John W. Grifn. Archaeology of the Everglades. Gainesville: University Press of , 2002. xx + 399 pp. $55.00, cloth, ISBN 978-0-8130-2558-2.

Reviewed by Mason W. Shefeld

Published on H-Florida (December, 2003)

The Florida Everglades is one of the last fron‐ the shore began to develop, thus increasing their tiers left in America. Explorers of today's frontiers appeal to human populations. Grifn goes on to are not mountain men and prospectors, but scien‐ say that the frst pottery was produced around tists. For decades, the Everglades has drawn 4,000 years ago, which marked the beginning of a botanists, ornithologists, ichthyologists, herpetolo‐ long sequence of datable pottery types. The Ever‐ gists, and specialists from other felds to study its glades saw the rise of the Calusa, which dominat‐ wonders. One additional group of researchers ed the region politically and religiously, at least that has been especially interested in this region until the arrival of Europeans, according to the is archaeologists. One of the key fgures in archae‐ author. ological research of the Everglades was John W. Grifn divided his book into fve sections Grifn. Originally published as Archaeology of the comprised of twelve chapters. Chapter 1 of sec‐ : A Synthesis, Grifn's tion 1 discusses the attempts to delineate the report on the fndings of three years of research boundaries of south Florida using climate, physio‐ in the Everglades remained in the grey literature, graphic regions, distribution of plant life, marine unseen by most. With the help of Patricia C. Grif‐ systems, resource abundance, and disruptive (sto‐ fn, this invaluable work has been released to the chastic) factors such as freezes, hurricanes, fre, public, nine years after the author's passing. Ar‐ and red tide. In chapter 2, the author gives an chaeology of the Everglades represents a major overview of the development of the landscape of contribution to the feld of Florida archaeology south Florida. He starts with the rapid postglacial and prehistory for professionals and the general sea-level rise witnessed during the Holocene and public alike. ends around 2700 B.P. when a number of factors The archaeological record in the Everglades such as the sea level reaching its present range, dates back nearly 5,000 years. According to Grifn increased precipitation, vegetation reaching its it was around this time that the estuaries along present distribution, and the formation of highly H-Net Reviews productive estuaries all came together to form a use of faunal (vertebrate and invertebrate), foral, cornucopia for human populations. and water resources by prehistoric humans in the Section 2 begins at chapter 3 which covers the region. The last part of the chapter discusses the previous archaeological work conducted in the exploitation of coastlines by indigenous peoples Everglades. Chapter 4 documents the material cul‐ in south Florida. ture of the Glades area, including typologies of ce‐ The eleventh chapter discusses the political, ramic, shell, bone, and stone artifact classes. social, and religious organization of the indige‐ There are an adequate number of clear photos nous cultures of the Everglades. Ethnographic ac‐ and illustrations to go along with the descriptions counts of European priests and soldiers are tem‐ of most of these categories. The ffth chapter deals pered using archaeological data and there are dis‐ with established temporal and spatial parameters cussions of the chiefdoms and the Calusa, the of prehistoric south Florida. Included in this are Calusa hierarchy, and the chief and other high- discussions of the defnitions of areas and subar‐ ranking members of Calusa society. Hierarchical eas, building and dating of pottery sequences, and social organization and religion are touched upon the determination of a prehistoric chronology for by revealing some of the archaeological evidence south Florida using the available archaeological of organized labor, distribution of burial goods, data. Chapter 6 discusses the impacts European and religious artifacts. contact had on indigenous populations of the The fnal section and chapter provide the area. reader with an overview of the information cov‐ The third section starts with chapter 7, which ered in the previous chapters. The author con‐ discusses archaeological data from the Bear Lake denses the previous 327 pages of information into site. The chapter is essentially a site report and 10 pages discussing broad topics such as the tim‐ starts with a breakdown of the excavation and the ing, development, and direction of culture, subsis‐ particulars of the diferent tests. Also discussed tence, settlement distribution and patterning, so‐ are topics such as the ceramic stratigraphy, C-14 cial relations, and the efects contact with Euro‐ determinations, artifacts, midden contents, and peans had on indigenous populations and cul‐ molluscan and vertebrate remains. Chapter 8 con‐ tures. tinues along a similar vein by discussing the exca‐ Accessibility to the general public is defnitely vations of eight other Everglades sites located the greatest positive attribute of the release of this within the Everglades National Park. The author publication. Instead of languishing in the obscuri‐ gives a brief, but adequate, summary of Onion ty so common with grey literature, broader publi‐ Key (8Mo49), the (8Cr2), Walter cation has made this work obtainable to a wider Hamilton Place (8Mo57), Hamilton Garden Patch audience. Of secondary importance is the facelift (8Mo56), (8Mo118), the work received. Maps, charts, and graphs have (8Mo42), Panther Mound (or Cabbage-Rattlesnake been redone and are easier to read in comparison Site [8Da125]), and the Site (8Da to the original. Photographs from the original 3451). were lost, so a combination of scanned copies and Section 4, which consists of chapters 9 illustrations had to be utilized. This resulted in through 11, starts with a presentation of settle‐ clearer, more discernible plates. The text itself has ment types, site and settlement size, site distribu‐ also undergone some revision including deletion tion, temporal distribution, sites and seasonality, of sections of the report that included manage‐ site plans, and structures. Chapter 10 discusses ment data for the . what is known archaeologically concerning the

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The only negative trait of this work would have to be the generality of its contents, but this is only an issue for the professional audience. The author states, however, that the value of a synthe‐ sis of this sort "lies in summarizing, to the best of our ability, what we now know and what we, based on the work of others, think it means." With that in mind the reader should know what to ex‐ pect in regards to the depth of the book's informa‐ tion. All things considered, this book is an extreme‐ ly informative and important addition to any pro‐ fessional's library, especially those with an inter‐ est in the region. For the general public, the book ofers a vivid glimpse into a rich cultural past in an oftentimes misunderstood and overlooked re‐ gion of our country.

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Citation: Mason W. Shefeld. Review of Grifn, John W. Archaeology of the Everglades. H-Florida, H-Net Reviews. December, 2003.

URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=8513

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

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