A Story of Sarasota/Manatee, Florida's Archaeological Past, Present, and Future.
In the late 19th and early 20th century, some Florida pioneers built their homes on top of ancient mounds, like at Historic Spanish Point in Osprey and Snead Island in Palmetto.
Other mounds were mined for shell to use as a base for roads like the Tamiami Trail, which runs through Tampa and south all the way to Miami. The highway is important, but it sure is a shame we destroyed the chance to learn more about the region's first locals.
Across the region, there are middens and mounds made of shell and dirt long ago. American university professors would tell students they were trash heaps; they were wrong though that language can still be found in books and even interpretive signs.
There is great diversity for the middens and mounds but recognizing them as ancient architecture, providing elevation, platforms for rituals, markers on the landscape, fire breaks, and burial sites is more accurate.
Throughout the Archaic and Manasota periods in Sarasota and Manatee counties, artificial hills of shell are evidence of the ancient peoples of this land. Middens are mounds comprised of the discarded shells, bone, charcoal, wood, and other detritus of every day life. They served as the basic habitation areas for people, but starting in the Manasota period, the ancients built up this architecture for the elevation, festivals and religious ceremonies.
PORTAVANT TEMPLE MOUND
View from the top of the mound at Snead Island, Emerson Point Park in Manatee County.
INDIAN MOUND PARK
This Sarasota County Park, located in Englewood, was occupied from approximately 3000 - 750 BP
