Windover

NOW AVAILABLE from University of Florida Presses: Windover: Multidisciplinary Investigations of an Early Archaic Florida Cemetary (see bibliography for specific chapter citations).

Field work at Windover began in 1984 and continued to January of 1997. Laboratory analysis continues in several labs across the country (see bibliography for further information on Windover).

Every archaeological site contains important information. Some, due to preservation factors and the time period represented contain exception opportunities for multidisciplinary research. Windover (8BR246) provides a wide variety of information and researchers from 11 different organizations have been involved in the research. Intentional burials were placed in peaty soils in the margins of a pond which provided near optimal preservation conditions.Ê

Windover was accidentally discovered during road construction in 1982, through the interest of EKS, Inc. the developer, excavations from 1984 - 1986 were possible. Without their support no excavations would have been possible. The Florida legislature funded most of the excavations and initial laboratory analysis which continues to this day.

Part of the importance of Windover (8BR246) relates to the size and antiquity of the human skeletal materials recovered from the site. Florida, because of its wet sites and early tradition of wet site burials has an amazing inventory of early materials.

Florida has more 6,000 B.P. skeletal material
than anywhere else in the U.S.

With a sample size of minimally 168 individuals all ages are well represented. Many other samples in North America, earlier and later in time, are missing many subadults. At Windover approximately half the sample is less than 20 years of age making it paleodemographically more useful for many kinds of analysis. Bone, wulnatools, antler and wooden tools, not to mention hand woven fabrics, are often well preserved in wet sites like Windover.

Lithics were rare at Windover and most artifacts were made of bone, antler, wooden and dental tools. In most traditional populations around the world lithics are small part of the material culture inventory. Most of the organic (bone, wood, etc.) parts of the technological inventory do not survive. This is the entire artifact inventory from Windover that would be preserved in a typical terrestrial site. Some of these stone tools still show prehistoric ëgluesí adhering to the bases.Ê

One of the things which makes Windover unique are the complex set of hand woven fabrics all dating to the Early Archaic (approximately 7,410 years before present, uncorrected). Made from plant fibers these materials form one of the New World’s largest textile inventories from this early time period. Many specialists from the Canadian Conservation Technique, the Carnegie Museum, Mercyhurst Archaeological Institute and Corvasob are involved in the preservation of Windover wood and fabrics. Their involvement has been critical to the success of the Windover Archaeological Research Project.

Organic materials are particularly well preserved in many wet sites around the world. This cast of a wooden stake provides a permanent record of its shape and size. All organic materials from wetsites require extraordinary conservation to ensure their survival. Some traditional conservation techniques have not been successful with wooden materials older than 5,000 years and require special treatment procedures.

Wet sites present special problems for excavation and conservation. Excavations at Windover involved the installation of a wellpoint/pump system to allow excavation well below the water table. All organic materials from wetsites must be carefully conserved. Windover's location made it possible for thousands of people to visit the site and FSU used the opportunity as a chance for public education about the importance of archaeological sites. Without the cooperation and support of the landowners, EKS, Inc. no excavations would have been possible. Through their direct funding and funding from the Florida legislature three field seasons of excavation were possible.

Osteologists look at metric and nonmetric features of skeletal material from different groups and use this information to attempt to understand population similarities and differences within an evolutionary and adaptive framework. The search for other early (pre-6000 BP year old samples) has led Doran to Japan which also has substantial collections of early human skeletal material.Ê

Cranial metrics are a common technique of comparing populations. Simple univariate and bivariate analyses are giving way to more complex multivariate statistical analyses.

As part of the FSU research effort we have tabulated information for many populations around the world and many states contain small samples of early skeletal material but large samples are extremely rare. Large samples from the earliest human occupations are particularly rare. Most large (> 50) samples come from the last 2000 years.

An interest in early human populations has also led to interest in other geographic areas of the New World. Texas, like most states, has a much larger inventory of late skeletal samples dating to the last 2000 years but some samples are much older.

The study of age and sex structure of early human populations, referred to as paleodemography, posses many problems not limited to issues of preservation, methods of aging the skeletal material and sample sizes. Paleodemography provides one method of attempting to understand early human demographic experience and can generate many testable hypotheses about early populations.Ê

Most early (pre-6000) skeletal samples are very small, typically less than 20 individuals. Windover with at least 168 individuals is one of the New World’s largest samples from this early time period and provides a unique scientific research opportunity. Due to preservations features of the saturated peat deposits and nearly neutral pH preservation was extraordinary and all age groups were well represented.Ê

Life expectancy derived from abridged and model life tables of over 20,000 individuals in North America are beginning to provide inferences about demographic experience in different time periods. FSU continues to build a series of databases focusing on these early peoples and demographic analysis is but one approach.Ê

The direct extraction, isolation and study of preserved DNA from archaeological materials is an example of the new techniques of analysis that are evolving in bioarchaeology and biology. Multidisciplinary investigations involving specialists from chemistry, biology, physics, etc. are all increasingly important research strategies in anthropological archaeology and physical anthropology.

Windover References