being 16 feet and offering a spectacular southeast view of Pine Island Sound and Pine Island.
This mound might have been a "sun mound," from which the chief raised the sun every morning. Other mound-building Indians, such as the Natchez of southwest Mississippi, had sun mounds.
"If I were to put a chief somewhere, I'd put him here," Torrence said of the mound. "It was a common practice to have the highest point face the southeast. It's the optimum location to catch the first morning light."
Torrence said 50 to 150 people might have lived at the site.
The Calusa had a complex class structure, and 30 of the elite would have lived on the mounds while the rest lived on stilt houses over the bay.
For Krystal Mentele, a recent graduate of State University of New York at Albany, digging Calusa mounds is a new anthropological experience.
"The amazing thing is how they built the mounds and why," she said. "The idea that mounds show social stratification and hierarchy is fascinating."
So far, pottery and shell tools indicate the Calusa and their predecessors occupied Chadwick from what is known as the Caloosahatchee I period (500 B.C.-500 A.D.) with most of the building being completed by 900 A.D. The site might have been occupied until contact with Europeans.
Radiocarbon dating, archaeologists hope, will pin the dates down more precisely and show how the settlement grew.
"A big question is, 'Did the site build up like a boil, or did it sprawl like a city?'" Torrence said. "Is the south end the same age as the north end? Where did they start? How did it expand?"
Twenty-four samples will be radiocarbon dated, more than from any site in Southwest Florida. Results from these tests will help answer questions about other sites.
"The pottery and tools say, 'Hey, I'm 800 A.D.,' but radiocarbon might say, 'No, you're 1200,'" Torrence said. "History always teaches us that we're close but not quite right."
www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051203/NEWS01/512030525/1075
By Kevin Lollar
klollar@news-press.com
Originally posted on December 03, 2005
The dark clouds of Hurricane Charley may end up having a silver archaeological lining.
Before Charley made landfall Aug. 13, 2004, Chadwick Mound, a Calusa settlement on the north end of Captiva Island at South Seas Resort & Yacht Harbour, was obscured by vegetation.
But the storm's 145-mph winds knocked down trees and blew away leaves, exposing the site. So the owners, Plantation Development Limited and the Mariner Group, decided the time had come to get some serious archaeology done.
Among the most important aspects of the project is extensive radiocarbon dating, a technique archaeologists hope will reveal the site's age and its various stages of development.
"For years, the site has been hidden, and not many people knew about it," Mariner's Ray Pavelka said.
"After Charley, it's a very obvious landscape feature, and there's a need to properly protect it. To do that, we need to find out more about it, and to do that, we need to get archaeologists out here."
The owners have put up about $50,000 in a contract with the University of Florida anthropology department to do the work. The effort will include excavations of five pits by professional archaeologists, volunteers and students.
Eventually, the site may be open to the public on a limited basis.
At the time of contact with Europeans in 1513, the Calusa were the dominant people in South Florida. They demanded tribute from as far away as Lake Okeechobee, Miami and the Keys.
Within 250 years of contact, the Calusa had been wiped out by European diseases and war with Spaniards and other Indians.
Chadwick Mound is a relatively small Calusa settlement — about 3 acres compared to 240 at the Pineland Site Complex on Pine Island — but it shares certain features with larger sites, including:
• Bifurcated mounds: two mounds separated by a gently sloping valley. The valley
would have been the pathway to the mounds.
• A low, bowl-like area, which archaeologists at other sites have suggested were used to collect drinking water.
"I don't think it could hold enough water," project leader Corbett Torrence said. "We've found a lot of tools in there, so it might have been an area with houses on stilts."
In all, the site has three high mounds, the tallest being 16 feet and offering a spectacular southeast view of Pine Island Sound and Pine Island.
This mound might have been a "sun mound," from which the chief raised the sun every morning. Other mound-building Indians, such as the Natchez of southwest Mississippi, had sun mounds.
"If I were to put a chief somewhere, I'd put him here," Torrence said of the mound. "It was a common practice to have the highest point face the southeast. It's the optimum location to catch the first morning light."
Torrence said 50 to 150 people might have lived at the site.
The Calusa had a complex class structure, and 30 of the elite would have lived on the mounds while the rest lived on stilt houses over the bay.
For Krystal Mentele, a recent graduate of State University of New York at Albany, digging Calusa mounds is a new anthropological experience.
"The amazing thing is how they built the mounds and why," she said. "The idea that mounds show social stratification and hierarchy is fascinating."
So far, pottery and shell tools indicate the Calusa and their predecessors occupied Chadwick from what is known as the Caloosahatchee I period (500 B.C.-500 A.D.) with most of the building being completed by 900 A.D. The site might have been occupied until contact with Europeans.
Radiocarbon dating, archaeologists hope, will pin the dates down more precisely and show how the settlement grew.
"A big question is, 'Did the site build up like a boil, or did it sprawl like a city?'" Torrence said. "Is the south end the same age as the north end? Where did they start? How did it expand?"
Twenty-four samples will be radiocarbon dated, more than from any site in Southwest Florida. Results from these tests will help answer questions about other sites.
"The pottery and tools say, 'Hey, I'm 800 A.D.,' but radiocarbon might say, 'No, you're 1200,'" Torrence said. "History always teaches us that we're close but not quite right."
www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051203/NEWS01/512030525/1075