Conventions of Culture-Historical archaeology have persisted in Florida's Indian River Region since the early twentieth century. Traditional ceramic typologies focusing on the superficial stylistic characteristics of pottery have dominated anthropological assessments of Indian River culture during the prehistoric Malabar Period (ca. 1000 BC-AD 1565). Using a practice-oriented approach to analyze technological attributes of St. Johns pottery from Malabar-period assemblages offers an opportunity to examine the communities of practice surrounding craft production as an avenue for elucidating prehistoric cultural identities. This study explores ceramic technology within the Malabar period assemblages of the Fox Lake Sanctuary, and intra-regional and inter-regional site comparisons are quantitatively tested to evaluate variation in technological attributes between assemblages. Statistical results suggest a differentiation between certain technological attributes of St. Johns pottery in Malabar and St. Johns assemblages, notably in the rim thickness and lip morphology of simple form St. Johns Plain vessels.

Discovered on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the Little Midden site (8BR1933) is an archaeological site on the coast of the Indian River Culture Area. Previous research in this poorly-understood culture area has identified three types of sites: habitation sites, procurement camps, and single episodes sites. Along the Indian River Culture Area's coast, almost all of the archaeological sites have proven to be procurement camps. While the preliminary analysis of the Little Midden site's assemblage suggested that it, like other coastal sites, was a procurement camp, finds such as imported sherds, ochre, and lithics, indicated that it may have been a habitation site. The focus of this thesis is to test the hypothesis that the Little Midden site was a habitation site, as defined by previous researchers. A formal and functional analysis was undertaken on the 154 ceramic rims from the Little Midden site in order to determine the site's function. Models based on archaeological data, ethnohistoric data, and archaeological analogies were created to develop expected characteristics of a ceramic assemblage for each type of site. Tests of diversity, tests that analyze the size of the site's cooking vessels, and an examination that tests the continuity of use at the site were utilized to determine which model the Little Midden site's assemblage best fit. The ceramic results were equivocal. In many ways the Little Midden site's ceramic assemblage met the expectations for a habitation site. However, in other aspects the Little Midden site's ceramic assemblage better fit the expectations developed for a procurement camp. Although this is true, additional data from the site's faunal assemblage suggests that the site was a seasonal procurement camp during the spring and summer months. Combining the ceramic and faunal data, the Little Midden site seems to reflect a large procurement site that was occupied year-after-year to exploit the marine resources, which differs from the inconsistent occupations of other procurement camps. These results demonstrate that previous classifications of site function in the Indian River Culture Area do not describe the full range of human subsistence and settlement behaviors that have been documented archaeologically.

The Crystal River site (8CI1) is a Woodland-period (ca 1000 B.C. to A.D. 1050) mound complex located on the Gulf of Mexico in west-central Florida. Among the features at the site are four shell and sand platform mounds, two burial mounds, and an extensive shell midden. The proximity to the Gulf and the reliance on marine and brackish resources present an apparent, yet poorly understood interaction between the people of this area and their environment. I attempt to model the relationship of the occupation of Crystal River with sea level change. The analysis of 58 soil cores from across the site provided detailed stratigraphic information and AMS radiocarbon dates needed to examine anthropogenic site formation. I then compared the rates of midden deposition and monumental architecture construction with sea level and climatic periods. This research revealed that landscape modification occurred during periods of both high and low mean sea level suggesting that human-environmental interaction at Crystal River cannot be modeled by sea level alone. Further comparison showed that mound construction increased and midden deposition decreased during the Vandal Minimum indicating a possible sociopolitical transition concurrent with changing environmental conditions.

The Crystal River site (8CI1) in west-central Florida is famous as the southernmost major participant in the Hopewell Interaction Sphere, and certainly has the most Hopewellian goods of any Woodland site in Florida. Sharon Goad (1978), among others, proposed that Crystal River secured this position by controlling the production and exchange of marine shell ornaments and cups. I test this hypothesis through the analysis of marine shell recovered from previous excavations, recent surface finds, and shell debris from 58 core samples extracted from the Crystal River mounds, plaza, middens, and surrounding marshland. The analysis reveals an abundance of shell ornaments in burials, but only a limited presence of marine shell used in ornament production around the site, which contradicts Goad's original hypothesis. Therefore, I propose several alternative explanations for the disproportionate presence of Hopewellian items at Crystal River.

ABSTRACT Recent archaeological investigations indicate that coastal Fort Walton cultures in the St. Joseph Bay region of northwest Florida emphasized marine and estuarine foraging. These late prehistoric (A.D. 1000-1500) peoples collected fish, shellfish, and other aquatic resources. At the Richardson's Hammock site (8Gu10), radiocarbon-dated to about A.D. 1300, as at dozens of other shell middens around this salty bay, large gastropods were a major subsistence component. This adaptation is in sharp contrast with that of contemporaneous inland Fort Walton societies, who relied on maize agriculture. It is unknown whether coastal groups represent separate hunter-gatherer-fisher populations or seasonal migrations by inland farming villagers. This thesis research uses stable oxygen and carbon isotope analysis on lightning whelks (Busycon sinistrum) to determine the seasonality of Fort Walton foraging, and compares the environment of prehistoric St. Joseph Bay with that of the modern bay. Oxygen isotope profiles suggest that shellfish collecting was relegated primarily to the summer months, producing a scheduling conflict with the primary growing season for maize in northwest Florida. Thus, it is argued that coastal and inland Fort Walton probably represent separate culture groups. The relationship between d18Oshell and d13Cshell indicates similar environmental and climatic conditions between prehistoric St. Joseph Bay and today. However, modern whelks are depleted in d13C compared to Fort Walton whelks, which reflects both twentieth century CO2 emissions and years of dredging and wastewater pollution entering the bay.

Crystal River (8CI1) is a Woodland period archaeological site on the west-central Gulf Coast of Florida, famous for its diverse suite of exotic artifacts typical of the Hopewell Interaction Sphere, as well as its monumental shell mounds which surround a central plaza. Historically, these plazas are utilized as spaces for cultural expression, daily interactions between members of the community, economic exchanges, and discourse of all types. They also serve as a symbolic space, embodying social and political relations that are critical to the formation and maintenance of cultural identity. These spaces are challenging to study using conventional archaeological techniques since they were often swept clean and kept free of debris, thus discouraging the possibility of recovering artifacts of any significant size. Instead, my study utilizes integrated geoarchaeological techniques, such as microartifact analysis, soil chemical analysis, ground-penetrating radar, and magnetic survey in order to reconstruct plaza activities. The results indicate a stark difference in function between the northern and southern ends of the plaza. The South Plaza demonstrates high concentrations of elements associated with food preparation and consumption, particularly P, Sr, K, and M, high microartifact densities, and an associated strong magnetic anomaly. On the other hand, phosphate depletion is observed in the North Plaza, and it is generally barren of micro-artifacts, despite the possible presence of a few geophysical anomalies. This area appears to have been kept free of debris, save for a charcoal deposit and elevated K and Mg directly in front of Mound H, which may allude to ceremonial or other functions not associated with food.

The ceramic assemblage from previous excavations at Crystal River (8CI1), a Woodland period mound center on Florida’s west-central coast, exhibits variation in temper and surface treatments indicative of distinct pottery traditions and, perhaps, social groups. I analyzed ceramics from recent, better controlled excavations at Crystal River and the neighboring and partially contemporaneous site of Roberts Island (8CI41), using the theoretical framework of communities of practice to evaluate this claim. Analysis suggests that while some degree of diversity in paste was maintained through all four phases, there was greater homogeneity of paste, as well as more mixing of paste categories, during Phases 2 and 3. The former was an interval marked by intensive settlement at Crystal River, and the dominance of limestone tempered pottery suggests the emergence of a common, locally-based pottery making tradition. A switch to sand as a tempering agent in Phase 3 probably reflects greater dispersal of settlement, and specifically a shift to the occupation of coastal islands. Trends in surface treatments may also appear to reflect changes in settlement, although the pattern here is less straightforward owing to broader trends in ceramic decoration. The vast majority of pottery in each phase is plain, but plain pottery is particularly dominant (and the diversity of surface treatments correspondingly low) during the peak in settlement in Phase 2. As with temper, this may suggest that pottery making practices converged, as initially disparate groups lived together in closer proximity, perhaps creating a common social identity. As settlement became more dispersed in Phase 3, pottery making traditions again became more diverse. This perhaps reflects increased isolation of households, although it no doubt also stems from a regional trend toward more variety in ceramic decoration. In Phase 4, plain pottery again became dominant, a trend typical of the terminal Late Woodland. In general, the analysis suggests that temper and surface treatment track changes in settlement, and thus might be reasonably inferred to also track the extent to which potters shared pottery making practices, and perhaps social identities. Communities of practice thus provides a useful framework for understanding how social identities are expressed through technological and stylistic practices.

The impact of human activity on ecosystems is an issue at the forefront of global concern. Marine ecosystems are a particular concern, given their importance for human sustenance. Through the removal of species that are highly susceptible to the effects of overfishing, global fisheries have been driven to near collapse in recent decades. The long-term effects of such practices has resulted in declines in mean trophic level of aggregate fish catches over time, as well as decreasing diversity of species available for regular harvest (Jackson et al. 2001; Pauly et al. 1998). These supposedly “modern” problems have been recently identified in archaeological contexts, and attest to the extent of anthropogenic ecosystem alteration that has occurred since humans first began intensively exploiting marine ecosystems (Erlandson and Rick 2010; Quitmyer and Reitz 2006; Reitz 2004; Wing and Wing 2001). Here, I evaluate the degree of change in mean trophic level, diversity, and equitability of midden deposits at Crystal River and Roberts Island, two roughly contemporaneous Middle-to-Late Woodland Period (AD 1to 1000) mound complexes located on the west-central Florida Gulf Coast. This research identifies the extent to which humans altered the characteristics of the estuarine ecosystem surrounding the two sites, promotes alternative theoretical perspectives on past human-environment interactions, and provides modern ecosystems management agencies with a temporally-expansive data set to aid in future ecosystem conservation efforts.

The examination of the tools that prehistoric people crafted for subsistence and related practices offers distinctive insights into how they lived their lives. Most often, researchers study these practices in isolation, by tool type or by material. However, by using a relational perspective, my research explores the tool assemblage as a whole including bone, stone and shell. This allows me to study the changes in tool industries in relation to one another, something that I could not accomplish by studying only one material or tool type. I use this broader approach to tool manufacture and use for the artifact assemblage from Crystal River (8CI1) and Roberts Island (8CI41), two sequential Middle and Late Woodland Period (A.D. 1-1050) archaeological sites on the central Gulf coast of Florida. The results of my research show that people made different choices, both in the type of material they used and the kind of tools they manufactured during the time they lived at these sites as subsistence practices shifted. Evidence of these trends aligns with discrete changes in strata within our excavations. The timing of depositional events and the artifacts found within each suggest people also used the sites differently through time. These trends exemplify the role of crafting tools in the way people maintain connections with their mutable social and physical world.

A total of 17 samples were collected for OSL dating from a Swift Creek archaeological site, known as Harrison Ring, which lies on the Tyndall Air force peninsula in northwest Florida. High-resolution vertical sampling conducted at 10 cm intervals from the surface was performed in order to determine the timing of occupation at the site, and to look for patterns in radiation dosimetry and post-depositional disturbance that can compromise OSL results. We find OSL ages determined using both 0.5 mm aliquots and single grains at the archaeological levels (approximately 1751 ± 339 years ago) to be consistent with the timing of early Swift Creek cultures on the Florida Gulf Coast. The ages we report are both consistent with radiocarbon dates taken at Harrison Ring, and those taken at other Swift Creek sites on the Gulf Coast. In general, we find OSL equivalent doses that show high overdispersion and skewness that we attribute to beta-microdosimetry and possible bioturbation in the profiles. We also present results from a test with a novel dosimetric technique employing Al2O3:C chips. By using Al2O3:C dosimeters, we find that large variability in beta dose rates exist in the sedimentary profile at Harrison Ring. By testing a combination of dosimetric techniques in a site with a well-constrained age, we find that the best agreement with independent age control exists when calculating ages using a beta dose rate from NAA/DNC and gamma dose rate from Al2O3:C dosimetry. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)