J&J Hunt Submerged Archaeological Site - Submerged Paleoindian Archaeology

Submerged Paleoindian Archaeology

Submerged prehistoric sites investigated in northwest Florida along the margins of the drowned Aucilla River channel (or PaleoAucilla) extend our understanding of prehistoric settlement patterns and paleolandscape utilization(2004b). The Underwater Archaeology of Paleolandscapes, Apalachee Bay, Florida. American Antiquity, Vol. 69, No. 2. (Apr., 2004), pp. 275-289. Excavating submerged prehistoric sites on the continental shelf around Florida, and in other regions, helps archaeologists gain insight about prehistoric settlement patterns and aids in the reconstruction of the prehistoric landscape. Bifacial and unifacial tools indicate Late Paleoindian and Early Archaic logistical activities at these sites, as well as later Middle Archaic occupations. By recovering and analyzing prehistoric stone tools, terrestrial faunal remains, and terrestrial floral remains – such as tree stumps, and possible eroded middle Holocene shell middens, helps excavators infer that the site was not fully inundated throughout prehistory.

In the late Pleistocene and early Holocene periods, much of the continental shelf around Florida was exposed and occupied by prehistoric people. During these periods the continental shelf was a vastly different landscape and was home to a variety of plants and animals, including forests and megafauna. It was not until the Holocene, as sea water transgressed, that the continent shelf was transformed into marsh lands and brackish water, eventually becoming fully inundated.