Crossing the waterline: Integrating terrestrial and submerged site investigations in the Aucilla River, Florida

Stratigraphic Framework, Paleoenvironments, and Indigenous Terraforming of Inshore Estuarine Subbasins in Tampa Bay, Florida, U.S.A.

“…As archaeologists working on Florida's Gulf Coast have amply discussed ( e.g ., Cook-Hale, Hale, and Garrison, 2019; Faught, 2004; Halligan, 2021), Holocene sea-level rise has likely inundated most coastal Native settlements predating the common era. Further, the widely observed transgressive pulse ca .…”

Geoarchaeological framework of Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene sites in the Aucilla River Basin, Northwest Florida, USA

“…In fact, due to the low relief of the drainage basin, many portions of the landscape may be all three over the course of the year. Throughout the past decade, we have thus refined our methods to conduct parallel and comparable fieldwork on both sides of the waterline (Halligan, 2020). Exhaustive discussion of field and lab methods are available in Halligan (2012) and Halligan et al (2016), so a brief summary follows.…”

“…Over the past decade, my colleagues and I have conducted walkover assessments of more than 50 terrestrial sites and diver survey of over two dozen underwater sites (Halligan, 2020). We have shovel‐tested several sections of the drainage basin and cored at nine different underwater sites.…”

“…A few of these early localities were the focus of intensive investigations throughout the late 20th and early 21st centuries (Dunbar et al, 2006; Faught & Carter, 1998; Faught & Donoghue, 1997; Faught, 2004a, 2004b; Halligan et al, 2016; Halligan, 2012; Hemmings, 1999b; Smith, 2020; Webb, 2006). The dozens of recorded Aucilla Basin mid‐late Holocene components, generally in terrestrial settings, are monitored regularly, but are known in much less detail (Halligan, 2020), so this paper focuses on the geoarchaeological context of the cultural components that predate 8000 calibrated years before present (calbp).…”

“…Little testing took place on land and, except for some of the Page‐Ladson investigations (Webb, 2006), geoarchaeological context and site formation processes were not the research focus. Over the past decade, dedicated geoarchaeological investigations have begun to target the Aucilla Basin (Halligan et al, 2016; Halligan, 2012; Halligan, 2020; Smith, 2020).…”