Ancient engineering of fish capture and storage in southwest Florida

Abstract

In the 16th century, the Calusa, a fisher-gatherer-hunter society, were the most politically complex polity in Florida, and the archaeological site of Mound Key was their capital. Based on historic documents, the ruling elite at Mound Key controlled surplus production and distribution. The question remains exactly how such surplus pooling occurred and when such traditions were elaborated on and reflected in the built environment. Our work focuses on the "watercourts" and associated areas at Mound Key. These subrectangular constructions of shell and other sediments around centralized inundated areas have been variously interpreted. Here, we detail when these enclosures were constructed and their engineering and function. We argue that these structures were for large surplus capture and storage of aquatic resources that were controlled and managed by corporate groups.

Keywords: Calusa; Florida; archaeology; fisher-gatherer-hunters.

Fig. 1.

LiDAR digital elevation model of Mound Key showing the site’s prominent features.

Fig. 2.

Location of cores and excavation units in the area of the West Court, East Court, and Grand Canal.

Fig. 3.

Fence diagram of cores from the West Court and Grand Canal showing examples of stratigraphic relationships and modeled radiocarbon date ranges (68% probability). Stratigraphic columns are hung from NAVD88 (noted by the position of the red line). Similar lithofacies (activity surface, prewatercourt midden, watercourt, black mangrove watercourt fill, etc.) are color-coded and correlated between neighboring cores. Sections have been decompacted; heights of section tops and bottoms are shown in centimeters above or below NAVD88 and noted at the top right and bottom right, respectively, of each column.

Fig. 4.

Probability distributions for model 1 (Left) and model 2 (Right) from cores and excavations from the West Court and Grand Canal. The clear line and black together represent calibrated distributions and the black lines represent the posterior density estimates based on the models.

Fig. 5.

Specimens of mullet (Mugil sp.) fish scales recovered from the West Court core 1605-14 (Figs 2 and 3), sample 72 to 77 cm, one of several representing the watercourt facies. Image credit: Zachary S. Randall (Florida Museum of Natural History, Gainesville, FL).