A Remote Sensing Perspective on Shoreline Modification, Canal Construction and Household Trajectories at Pineland along Florida's Southwestern Gulf Coast

Abstract

In 2011, we initiated a geophysical survey of the Pineland Site Complex. The complex is comprised of two imposing residential midden-mound groups, two sand burial mounds and several linear (and other) middens along previous shorelines, and a canal system that not only integrated features within the site complex, but also served to connect it to the interior of Pine Island and beyond. For 25 years, archaeologists associated with the Florida Museum of Natural History have conducted extensive investigations at the Complex, clarifying the site's intertwined environmental and human histories. Our research presented here provides additional data to confirm some of the hypotheses generated by this previous research. The geophysical results support previous ideas regarding formation and occupation of former shorelines by Pineland's early fisher-gatherer-hunters. Second, they provide better definition of a small, later-period secondary canal, a component of the canal system. Most notably, the geophysical survey provides a basis for studying changes in household composition over time via the identification of house patterns in the resulting imaged data. We provide some speculations regarding this shift in residence patterns, suggesting that alterations may have been coeval with environmental changes. These changes may have set the stage for subsequent large-scale cooperative labour projects, such as Pineland's waterways. Figure 2. Hypothesized Pineland Site Complex topographic reconstruction based on modern topographic maps, historic sketch maps, written descriptions, oral histories and archaeological investigations (adapted from Marquardt and Walker, 2013, figure 17).

4 Political Ecology and the Event: Calusa Social Action in Early Colonial Entanglements

“…Mound Key, as well as contemporary sites along the coast (e.g., Pineland) and in the interior (e.g., Fort Center) are testimony to the ability of the Calusa, and other communities under their political influence, to coordinate large‐scale labor projects (see Marquardt and Walker , ; Pluckhahn and Thompson ; Thompson et al. ). All of these sites evince sizeable labor projects that include one or more of the following: extensive mounds, midden‐mounds, geometric earthworks, canal systems, and large‐scale structures.…”

“…The archaeological site of Mound Key (8LL2) is thought to be the historic capital of the kingdom based on the ethnohistoric documents (Marquardt and Walker ; Wheeler ). Recent work by Thompson, Marquardt, and colleagues (Thompson, Marquardt, and Walker ; Thompson et al. ) confirms this idea through archaeological excavation documenting the site's early Spanish presence and some of the architecture described in the documents.…”

“…To contextualize these interactions within long‐term histories we rely on archaeological research in the Calusa area as well as information from the broader region (Marquardt and Walker , ; Thompson and Worth ; Thompson et al. ; Widmer ). By taking this approach, we can then discuss specific events of the sixteenth century with reference to the development of Calusa traditions within their larger social and environmental history.…”

“…3.5 m diameter) on one of the ridges and potentially a larger structure that postdates them. Geophysical survey by Thompson, Marquardt, and Walker () confirm the existence of the larger structure (ca. 23 m long and 10 m wide), which appears to have been domestic in function.…”

The Archaeology and Remote Sensing of Santa Elena’s Four Millennia of Occupation

“…In eastern North America, there is a boon in the amount of publicly available LiDAR and while such data was not created with archaeology in mind, researchers have been making full use of this resource [44][45][46][47][48]. LiDAR, briefly, uses an instrument that emits and receives a laser that records spatial information via a high precision global positioning system (see [46]).…”