Archaeologists have found pieces of rope, shell weights, twine, nets and other artifacts deep inside the Midden. A news press reported that university of Florida archaeologists William Marquardt and Karen Walker have excavated a 1,000 years old Midden on Southwestern Florida of Pine Island. These artifacts are linked to the Calusa society.
According to Archaeology Magazine, this Midden was formed when the water table level was low and then it rose up pretty quickly. Archeologist William Marquardt reported that the water level rising speed was quite fast, which sealed in the all the deposits and created an anaerobic situation and preserved all the materials inside it.
The team of archaeologists had to pump out all the groundwater to dig out all the artifacts found inside. Archaeologists say they found a variety of seeds, pieces of worked wood, shell weights, twine, net and rope pieces. The archaeologists along with their volunteers also recovered tiny shells of truncatella snails that lived by the high-tide line. William Marquardt explained that "finding these truncatella snails tells us where the shoreline was 1,000 years ago."
As per information from FCIT, Calusa is an extinct society which lived as a tribe on the sandy shores of the Southwest coast of Florida. They were referred to as "Shell Indians" and they used to control most of the part of South Florida. It is reported that these people used to live on the coast and along the inner waterways. Archeologists have already discovered many artifacts before which are already kept in Florida history museums for display purpose. According to reports, the Calusa tribe became extinct in the late 1700s. Many Calusa people were captured as slaves by the enemy tribes from Georgia and South Carolina and the remaining left for Cuba.
The Archaeology Department of University of Florida apart from this research is also conducting field research in Americas (Central, North and South America) and Africa. Although this discovery was a great work from the archaeologists as many hidden secrets can be revealed through these things about the Calusa.
