The Mark Pardo Shellworks Site is an

archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

site west of Bokeelia, Florida. It is located along the eastern edge of Cayo Costa Island in Cayo Costa State Park. On May 21, 1996, it was added to the

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

. The site has shell works, consisting of lines of shell deposits along the shore, and black dirt

midden A midden (also kitchen midden or shell heap) is an old dump for domestic waste which may consist of animal bone, human excrement, botanical material, mollusc shells, potsherds, lithics (especially debitage), and other artifacts and ecofact ...

s inland from the shells. There may also be features underwater in the adjacent

black mangrove Black mangrove may refer to the plants: * ''Aegiceras corniculatum'' (Primulaceae) - south-east Asia and Australasia * ''Avicennia germinans'' (Acanthaceae) - tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas, on both the Atlantic and Pacific coast ...

forest, dating to when the sea level was lower. The shell works are dominated by

lightning whelk ''Sinistrofulgur perversum'', the lightning whelk, is an edible species of very large predatory sea snail or whelk, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Busyconidae, the busycon whelks. This species has a left-handed or sinistral shell. It e ...

, with some horse conchs.

Oyster Oyster is the common name for a number of different families of salt-water bivalve molluscs that live in marine or brackish habitats. In some species, the valves are highly calcified, and many are somewhat irregular in shape. Many, but not al ...

, clam, conch and lightning whelk shells are also found in the middens. The shell works and middens are attributed to the Caloosahatchee culture IIA-IV period, about 500–1500. In 1992, the NRHP Registration Sheet described the Mark Pardo Shellworks as "one of the best preserved archaeological sites in the region." Since then, however,

feral hog The feral pig is a domestic pig which has gone feral, meaning it lives in the wild. They are found mostly in the Americas and Australia. Razorback and wild hog are Americanisms applied to feral pigs or boar-pig hybrids. Definition A feral pi ...

s have seriously damaged the site.

References

External links

Lee County listings
a
National Register of Historic Places

Alachua County listings
a
Florida's Office of Cultural and Historical Programs
** ''Note:'' ''above link is correct, but under wrong county of Alachua'' Mounds in Florida Native American history of Florida Archaeological sites in Florida National Register of Historic Places in Lee County, Florida Shell middens in Florida {{LeeCountyFL-NRHP-stub