EAST-CENTRAL FLORIDA PRE-COLUMBIAN WOOD SCULPTURE: RADIOCARBON DATING, WOOD IDENTIFICATION AND STRONTIUM ISOTOPE STUDIES Joanna Ostapkowicz, Rick J. Schulting, Ryan Wheeler, Lee Newsom, Fiona Brock, Ian Bull and Christophe Snoeck DO NOT CITE IN ANY CONTEXT WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE LEAD AUTHOR Joanna Ostapkowicz, School of Archaeology, University of Oxford, 36 Beaumont Street, Oxford, OX1 2PG (
[email protected]) Rick J. Schulting, School of Archaeology, University of Oxford, 36 Beaumont Street, Oxford, OX1 2PG, UK Ryan Wheeler, Robert S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology, Andover, Mass., USA Lee Newsom, Flager College, 74 King Street, St. Augustine, FL, 32084, USA Fiona Brock, Cranfield Forensic Institute, Cranfield University, Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, Shrivenham, SN6 8LA, UK Ian Bull, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1TS, UK Christophe Snoeck, Research Unit: Analytical, Environmental & Geo-Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, ESSC-WE-VUB, Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels, Belgium 1 Introduction Florida’s wetlands have yielded a wealth of prehistoric wood sculpture, from the remarkable site of Key Marco, excavated in 1896 by Frank Hamilton Cushing and yielding some of the finest wood carvings known from the Americas, to over 100 carvings recovered from Fort Center, to the bird effigies at Belle Glade, among many others (Purdy 1991; Sears 1982; Schwehm 1983; Wheeler 1996). Most of these sites are concentrated in the eastern and southern part of the state, with a chronology spanning from as early as AD 400 through the earliest era of European contact, and encompassing various archaeological cultures (e.g. St. Johns, Glades, and Belle Glade).