Windover Archaeological Site: Preservation in a Florida Peat Pond

 

Steve Vanderjagt, the backhoe
operator that first discovered
Windover. (photo courtesy of 
FSU Digital Archives)

We can't wrap up our month on plants and archaeology without talking about Windover! We are of the opinion that it is one of the most fascinating sites in Florida and that is partially because of the plant remains found there. Windover was discovered in 1982 at a construction site in Brevard County, Florida. A backhoe operator unintentionally discovered human remains, which were later identified as part of a prehistoric cemetery dating to over 7,000 years ago. The preservation  was unprecedented due to the environmental conditions at the site. The deceased had been buried in a  mucky pond, using handwoven fabric and wooden stakes to keep them in place. This mucky pond created an anaerobic environment, with very little bacteria to degrade the fragile remains-both human and plant.

If you are familiar with Windover, then you are familiar with the fact that human brain matter and other very unique finds were discovered. And while we agree that those finds are amazing, we are going to concentrate on the plant remains today. The same environmental conditions that lead to excellent human remain preservation also allowed for great preservation of plant remains. 

The wooden stakes and the fabric used to secure the deceased at the bottom of the pond are both plant material. In fact, the handwoven fabric was made of palm fiber and are the oldest surviving textiles in the New World. Eighty-seven fragments were recovered from the site. They were extremely fragile and required special care while being transported to the lab for very specialized and delicate processing and analysis. 

Palm fiber handwoven fabric from Windover. 
(Photo courtesy of FSU Digital Archives)

When we think of early agriculture, we assume that early people were growing plants mainly for food,but Windover provided evidence that products of agriculture also served other purposes. A bottle gourd container was recovered from the site. This would have been a light and durable container for food and liquid. This particular example is the earliest known example of a bottle gourd north of Mexico! Plants that were both gathered and cultuivated could also be used for medicinal purposes.

 Life was hard for these prehistoric people and many of those buried in this ancient cemetery died young. Almost half of the deceased were under 18, and most don't appear to have lived past 40. Their teeth show sign of wear from both grit in their diet and the use of their teeth as tools. There was evidence of broken bones, abscesses, and illness. The large number of seeds found in the stomach region of several of the burials may represent one of the earliest known examples of medicinal plant use. 

Imagine, all of this found at one site in Florida and completely by accident! Not only is this absolutely phenomenal from a scientific perspective (not to mention some cool conversation starters at cocktail parties!), but it also is a prime example of why there are laws in place that protect archaeological sites. Florida is constantly under development and that is why there are permits and processes to ensure sites like Windover have a chance to be both documented and preserved when appropriate. This is also why there are laws in place that protect human remains. Archaeologists that work in Cultural Resource Management play a vital role in ensuring that Florida's archaeological heritage is properly documented.

The Trowel Tribune - April 15, 2021

 Plain text version: https://fpannorthcentral.blogspot.com/2021/04/the-trowel-tribune-april-15-2021-plain.html

The Trowel Tribune - April 15, 2021 (Plain Text)

 Boomerangs More Versatile Than Previously Thought

Australian archaeologists have found that boomerangs were more than hunting tools.

We typically think of boomerangs as little more than toys. This is exactly what the returning kind of boomerang we are most familiar with is supposed to be. Actually though, the boomerangs used as hunting or fighting weapons did not return and were extremely effective for their purpose.

Archaeologists have recently found evidence that these tools were also used in another way.

Like we might sharpen a metal knife, stone tools also lose their edge with use and need reworking (or retouching) to make them sharp. We have known for some time that other cultures often used bone or antler for this purpose and we can see that by analyzing marks left on the reworking tool. Now, however, archaeologists have found signs that Australia’s indigenous people used hardwood boomerangs as tools for retouching these stone edges as well.

After analyzing 100 ancient boomerangs, archaeologists found that 26 of them had been used for retouching stone tools.

This, along with much of archaeology speaks to the remarkable adaptability and creativity of people throughout history.

http://www.sci-news.com/archaeology/australian-boomerang-retouchers-09551.html

Garden Archaeology: The Secrets Ancient Gardens Keep

Wilhemina Jashenski working at 
Pompeii (photo courtesy of of the 
Archaeological Institute of 
America).

It has been brought to our attention that April is National Garden Month. Not only that, but our North Central office is located at beautiful Alfred B. Maclay Gardens State Park. So we thought it was an appropriate time to discuss garden archaeology. Yes, that is indeed a thing (and the green thumbed archaeologists are quite excited about this)! Wilhemina Jashenski pioneered the archaeological study of past gardens in the 1950s during her excavations at Pompeii. She was the first non-Italian to work at Pompeii. It was a unique opportunity because frescos were preserved in some of the buildings that depicted  the ornate gardens of the time. Jashenski made castings of ancient plant roots at the site using a method usually used to cast human remains. These casts help her to identify the plants that were being grown at Pompeii.

Gardens have long been a part of culture and daily life for many different societies. So much so that they are often the setting of  significant stories or the stuff of legend, such as the Garden of Eden or the Hanging Gardens of Babylon (one of the Seven Wonders of the World). Throughout human history gardens have served numerous purposes. Some were simply ornamental and used by the elite as a show of status and a place to enjoy the simple pleasures that nature had to offer. Other gardens were culinary or medicinal, or used to grow plants for commerce or trade. Some may contain exotic plants not naturally found in an area, giving archaeologists and historians a glimpse into possible trade routes and

Joya de Cerén, located in El Salvador, known as
the Pompeii of the Americas (photo courtesy
of UNESCO).

patterns. As technology has improved, archaeologists have been able to not only tell the location of past gardens, but also what plants they contained and what those plants were used for. Again, plants provide archaeologists with a unique insight into the past. And when you consider all the uses for plants, this insight is very valuable. 

One very interesting instance of garden archaeology is  at the Mayan site, Joya de Cerén, often referred to as the Pompeii of the Americas because it was preserved under a layer of volcanic ash. Here archaeologists uncovered a 70 acre garden that included the preserved remains of agave that was used to make rope and twine, and cane that was used for wattle and daub construction. Also discovered was the earliest instance of manioc cultivation in the New World! This site is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site and is a major tourist attraction in El Salvador. Without these well preserved plant remains we would not have as detailed an understanding of Mayan agriculture. Plaster casts were also used at this site, similar to the way Jashenski used them at Pompeii. The site also contained preserved gardening tools, sleeping mats made from plant matter, and pots filled with beans!

Funerary Garden in Egypt, note the tamarisk 
shrub remains in the upper left corner (photo
courtesy of Smithsonian Magazine).

Another fascinating garden archaeology find were the Egyptian funeral gardens found in Luxor. They were presumed to have existed based on Egyptian literature and art, but it wasn't until recently that archaeological evidence was discovered. The remains of these gardens were buried under more than 15 feet of debris and are about 4,000 years old! The 10 by 6.5 feet raised garden bed was divided into squares.  Archaeological evidence, along with ancient writings and art, show that it would have contained fruit and vegetable plants, as well as flowering plants. It was intended as an offering to the dead.  Dates and other fruits were found in containers at the site and are presumed to be  offerings as well. This garden was located at the entrance of a burial tomb and the plants in the garden would have played a role in funeral rites and ceremonies. In one corner of the garden, archaeologists found a tamarisk shrub that stood upright, its roots and trunk still attached. Not only do sites such as this provide us with a very interesting peek at Egyptian funerary traditions, but they also provide scientists with information about the environmental conditions of the time.

The Trowel Tribune - April 7, 2021

 Plain text version: https://fpannorthcentral.blogspot.com/2021/04/the-trowel-tribune-april-7-2021-plain.html

The Trowel Tribune - April 7, 2021 (Plain Text)

 Hal 9000 Analyzes 28,000 Year Old Rock Art

Archaeologists in Australia use machine learning to study ancient petroglyphs.

A new study tests the ability of AI machine learning to help analyze cave art in Australia. In particular, archaeologists are looking for new insights into how artistic styles changed with time.

By showing a computer program 1,000 images, researchers were able to teach it to recognize different images and, importantly, tell how similar they were to each other. This provides us with a mathematical model that shows the precise relationship between two images in a measurable way that removes at least some human biases.

Essentially, the model found that two types of figures we know are closely related in time are also closely related in style. The important thing here though is that this similarity is no longer, “These look similar to me” it is “The graph shows how similar they are.”

This does not mean that no bias is present in the results. Racial bias in facial recognition software has shown us that our own biases still find a way in. However, this is still a huge step forward for archaeological research.

Continued on page 23

Whatever Floats Your...Ancient Plant Remains: How Archaeologists Use Water to Help Sort Delicate Plant Remains

 This week we will look at how smaller plant material is recovered from an archaeological site, but first, it is important to understand that plant material is delicate and requires a specific set of environmental conditions for it to last in the soil. In most instances, an anaerobic environment will provide the best preservation. This is an environment that is lacking oxygen, and therefore lacks bacteria. Just like you and I, microscopic bacteria require oxygen, so there are less of them in an anaerobic environment. Without these little critters present, delicate plant matter isn't eaten away over time.

One of the most common plant remains found at sites is wood charcoal. Early people relied heavily on fire, and charcoal can be an important source of information. In fact, it is commonly thought that the lack of charcoal at a site is indicative of poor preservation, not the lack of fire during the site's occupation. Often larger pieces of charcoal are recovered during dry screening, which is the most common way to separate artifacts from soil. But how do archaeologists recover those little delicate bits that would slip through a dry screen? This depends on a variety of factors, from the type of plant remains found at the site, the research question, time constraints, budget constraints, and more.  But one of the most common ways to recover small bits of charcoal and other plant material (like seeds, or fruit pits) is using a process called floatation.

                                              Video of how floatation works (courtesy of 

                                                                  Science Friday) 

Floatation is using water to separate lightweight plant material from the soil through agitation, which allows the lightweight plant material to float to the surface. It is an efficient process that allows for rapid processing of a large quantity of material. There are a variety of types of floatation set ups, from DIY to commercially made machines. Again, the type used depends on a variety of factors and constraints. Floatation was first used in 1905 by German botanist , Ludwig Wittmack, to recover plant remains from adobe brick. But it was popularized in the 1960s after appearing in an archaeological publication written by Stuart Struever. Since then, floatation has become a staple for recovering delicate plant remains. It isn't perfect however, samples from very dry and arid climates sometime dissolve, but overall, it has helped archaeologists recover material that would otherwise remain a mystery, and thus has helped archaeologists piece together a more holistic view of the past.

Spring Has Sprung! What Plants Can Tell Us About the Past

 When you think of archaeology, plants may not be the most immediate thing that comes to mind, but occasionally, under the right conditions, plant remains are found at archaeological sites. Archaeology is full of sub-disciplines, which makes sense when you think about it. There is so much to learn about the past that no one archaeologist can possibly learn about or know it all. One of those sub-disciplines is archaeobotany.

 Archaeologists that study archaeobotany are interested in learning more about how people of the past interacted with plants. Think about what a huge role plants have in our modern life. The same, or similar, was true in the past as well. People ate plants, grew plants, use plant material to construct shelters and tools, and lived among various plants growing wild. Plant remains can also tell us about past environments, thus providing clues to what life was like for people in the past. 

Plant remains from the Lake Monroe Outlet Midden
(photo courtesy of the Florida Museum of  Natural 
History, University of Florida)

Plant remains are organic, fragile, and usually (but not always) small. They don't always preserve well at archaeological sites. It takes special environmental conditions for them to preserve and archaeologists have to take special care to recover these fragile remains on the occasions they are found at an archaeological site. Most of the time archaeologists only find a small sampling of the remains of the past. They only find the things that preserve well, such as stone and ceramics. But as we know, people are much more complex, and finding plant remains is a treat for archaeologists and a chance to gain a more thorough understanding of our past! Sometimes plant remains are small, like pollen (can you imagine!?), and other times they are large, like a dugout canoe. No matter their size, plant remains provide unique opportunities for archaeologists. 

Take a moment to look around you and make note of all the objects made from plants. Then think about how many of those objects would still be around 500 to 1,000 years from now. Probably not many. Now imagine someone in the future trying to piece together your daily life without having all those plant-based objects available to study. They probably would only be able to learn a fraction of what your daily life was like. That is why archaeobotany is so valuable to the study of the past. So this month, as plants are blooming and it is starting to feel like spring, we want to take a moment to talk about plants in an archaeological context. We hope you will join us on this journey. From learning how archaeologists recover plant remains to what they can tell us, it is sure to be enlightening!

The Trowel Tribune - April 1, 2021

Plain text version: https://fpannorthcentral.blogspot.com/2021/04/the-trowel-tribune-april-1-2021-plain.html

The Trowel Tribune - April 1, 2021 (Plain Text)

Melting Glaciers Present Opportunity and Devastation

Artifacts melting from mountain snow tell new stories, but do not last long.

In the high-altitude places of Alaskan mountains and around the world, archaeologists are scrambling to recover and learn what they can from artifacts revealed in melting snow.

These remains have been trapped in glaciers for thousands of years and are very exciting because the preservation in such conditions can be fantastic. Artifacts made from materials that rarely last long enough for archaeologists to see them, such as an antler point (right), wood, and animal and human remains are being revealed for the first time.

Unfortunately, these materials are in equilibrium in the ice and once removed by rising temperatures break down at an alarming pace. Combined with the remote location, difficult access, and a very limited number of archaeologists many of these clues to the ancient past will disappear before they can be studied.

Still though, what we learn from what we can recover is exciting. For example, we rarely get to see tools people used for hafting points into spear or arrow shafts.

Continued on page 17