Tomoka Archaeology Project Stage IIa: Distribution and Description of Anthropogenic Sediments

The goal of Stage IIa of the Tomoka Archaeology Project (TAP) is to characterize archaeological sediments across the site and determine their horizontal and vertical extent. Data from this work provides a means for distinguishing between deposits produced through different activities and insight into how late Mount Taylor groups organized their living and monumental spaces. Knowing the composition and character of subsurface deposits and their distribution will aid in selecting areas with the greatest potential to produce the kinds of data required for paleoenvironmental reconstruction – preserved plant and animal remains – and are found in organically enriched sediments, especially shell – making preservation possible by reducing soil acidity. Data on the location of deposits with preserved organics will help to determine locations to excavate and sample during the next phase of field work.https://encompass.eku.edu/swps_facultygallery/1020/thumbnail.jp

Tomoka Archaeology Project Stage IIa: Distribution and Description of Anthropogenic Sediments

The Tomoka Mound and Midden Complex has some of the oldest Native American burial mounds in North America. Located on the northeast Atlantic coast of Florida, prehistoric hunter-gatherers of Mount Taylor culture constructed sand burial 4900-4700 years before present (BP). The Tomoka Archaeology Project (TAP) seeks to understand the origins of mound construction and the social and ecological conditions in particular. Stage IIa of the TAP characterized and determined the horizontal and vertical extent of anthropogenic (human modified) sediments across the site. Knowing the composition and distribution of subsurface deposits aids in selecting areas with the greatest potential to produce the kinds of data required for reconstructing the prehistoric environment, specifically preserved plant and animal remains which serve as proxies for past environmental conditions. Sediment cores revealed dense deposits of shell and organically enriched sediments proximate to mounds with a patchy distribution within the intervening spaces. Data on the location of deposits with preserved floral and faunal remains will aid in determining locations to investigate and sample in subsequent phases of field work

Investigating the Potential of Supratrochlear Foramen Frequency to Distinguish Between Lineage and Community Cemeteries Among Prehistoric Groups in Northeast Florida

The supratrochlear foramen (STF) is a genetic-linked physical anomaly present in human populations from all parts of the world. This phenomenon is a formation of a foramen between the two lateral condyles of the humorous. Amateur archaeologist Clarence Bloomfield Moore researched the occurrence of this phenomenon among burials from prehistoric mounds on the St. Johns River in Florida. The purpose of this project is to investigate patterning in STF frequency to infer if skeletal populations in prehistoric mounds are closely related indicating lineage-based social organization or more distantly related, indicating communal cemeteries. Our findings suggest that over the 5000 years frequency of STF appears to decrease with increasing social complexity, and inverse relationship from what is expected if mounds were cemeteries for members of specific lineages – hunter-gatherers should display the greatest heterogeneity and lowest STF frequency, chiefdoms should be more homogenous with the highest frequencies of STF. The unexpected and inverse relationship deviates from our hypotheses and expectations and may ultimately be explained as a product of marriage, kinship patterns, and social ranking. Based on the available data we conclude that the high frequency of STF among hunter-gatherers to reflect either smaller social networks or that the mounds served as corporate, lineage-based cemeteries. Later societies, and chiefdoms in particular, where STF is expected to be high if mounds served as corporate cemeteries may instead reflect that inclusion in mounded cemeteries is based on social status and not kinship, explaining the lower frequency of STF compared to earlier groups