Weeden Island culture

The Weeden Island Culture is one of the many archaeological cultures that existed during the Late Woodland period of the North American Southeast. The name for this culture was derived from the Weedon Island site (despite the dissimilar spellings) in Old Tampa Bay in Pinellas County.^[1]

History

Scholars believe that the Weeden Island culture emerged from the Hopewell tradition-based Swift Creek culture of northwest Florida during the Middle Woodland Period (ca. 200 - 500 CE) in the lower Chattahoochee-Apalachicola river drainage. It persisted in some areas until the end of the Woodland period ca. 1200 CE. Weeden Island sites have been found from Mobile Bay to south of Tampa Bay, extending as far north as lower-central Georgia.

The current subsistence model for the Late Woodland Period of Florida shows that the Weeden Island peoples primarily occupied coastal areas and large river basins, exploiting local marine and terrestrial resources. They used upland interior regions almost exclusively for resource extraction, although some scholars contest this.^{[citation needed]} Although the multiple geographic variants of Weeden Island groups used slightly different subsistence strategies dictated by local environment (including small-scale agriculture in some areas), a trend toward the semi-sedentary hunter-gatherer exploitation of hardwood hammock areas and coastal/riverine marine resources accurately characterizes Weeden Island subsistence activities in general.

The Weedon Island site was excavated by Smithsonian Institution archaeologist J. Walter Fewkes in 1923 and 1924. Recent archaeological work places the Weedon Island site outside the "heartland region" of the Weeden Island Culture in northern and northwestern Florida.

Scholars now classify the site excavated on Weedon Island as belonging to the Manasota culture area, a " 'Weeden Island-related culture' in which typical Weeden Island pottery is found in mounds, but not in village middens."^[2][3]

Geographic and temporal variants

Region	Weeden Island I		Weeden Island II
North central Florida	Cades Pond culture	200 - 700	Alachua culture	700 - European contact
Chattahoochee River valley	Kolomaki culture	350 - 750
Florida north peninsular Gulf coast	North peninsular coast culture	200-900
North Florida	McKeithen Weeden Island culture	200 - 700	Island Pond culture	700 - European contact
Northwest Florida	Weeden Island Northwest culture	300-900	Fort Walton culture	900 - European contact
Tampa Bay area	Manasota culture	550 BCE - 800 CE	Safety Harbor culture	800 - European contact

Recent efforts have refined the Weeden Island culture concept so that the term "Weeden Island" includes several distinct regional manifestations which exhibited the same basic ceremonial complex (most likely associated with shared sociopolitical patterns), but that exhibited significant geographic variations. These include: the North peninsular Gulf Coast variant, found along the Gulf coast from Pasco County to the Aucilla River; the Cades Pond culture in north-central Florida; the McKeithen Weeden Island culture in northernmost inland Florida; the Manasota culture located within the central Peninsular Gulf Coast; the Northwest culture, extending from the Aucilla River through the Florida Panhandle to Mobile, Alabama; and more recently the Kolomoki culture, located in the lower Chattahoochee Valley.

Several attempts have been made to segregate Weeden Island components into chronological phases based on temporal changes in settlement patterns, artifact assemblage, and ceremonial activities, all of which recognize an inherent distinction between the material culture of earlier and later Weedon Island manifestations. It is most widely accepted that the Weeden Island culture be split into two time periods: the Weeden Island I Period (200 AD - 700 AD) and Weeden Island II Period (700 AD - 1200 AD). Some Weeden Island II cultures later developed into local variants of the Mississippian culture, collectively known as proto-Mississippian.

The Weeden Island culture was preceded by the Deptford culture (and the later Swift Creek and Santa Rosa-Swift Creek cultures in the panhandle). It was followed by the Alachua culture in the Cades Pond culture area, by the Suwannee Valley culture in the McKeithen culture area and by the Fort Walton Culture in the Northwest area (the panhandle).

Several archaeologists including William Sears indicate "that there was a sharp dichotomy between sacred and the secular" artifacts (particularly ceramics) within the Weeden Island culture, though this pattern has not been observed west of the Aucilla River. (quote from Fagan, p.458).

"The social organization characteristic of ... Weeden Island sites appears to have lain somewhere between the basically egalitarian structure of Archaic hunter-gatherers and the chiefdoms characteristic of Mississippian society...over these centuries, the social, political, and ideological institutions of later Weedon Island agricultural communities and their contemporaries evolved into those associated with the Mississippian" (Fagan, p.460-461).

North peninsular Gulf coast region

The north peninsular Gulf coast variant of the Weeden Island culture existed along the Gulf of Mexico coast of Florida from the Aucilla River southward to what is now Pasco County. It also included such inland wetland areas as the Cove of the Withlacoochee (around Lake Tsala Apopka in Citrus County) and Gulf Hammock (in southern Levy County). This region has not received as much attention from archeologists as have other variants of the Weeden Island culture. While a number of sites have been surveyed, most of the mounds and shell middens in the area have been disturbed or destroyed by artifact hunters and "borrowing" for road-building material, and there have been no major excavations of sites in the region.

As in other Weeden Island areas, there is a difference between ceremonial/prestige pottery, found primarily in burial mounds, and the utilitarian pottery found in village sites and shell middens. The prevalence of undecorated pottery and the lack of major excavations means that the chronology of the Weeden Island culture in the north peninsular Gulf coast is poorly understood.

The Weeden Island culture was not uniform over the north peninsular Gulf coast. Ceramics related to the Swift Creek culture are found scattered at early sites throughout the area, but particularly so in Taylor County, the northernmost part of the region. Later sites in Taylor County show some influence from the Fort Walton culture. In Dixie County, to the south of Taylor County, later sites appear to have been influenced by the Alachua culture, which developed out of the Cades Pond variant of the Weeden Island culture. Later sites in the southern part of the region show influence from the Safety Harbor culture.

Primary habitation sites were concentrated along the coast, with smaller sites adjacent to inland waterways. The inhabitants left numerous shell middens, composed primarily of oyster shells, but also including clam, scallop, whelk and conch shells. Fish of various kinds were another important component of the diet. Sea turtles, tortoises, alligators and deer were also consumed. Horticulture was absent or a late introduction, although the inhabitants of the southern end of the region (Pasco and Hernando counties) were growing maize at the time of first European contact.^[4]

McKeithen Weeden Island culture

The McKeithen Weeden Island culture was a regional variant of early Weeden Island culture in north Florida. The area of the McKeithen Weeden Island culture was north of the Santa Fe River, extending east from the Aucilla River to the western edge of the St. Johns River drainage basin. It was lasted about 500 years, from 200 to 700.^[5]

The McKeithen culture is named after a landowner who invited archaeologists to excavate some mounds on his property before vandals destroyed them. The McKeithen site was a village next to a stream with three mounds. These three mounds were created in an isosceles triangle, with the main axis of the triangle pointing towards the summer solstice sunrise. The mounds were likely built between 350-475 CE. Abundant evidence of occupation was found in a crescent around a presumed plaza, which was essentially bare of artifacts. The three mounds flanked the plaza on three sides. Wood and charcoal found in the village have yielded radiocarbon dates of AD 200 to 750.^[6]

The mounds served different purposes. The one named (arbitrarily) 'B' had a rectangular building on it that has been interpreted to be a temple or the residence of the priest who conducted ceremonies for the dead. The presumed holder of that office was buried inside the building. Evidence of animals chewing on some bones indicate that the body was exposed for a while after death before burial. A tomb of wood and earth was erected over the grave. The tomb and building were then burned, and the ashes scattered. After a ceramic bird head was pushed into the ground at the foot of the grave, a layer of dirt was spread over all of the mound. Three radiocarbon dates for this event average to 354.^[7]

Mound 'A' was a charnel area where bodies were cleaned and buried temporarily. A wall of posts screened a number of burial pits from the village. Posts up to two feet in diameter apparently were used to mark graves. The decomposed bodies were later removed, and bones were bundled and moved to mound 'C'. Numerous potsherds and many small fire pits are interpreted as evidence of ceremonies connected with processing the bodies. In 354 the wall of posts and other posts were piled up over the empty grave pits and burned.^[8]

Mound 'C' held a charnel house where bundled bones, typically a skull and limb bones, were stored. After some period of time, the bundles were buried around the periphery of the mound. In about 475, approximately 36 bone bundles were removed from the charnel house and buried. The charnel house was burned, then a fire was built of top of it for a feast. A large bowl with animal heads on its rim, which may have been used for serving ceremonial drinks such as the black drink, was left on the remains of the fire after its bottom was knocked out. At least 17 ceramic vessels, including hollow figurines of animals, were broken and left atop the graves of the bone bundles. The whole mound was then covered with a six foot layer of earth.^[9]

Pottery at the McKeithen site has been classified as secular, prestige, and sacred. Secular pots were undecorated, or had minimal decoration, and were all made with clay from local sources. Prestige ware was decorated with lines and dots and sometimes 'painted' with red clay. This prestige ware was found most often in the mounds, but occasionally elsewhere in the village. The sacred vessels, which were found only in the mounds, were elaborately decorated and sometimes were in the shape of animals. Some of the sacred vessels apparently were imported, but the ones with animal shapes usually were made from local clay.^[10]

References

• Fagan, Brian M. Ancient North America. London: Thames and Hudson, Ltd., 2005
• Milanich, Jerald T. 1995. Florida Indians and the Invasion from Europe. Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida. ISBN 0-8130-1360-7
• Milanich, Jerald T. 1994. Archaeology of Precolumbian Florida. Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida.
• Milanich, Jerlad T. 2002. Weeden Island Cultures. In The Woodland Southeast, edited by D.G. Anderson and R. C. Mainfort, Jr., pp. 318-352. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.
• Willey, Gordon R. 1949. Archaeology of the Florida Gulf Coast. Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida.
• Brown, Robin C. 1994. Florida's First People. Sarasota, Florida: Pineapple Press, Inc. ISBN 1-56164-032-8
• Anon. 1993. "Chapter 6. North-central Florida, 2500 N>P>-A>D> 1702", in Milanich, Jerald, Ed. Florida Historical Contexts. State of Florida Division of Historical Resources. - retrieved October 31, 2007

Footnotes

1. ^ Weedon Island Site Historic Landmark - URL retrieved December 17, 2006
2. ^ Chapter 5. "North Florida, 2500 B.P.-A.D. 1700", State of Florida Office of Cultural and Historical Programs, URL retrieved 17 Dec 2006.
3. ^ Chapter 9. "Central Peninsular Gulf Coast: The Manasota Region: 2500 B.P.-A.D. 800", State of Florida Office of Cultural and Historical Programs, URL retrieved 17 Dec 2006.
4. ^ State of Florida Office of Cultural and Historical Programs: Chapter 8. North Peninsular Gulf Coast, 2500 B.P.-A.D. 1600 URL retrieved January 14, 2008.
5. ^ Florida Historical Contexts
6. ^ Brown. Pp. 41, 43.
7. ^ Brown. Pp. 46-8.
8. ^ Brown. Pp. 48-50.
9. ^ Brown. Pp. 50-1.
10. ^ Brown. Pp. 52-3.

External links

• Weedon Island Preserve - official site
• Weeden Island Culture, New George Encyclopedia