The Pineland Archeological District (also known as Battey's Landing or Battey Place or the Pineland Site) is a
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., ...
historic district
A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from c ...
(designated as such on November 27, 1973) located on
Pine Island, near
Pineland,
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
, and next to
Pine Island Sound
Pine Island Sound is located in Lee County, Florida, lying between Pine Island and the barrier islands of Sanibel Island, Captiva Island, North Captiva Island and Cayo Costa, which separate the Sound from the Gulf of Mexico. The Sound connects to ...
. The site was occupied by people of the
Caloosahatchee culture
The Caloosahatchee culture is an archaeological culture on the Gulf coast of Southwest Florida that lasted from about 500 to 1750 AD. Its territory consisted of the coast from Estero Bay to Charlotte Harbor and inland about halfway to Lake Okeec ...
, known as the
Calusa
The Calusa ( ) were a Native American people of Florida's southwest coast. Calusa society developed from that of archaic peoples of the Everglades region. Previous indigenous cultures had lived in the area for thousands of years.
At the time of ...
in historic times, from 500
BCE until after 1700. The site includes shell and sand
mound
A mound is a heaped pile of earth, gravel, sand, rocks, or debris. Most commonly, mounds are earthen formations such as hills and mountains, particularly if they appear artificial. A mound may be any rounded area of topographically higher el ...
s and other structures and prehistoric canals and artificial lakes. It also includes structures from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Description
The Pineland Archeological District includes a number of mounds and other features. Close to the shore is Battey's Landing (8LL35), consisting of the Brown Mound Complex, with five mounds, to the northwest, and to the southeast, the Randell Mound Complex, with two mounds. The two complexes are separated by the western end of the Pine Island Canal (8LL34). Southeast of the Randell Mound Complex, close to the shore, is the Old Mound, or Pineland Midden (8LL37). Inland to the south of the canal are the Surf Clam Ridge, the Citrus Ridge, the Smith Mound, or Pineland Burial Mound (8LL36), and the Low Mound (8LL1612). Furthest inland, north of the canal, is Adam's Mound (8LL38). The Pineland site was in use for most of the Caloosahatchee culture period, from about 50 until after 1700. The site also includes historic buildings, such as the Pineland Post Office and the Ruby Gill House.
The Pineland Site Complex is an area designated for the protection of the archaeological and natural resources of the Pineland site, managed by the University of Florida Foundation. In partnership with the
Archeological Conservancy, the
University of Florida
The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...
Foundation,
Lee County and the Calusa Land Trust, the State of Florida has designated as an area of Critical Historical Resources. In 1996, the Randell family gave of the site to the University of Florida, which the museum now operates as the Randell Research Center. As of 2012, had been acquired by the state, and negotiations were underway to buy full ownership or conservation easements on several remaining parcels. The Randell Research Center is a research and educational facility at Pineland operated by the
Florida Museum of Natural History
The Florida Museum of Natural History (FLMNH) is Florida's official state-sponsored and chartered natural-history museum. Its main facilities are located at 3215 Hull Road on the campus of the University of Florida in Gainesville.
The main pub ...
.
[
]
Battey's Landing
The heart of the Pineland site, Battey's Landing, covered about when visited by Frank Hamilton Cushing
Frank Hamilton Cushing (July 22, 1857 in North East Township, Erie County, Pennsylvania – April 10, 1900 in Washington, D.C.) was an American anthropologist and ethnologist. He made pioneering studies of the Zuni Indians of New Mexico by enter ...
in 1895, but by 1989 only remained intact, preserved by landowners Don and Pat Randell. Cushing described the site as extending about inland and about along the shore, with the "high-built" portions (including the courts) covering at least . He reported five "enormous" rectangular courts, enclosed by nine quadrangular foundation terraces. A series of benches, courts and enclosures extended to the south of the main site, diminishing in size. The courts were connected to Pine Island Sound by canals. Cushing described the Pine Island Canal, leading from Pine Island Sound between two "very high shell elevations" to a court that was lower than the others. From the eastern end of the court, a canal wide and deep ran east into the interior of the island. Much of the Battey's Landing site, and in particular, the courts, was being used for agriculture at the time of Cushing's visit.
Other features
Unlike the other mounds at Pineland, which were shell 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, the Smith Mound is a sand mound with thin layers of shell, and was used for burials. The Smith Mound was originally about long and high. (Cushing gave dimensions for this mound of long, wide and high.[Cushing has been said to have used 'hyperbole' in his estimates of the heights of mounds. []]) It was surrounded by a pond fed by a canal which branched from the Pine Island Canal. A path wound around the mound to the summit, which was narrow but flat. Cushing observed potsherds, broken shell ladles, and human bones on the mound. The Smith Mound was constructed around 1000 years ago. Part of the mound was destroyed more than a century ago, and the adjacent pond and canal filled in. Half of the mound and the pond were preserved by its owner, Captain Smith.[
]
History
The Pineland site faces the shallow Pine Island Sound. The people of Pineland were largely dependent on fish and shellfish taken from the Sound for sustenance. Early in the Current Era, during the Roman Warm Period
The Roman Warm Period, or Roman Climatic Optimum, was a period of unusually-warm weather in Europe and the North Atlantic that ran from approximately 250 BC to AD 400. Theophrastus (371 – c. 287 BC) wrote that date trees could grow in Greece ...
, sea levels were comparable to or higher than current levels.[Marquardt and Walker . 32list the Wulfert High sea level, corresponding to the Roman Warm Period (100 BCE - 500), Buck Key Low sea level, corresponding to the Vandal Minimum (500 -850), La Costa High sea level, corresponding to the Medieval Warm Period (850-1200), and Sanibel II Low sea level, corresponding to the Little Ice Age (1200 - 1850). Mitchell-Tapping et al. posit a sea level along the southwest Florida coast about above late 20th century mean sea level (MSL) during the Wulfert High, and about below late 20th century MSL during the Buck Key Low, with smaller excursions during the La Costa High and Sanibel II Low.] The people of Pineland during this period left linear shell middens parallel to the shore. Several lines of middens formed as people moved back and forth in response to variations in the sea level in the Sound. As the climate shifted into a cooler period, sometimes called the Vandal Minimum, sea levels fell to the point that Pine Island Sound no longer supported a fishery adequate to the needs of the Pineland population. Sometime during the 9th century, Pineland and other population centers along the west side of Pine Island, such as Josslyn Island and Galt Island, were abandoned in favor of sites with access to deeper water on the barrier island
Barrier islands are coastal landforms and a type of Dune, dune system that are exceptionally flat or lumpy areas of sand that form by wave and tidal action parallel to the mainland coast. They usually occur in chains, consisting of anything fro ...
s, such as the Mark Pardo Shellworks Site
The Mark Pardo Shellworks Site is an archaeological 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. National Register of Historic Place ...
, and on islands on the west side of Pine Island Sound, such as Useppa. This corresponds to the beginning of the Caloosahatchee IIB period, marked by changes in ceramics. The onset of the Medieval Warm Period
The Medieval Warm Period (MWP), also known as the Medieval Climate Optimum or the Medieval Climatic Anomaly, was a time of warm climate in the North Atlantic region that lasted from to . Proxy (climate), Climate proxy records show peak warmth oc ...
brought a rapid return of sea level in Pine Island Sound to former levels, and Pineland was reoccupied in the 10th century.
Starting in the 10th century the people of Pineland constructed linear mounds in groups, with the mounds oriented perpendicular to the shoreline, in contrast to the earlier middens parallel to the shoreline. These mounds reached heights of up to by about 1200, at the end of the Caloosahatchee IIB period. During this period a natural waterway passing between the Brown and Randell mound complexes was altered into the western end of the Pine Island Canal. The Smith Mound was also started in the 11th century. A pronounced cool spell, around 1100, briefly lowered sea levels in Pine Island Sound, and the Pineland site was apparently abandoned from before 1100 until about 1150. The Little Ice Age
The Little Ice Age (LIA) was a period of regional cooling, particularly pronounced in the North Atlantic region. It was not a true ice age of global extent. The term was introduced into scientific literature by François E. Matthes in 1939. Ma ...
began around 1200, again lowering sea levels in Pine Island Sound, but never as low as during the Vandal Minimum.[Marquardt & Walker: 39–41]
Notes
Citations
References
*{{cite book, last1=Marquardt, first1=William H., last2=Walker, first2=Karen J., title=Late Prehistoric Florida: Archaeology at Edge of the Mississippian World, year=2012, publisher=University Press of Florida, location=Gainesville, Florida, isbn=978-0-8130-4014-1, pages=29–61, editor1=Ashley, Keith, editor2=Nancy Marie White, chapter=Southwest Florida During the Mississippi Period
External links
Lee County listings
a
National Register of Historic Places
Lee County listings
a
Florida's Office of Cultural and Historical Programs
Mounds in Florida
Native American history of Florida
Archaeological sites in Florida
National Register of Historic Places in Lee County, Florida
Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Florida
Shell middens in Florida
Pine Island (Lee County, Florida)
Calusa