The Future Past of Remembering New Archaeology at Atsena Otie Tocobaga Prospect Bluff 2020 IN FLORIDA ARCHAEOLOGY Dog Island Wrecks Victims of a Gulf Coast Ship Trap FLORIDA HISTORICAL SOCIETY ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE EDITORS’ NOTE ANNE V. STOKES, PH.D. KC SMITH FLORIDA HISTORICAL SOCIETY BOARD FLORIDA HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF DIRECTORS AND CEO OF SEARCH BOARD OF DIRECTORS As archaeologists and historians, we are trained that for an extended period of time meetings were done to study and interpret major events that changed the via video conferencing, and instead of joining friends course of history and altered the lives of the participants. for a night out of dinner or dancing, we met in our In this issue of AFA, the articles touch on such events neighbor’s front yard with chairs spaced six feet apart? in Florida history, including shipwrecks, massacres, And though we may be able to detect these behavioral wars, hurricanes, and inundation of settlements due to changes in the archaeological record, what we won’t be climate change. able to capture is the feeling of what this was like, the sensory experience. What a strange twist that to save The authors have teased the stories of the event lives we have had to distance ourselves from each other, participants from the soil, ecofacts, and artifacts, when our human nature is urging us to connect. We hope although as Sassaman notes in his Atsena Otie the articles in this edition inspire you to explore, learn, article, interpreting “coarse-grained data” is “devoid teach, and connect in ways you haven’t done before. of the sensory, bodily qualities that make experience Will we learn the lessons that history has to teach? so memorable.” This idea becomes apparent as we live through a historic event in early 2020—a global We wish to thank the researchers who contributed to pandemic. How will this event be reflected in the this issue and everyone who devotes time to protecting, archaeological and historical records hundreds of curating, and interpreting our state’s irreplaceable years from now? (How many articles have you seen cultural heritage. this year about the 1918 epidemic?) We certainly will have excellent historical documentation; in fact, some In that vein, we dedicate this year’s AFA to Dr. Roger historical societies are soliciting photos and other C. Smith, who taught us the value of solid research and documentation of life during the pandemic for their the importance of training and learning from the next archives. As we physically distance ourselves from one generation of participants, observers, and chroniclers. another, will it be apparent in the archaeological record SHARE YOUR RESEARCH AND PROJECTS IN Adventures in Florida Archaeology We welcome feature articles and regional news that focus on academic research, CRM projects, new technologies, artifacts, historic sites and museums, and other aspects of archaeological study. Abstracts for proposed articles are due by November 15; finished articles and images are due by January 15. For information and submission details, contact coeditors Dr. Anne Stokes, [email protected], or KC Smith, [email protected]. ON THE COVER Hurricane Michael exposed a bow fragment of a vessel wrecked on Dog Island in the 1899 hurricane. Florida Division of Historical Resources TABLE OF BACK COVER CONTENTS Ships aground on Dog Island after the 1899 hurricane include, left to right: probably the Russian bark Latara [or Latava]; Norwegian bark Vale (foreground); American schooner SHELL BEADS, RINGS, AND James A. Garfield (beyond Vale); and 02 Norwegian bark, Jafnhar. State Library and EXCHANGE Archives, Florida Memory Raleigh Island and the Mississippian in Florida DOG ISLAND WRECKS 08 Victims of a Gulf Coast Ship Trap IN MEMORIAM 14 FHSAI Board Member Dr. Roger C. Smith THE FUTURE PAST OF 16 ATSENA OTIE Experiencing Past Hurricanes Virtually HERITAGE MONITORING 24 SCOUTS Stewardship Through Citizen Science ELUSIVE SPANISH FORT 32 LOCATED Archaeologists Verify Mound Key Site REMEMBERING TOCOBAGA 34 Preliminary Observations at the Safety Harbor Site NEW ARCHAEOLOGY AT 42 PROSPECT BLUFF A Free Black Settlement in Spanish Colonial Florida A MAMMOTH QUESTION 50 When and How Was Florida First Settled? Graphic design by Charity Myers, The Creative Pool, Tallahassee Produced by Palm Springs Printing, Sanford 2020 Adventures in Florida Archaeology 1 BEADS, RINGS, AND EXCHANGE The author excavates a feature within one of the seven test units on Raleigh Island. Several features like this one have been documented during excavations. Photo courtesy of Ken Sassaman 2 2020 Adventures in Florida Archaeology Raleigh Island and the Terry Barbour Mississippian in Florida Believe it or not, there are still places to be discovered in our modern age. Located north of Cedar Key, Florida, within the Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge, Raleigh Island is a remarkable place that was largely unknown until recently. Originally found in the 1990s, the full extent of archaeological deposits on Raleigh Island was not realized until 2010, largely because the site is inaccessible by land and difficult to reach by boat. A complex of shell rings dating from the 10th through 12th centuries is distributed across the western part of the island. Additionally, shell beads were made in abundance, immediately preceding an increased demand for beads among Mississippian societies of the Southeast during the 11th century. Located far away from population centers in Florida, Raleigh Island provides a glimpse into the lives of a coastal community and its interactions Map A (top) indicates the general location of Raleigh Island with Mississippian chiefdoms that consumed large and its shell rings (8LV293). Map B (bottom) is a three- quantities of shell beads. After several field expeditions, dimensional rendering of Raleigh Island shell rings. Rings hard fought through mud, winds, and tides, this range in height from one to more than four meters above the remarkable place and the people who lived here are forest floor. Images courtesy of the author beginning to reveal themselves. As fate would have it, Raleigh’s story would have walking through the sawgrass marsh, they began their remained untold were it not for an environmental assessment and were met with quite a surprise. What tragedy. During an assessment of impacts of the they found was one of the most unusual archaeological Deepwater Horizon oil spill on cultural resources sites in Florida. in the Gulf of Mexico, a crew from the University of Florida Laboratory of Southeastern Archaeology (LSA) The western portion of the island contains at least thirty- became stranded at low tide en route to Raleigh Island. seven shell rings clustered together into four groups. Luckily, they were close enough to reach the island and With some reaching more than 4 m high, 30 m wide, wait out the tide. After hopping out of the boat and and constructed largely from oyster shell, the rings on 2020 Adventures in Florida Archaeology 3 Profile of Test Unit 2 shows the midden present within all the rings tested to date. Photo courtesy of Ken Sassaman Raleigh Island are impressive by any measure. Ramps Creek Complicated Stamped pottery typically does not and pathways wind their ways through each group of postdate AD 900. rings, and it is easy to get disoriented when exploring the enclosed spaces. Several rings have openings that likely What we know about Raleigh is the result of several served as points of entrance and exit. As to what these expeditions focused on mapping the shell rings and spaces meant, we can only speculate at this point. The subsurface testing in the rings themselves. When working hypothesis is that they represent households, investigations of the island first began, the available or groups of individual households, where immediate or maps were inaccurate. In response, a team of extended families lived and worked together. researchers from the University of Florida mapped the rings and ridges using the latest in drone-mounted Whatever the case may be, this amalgam of rings is LiDAR technology (Barbour et al. 2019). As a result, unusual and surprising in many respects. While shell current maps of the island are accurate to within a rings are prevalent in some regions of the Southeastern centimeter. Subsurface testing consisted of twenty-five US, construction of these features largely ceased after shovel tests and seven 1 x 2-meter excavation units the end of the Late Archaic period in Florida, about strategically placed among ring groups to determine 3,200 years ago. In fact, when LSA staff located the what these clusters represent. ring complex in 2010, it generally was thought the rings dated to the Late Archaic period. However, after the Results of testing to date indicate that each ring first round of archaeological testing, it was clear this site encloses dense organic midden and an assemblage of did not have Archaic material. Radiocarbon dates on features, including postholes and pits. Pottery, flaked charcoal taken from each ring group indicate that most stone, animal bone, and shell are abundant. In the areas activity on Raleigh Island took place between AD 900 we have tested, features are so dense that it is difficult and AD 1150. Based on these age estimates, we know to distinguish individual pits or postholes until reaching that Ring Groups 1–3 were occupied by AD 900. Then, the base of the midden deposits. Dense organic midden around AD 1000, Ring Group 4 came online, and Group that developed over 250 years suggests an intensive 1 appears to have waned in use while the other groups occupation. persisted. However, we have only one date from Group 1, and it is possible that more dates will change our The shape and size of reconstructed pots from Raleigh current narrative. However, it should be noted that most indicate they were used in day-to-day activities, of the earliest pottery type, Swift Creek Complicated especially when compared to pottery from earlier civic- Stamped, occurred most frequently in Group 1.