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Overview
This volume, originally published in 1922, constitutes the most complete summary of anthropological information on Florida up until that point. Not only does it consider all previous research on Florida archaeology, physical anthropology, and aboriginal history, it also contains Hrdlicka’s analysis of every human bone from Florida that he could find in collections. He made remarkably accurate observations about the general physical types of prehistoric Florida Indians and how they compared to native peoples of surrounding regions.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780817384654 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | University of Alabama Press |
| Publication date: | 07/07/2010 |
| Series: | Classics in Southeastern Archaeology |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 184 |
| File size: | 11 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
About the Author
Jeffrey M. Mitchem is a research archaeologist with the Arkansas Archeological Survey who edited and introduced both The West and Central Florida Expeditions of Clarence Bloomfield Moore and The East Florida Expeditions of Clarence Bloomfield Moore.
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The Anthropology of Florida
By Ale? Hrdlicka
The University of Alabama Press
Copyright © 2007 The University of Alabama PressAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8173-8465-4
CHAPTER 1
NOTES ON THE INDIAN REMAINS OF THE SOUTHWESTERN COAST OF FLORIDA
THE Ten Thousand Islands Region. — Of the few as yet but very imperfectly explored regions in the United States, the largest perhaps is the southernmost part of Florida below the 26th degree of northern latitude. This is particularly true of the central and western portions of this region, which inland are an unmapped wilderness of everglades and cypress swamps, and off-shore a maze of low mangrove "keys" or islands, mostly unnamed and uncharted, with channels, "rivers" and "bays" about them which are known only to a few of the trappers and hunters who have lived a larger part of their life in that region. The islands are literally numbered by the thousands, and range in size from a little oyster bar with perhaps a single little mangrove, to those which measure several square miles of surface. They are invariably thickly wooded by the almost impenetrable, many-rooted, tough mangrove brush or trees, a jungle-like vegetation which constitutes one of the greatest obstacles to exploration. All these islands, moreover, are so low that they are practically nothing but muck and swamp with parts covered with water at high tide and the whole surface submerged when western storms drive in the Gulf sea. They are uninhabited and uninhabitable by man except where the gulf, winds, or human hands had built some "high ground," on which the Indians and now the whites with some degree of safety erect their habitations.
In addition to the swampy and jungly nature of these islands, which is such that except on the "high ground" it is impossible to find a place for a camp and in most places even for the cooking of a meal, these patches together with the neighboring mainland are more or less infested with snakes and the larger part of the year also with great quantities of mosquitoes, sand-flies, and "red bugs," which make life and frequently even a short stay on them a matter of torture and even danger. Under such circumstances anything like a detailed, protracted exploration is not merely exceptionally difficult but frequently quite impossible.
On such maps as we have of this region, the innumerable mangrove "keys" are known by the well fitting term of the "Ten Thousand Islands." The waters that surround them are full of submerged oyster bars, and frequently so shallow that only the lightest draft launches or skiffs can penetrate; while distances with directions are merely a matter of individual estimates or approximations by the hunters and trappers of the region. As one nears the mainland, some of the more important waterways begin to be called "rivers" and "bays"; and if the former are followed one actually enters sooner or later freshwater rivers, which run, gradually petering out, for from a few to a dozen or more miles inland, draining the low Everglades.
Due to the above-named conditions the whole region of the "Ten Thousand Islands" is but very sparsely peopled and with the exception of a few store and hotel keepers (the latter essentially for the accommodation of the occasional visiting sportsmen), it is inhabited only by a scattering of fishermen, most of whom also hunt and trap on occasion. From Chocaloskee Island down to the southernmost point of Cape Sable, a distance along the shore of over fifty miles, the actual settlers were found to consist of only five or six families.
From the archeological point of view, the region of the "Ten Thousand Islands", together with the adjacent coast, first became known through the work of Frank Hamilton Cushing in 1895–97. Subsequently this region, as practically all other parts of the west coast of Florida, was visited on several occasions by Mr. Clarence B. Moore. These visits, as all of Mr. Moore's work, were also of archeological nature, and resulted in the collection of numerous interesting cultural specimens which are described and illustrated in Vols. XI and XIII of the Journal of the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences, and deposited in the collections of the Academy.
Mr. Moore's observations, as far as they extend, are just, and except so far as they apply to descriptions of specimens, deserve to be quoted in full. They are as follows:
"The Ten Thousand Islands, whose name is not conferred in a poetical way, but probably falls short in describing the number, beginning with Little Marco Island on the north, thickly fringe the coast line of part of the counties of Lee and Monroe to the Northwest Cape, a distance of about seventy miles in a straight line.
"These keys, formed by oyster bars, sand and the roots of the mangrove tree, are from a few feet to a number of miles in area, and are, as a rule, just above the level of the sea. But an insignificant proportion of these islands have been utilized by the Key-dwellers.
"All published maps of this part of Florida are grossly inaccurate. ...
"On the eastern side of Little Marco Island is a shell settlement with the usual ridges and mounds of moderate size.
"Marco, on the northernmost end of Key Marco, by far the most important of the Ten Thousand Islands, is where Mr. Cushing made his marvellous collection of objects of wood and of shell in the muck at the bottom of a small triangular court enclosed between ridges of shell. ...
"Blue Hill, on Horr's Island, about one mile southwest from Goodland Point, has a considerable aboriginal shell deposit, and a sand mound about 6 feet in height, which has been thoroughly dug through.
"Caximbas Hill is a wind formation on the southwestern part of Marco Island. Nearby is a considerable shell deposit.
"Proceeding in a southerly direction among the Ten Thousand Islands, we visited Gomez' Old Place on a small nameless key reached from the Gulf through a pass about two miles east of Coon Key, and continuing in about one mile in a northerly direction. The key at present writing (1900) is uninhabited. It covers probably about thirty acres of interesting shell deposit, partly surrounding a basin that fills with the rising tide.
"Dismal Key, Lee County, lies about two miles north of Horse Key, an outside island about five miles E. S. E. from Coon Key Pass, which is the southern entrance to Marco. This unsurveyed key has a great shell deposit with the usual mounds and the like.
"Fikahatchee Key, Lee County, unsurveyed, perhaps 150 acres in extent, can be reached by an inland passage at high tide, or from the Gulf through a nameless pass and continuing in among the islands for from three to four miles. In any event, a pilot is requisite. On this island is an extensive shell deposit. A family living on the key occupies a house partly built upon piles.
"Russell's Key may be reached from the Gulf by entering the islands about three miles above Sandfly Pass and continuing in among the keys another three miles. This key, which has large aboriginal shell deposits, perhaps 60 acres in extent, is occupied by Mr. J. W. Russell and Mr. M. M. Gaston with their families.
"Wiggins' Key on Sandfly Pass, about one mile from the Gulf, on the right-hand side going out, has extensive shell deposits and two small burial mounds of sand and shell which have been much dug into. Our excavations, made with permission of Mr. J. Wiggins, the owner, were unrewarded.
"This place is shown on maps as in the northern limits of the County of Monroe, but at the present time this territory, extending south below Chokoloskee Key, is claimed by Lee County, and, it is said, probably will be obtained by it.
"Chokoloskee Key, Monroe County. This island lies in the lower part of Chokoloskee Bay, a sheet of water back of the maze of islands bordering the Gulf.
"The island is unsurveyed. It is roughly circular and is said to be somewhat over one-half mile in diameter. It is almost entirely covered with great shell deposits, including lofty peaks, graded ways, canals and the like. Rising from the mangrove swamp at the edge of the northern part of the island is a mound of shell of abrupt ascent, a fraction over 27 feet in height, if measured from the level of low water. Running in from the southern section of the island are two graded ways enclosing a canal. These ways terminate in mounds facing each other. The easternmost mound, slightly the higher, on its western side where it rises from the canal, has a slope of thirty-three degrees. Its height above the level of the bottom of the canal is 18 feet 4 inches and 22 feet 4 inches above low water level. ...
"Near the mouth of Turner's River, which enters Chokoloskee Bay in an easterly direction from the key and not far from it, is a considerable shell deposit. ...
"Watson's, Monroe County. About four miles up Chatham River is a series of shell fields owned by Mr. Watson, who resides on the place."
To which, in 1905, Mr. Moore adds the following:
"This season (1904), beginning at Charlotte Harbor, we continued southward through Pine Island Sound, Estero Bay and along the Gulf coast to the island of Marco next to the northernmost key of the Ten Thousand Islands. From Key Marco our course lay through the keys including Chokoloskee Key and Lossman's Key, and along the coast to Cape Sable, the southern boundary of the Ten Thousand Islands.
"Rounding Cape Sable and visiting points of interest on the mainland and investigating various keys, we continued eastward, then northward, to Miami; to Fort Lauderdale on New River, where the Everglades were visited; and finally to Lake Worth, which was the southern limit of our work during the season of 1896.
"As a result of this part of our journey of the season of 1904, we formed certain conclusions, and fortified others which we had previously expressed in print, namely:
"(1) That while the shell deposits of the southwestern coast of Florida are of great interest as monuments of the aborigines, their contents offer little reward to the investigator.
"(2) That the sand mounds of the southern Florida coast were built mainly for domiciliary purposes, and that such as contain burials yield but little pottery, whole vessels being practically absent.
"(3) That these burial mounds contain but few artifacts of interest and that such artifacts as are met with in the smaller ones, and superficially in the larger ones, are often of European origin, marking a strong contrast with the mounds of the northwestern Florida coast and of St. John's River.
"The Marco Key, where Cushing made his great collection, was revisited. The objects found by Cushing lay in muck which forms the bottom of a small artificial basin in the shell deposit, formerly connected by a short canal with the neighboring water. ... Artificial harbors, basins and canals abound among such keys of the Ten Thousand Islands as were selected by the pile dwellers as places of residence. ...
"The interesting Chokoloskee Key described in our previous report has been determined, by a recent survey, to be in Lee County, and not in Monroe County, as was formerly believed to be the case. ...
"In one part of the key is an interesting artificial harbor which, no doubt, served as a shelter for canoes in aboriginal times. This harbor, protected from open water by an embankment of shell, save at a narrow entrance, was on property owned by Mr. McKinnery, who, controlling the water by the insertion of a sluice, dug many trenches in the muck, with the idea to pile this material above water level, and thus gain a rich area for cultivation. ...
"Lossman's Key, Monroe County. After investigating a number of keys which yielded nothing of interest from an archeological point of view, Lossman's Key, one of the largest, if not the largest key of the Ten Thousand Islands, was visited. At the northern extremity are large, level causeways and platforms of shell, a thorough survey of which would be of interest.
"South of Cape Sable and eastward among the keys and northward to Lake Worth, where our journey ended, we met with nothing of especial archeological interest. After leaving the Ten Thousand Islands, no shell keys were met with by us during an extended search, all islands being of sand or of limerock."
And again in 1907:
"The Ten Thousand Islands which have been twice visited and twice written about by us were again the subject of our investigation during two seasons, the winter of 1906 and the winter of 1907. These islands fringe the coast of southwestern Florida for about 80 miles along parts of the counties of Lee and Monroe, between the settlement known as Naples on the north and Cape Sable on the south. ...
"While at Marco we visited Little Marco; Mcllvaine's Key; Addison's Key; and the Crawford place, northward toward Naples — all noteworthy aboriginal shell deposits. ...
"Fikahatchee Key and Russell's Key, large shell islands, yielded specimens of aboriginal work. Chokoloskee Key was visited with good results. ...
"Lossman's Key, near Cape Sable, one of the largest keys of the Ten Thousand Islands, was again visited by us, and its two shell deposits — one more than ten acres in extent — were carefully examined. The larger deposit, rich in aboriginal implements, has been recently cleared of the hammock growth formerly upon it. While there we almost walked upon the wires of a loaded spring-gun set for deer or panther — one of the chances one takes in exploring this wild and lawless region."
The rest of the paper is given to description of objects.
A copy of the notes on the principal observations by the writer was sent to Mr. Moore soon after the writer's return from Florida, and a preliminary note on the trip was published in the popular "Smithsonian Explorations" for 1918. In 1919 Mr. Moore visited once more a part of this coast, and in the last number of the American Anthropologist of that year (p. 400 et seq.), referring to the above mentioned note, he states in the main as follows
Our "hundred-foot steamer, carrying a power boat as a tender, with an average of eleven men to dig and to supervise, has spent much of five seasons in the Ten Thousand Islands, good parts of which were devoted to the region south of Key Marco, in one instance the expedition continuing around the end of the peninsula to Lake Worth on the eastern coast.
"We have published the results of most of our investigations between Key Marco and Lossman's Key, the southernmost of the Ten Thousand Islands, including principal sites, Dismal Key, Fikahatchee Key, Russell's Key, Chokoloskee Key, Turner River and Lossman's Key.
"We are not prepared to admit that the region of the coast south of Key Marco was supposed to be of no great account as far as aboriginal remains were concerned by anyone familiar with that region through personal investigation or through comprehensive reading on the subject. Nor, on the other hand, is it our opinion that this region is more than a continuation of the great shell deposits farther north: The huge mound above Cedar Key; those at Cedar Key; the so-called Spanish mound, Crystal River; Indian Hill, on Tampa Bay; Josselyn Key; the Battey Place, now Pineland on Pine Island; Mound Island; Addison's Key; Goodland Point on Key Marco; and others, all of which we have carefully examined and nearly all described in print. The highest shell-mounds of the coast are north of Key Marco as is the best defined aboriginal canal.
"Our own experience and that of others has convinced us that in the shell-heaps of the southwestern Florida coast, which extend southward from above Cedar Key, practically nothing of interest has been found that can begin to compensate one for the heavy outlay of time and money needed for their demolition. The great shell-mound on Bullfrog creek, ten miles southeast from Tampa, removed to furnish material for roads, was carefully watched, it is said, while the work was going on, without any discovery of importance. An accurate survey of the shell site on Turner River might be of interest, but it is our belief that digging into the shell deposits hereafter will be more frequently suggested than done."
So much for Mr. Moore's report.
The writer's motives for a visit to this region were, as already mentioned, besides its character, a desire to satisfy himself as to the nature and promise from the point of physical anthropology of the numerous remains of Indian occupation along the coast from Charlotte Bay southward; to determine if possible the type of skeletal remains from Key Marco down to the tip of the peninsula, for purposes of comparison with those which on previous trips he saw or collected off the Caloosahatchee River and further northward along the coast; and finally a hope of finding some full-blood Seminoles, parties of whom were known to roam among the Ten Thousand Islands. An additional incentive for the visit to southern Florida was to visit the newly opened regions about Lake Okechobee, where many canals have been and are being constructed, to see if any discoveries had been made there which might possibly throw light on the nature and antiquity of the inhabitants of that territory.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from The Anthropology of Florida by Ale? Hrdlicka. Copyright © 2007 The University of Alabama Press. Excerpted by permission of The University of Alabama Press.
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Table of Contents
Contents
I Indian Remains of the Southwestern Coast of Florida,II Anthropology of Florida,
III New Observations,
Summary,
Detailed Measurements,
Index,