Key Marco
Key Marco was an
Names
The island of Key Marco was composed of shell mounds and other shell works and separate from Marco Island in the 19th century. A late 19th century settlement on the island was called Marco Village. The Olde Marco Inn on the north end of the island was founded in 1887. The name of the settlement on the island was changed to Collier City in 1927. By late in the 20th century Key Marco had been attached to Marco Island and all of the mounds on Key Marco had been leveled and built on. The area is now known as Old Marco Village. One source of confusion in the name is Marion Gilliland's use of "Key Marco" to refer to all of Marco Island. Another source of confusion arises from the fact that in the 1980s a development company renamed the former
Pepper-Hearst excavation
The "Court of the Pile Dwellers"
A great variety of artifacts were found in the pond, including bowls,
At the time the pond was excavated, techniques for preserving wood and other fragile materials removed from the muck had not been developed. The colors on the painted objects quickly faded, and many objects quickly deteriorated. But, a
Dating the finds from the "Court of the Pile Dwellers" has been a problem. Because of the limited knowledge of the archaeological discipline at the time, no record of the
Van Beck excavation
In 1965 Van Beck and Van Beck excavated part of a 4.5 metres (15 ft) tall mound about 200 metres (660 ft) northeast of the "Court of the Pile Dwellers". Two test pits yielded a large of number of potsherds in distinct strata. The potsherds all belong to the Glades periods II and III. The density of the potsherds indicates that the Key Marco site had a high population density, and presumably political complexity during both Glades period II and III.[10][11]
Widmer excavation
In 1995 the Collier County Historical Society commissioned an archaeological salvage project on an undeveloped portion of Key Marco, supervised by archaeologists Randolph J. Widmer and Rebecca Storey, who trained and led a volunteer labor effort, in association with related organizations. They hoped to be able to establish more context for the archaeological site excavated by Cushing. Evidence was found of three platform mound stages, with large houses built on pilings. A stratigraphic analysis found 55 discrete layers, indicated by changes in shell and sand mixture. They found evidence of numerous postholes, which indicated a large structure built on pilings to raise it above the surface of the mound. They found additional evidence of early Glades culture, mostly through pottery remains.[12]
Ethnic affiliation
Marco Island was occupied by the
See also
Notes
Citations
References
- Brown, Robin C. (1994). Florida's First People. Sarasota, Florida: Pineapple Press, Inc. ISBN 1-56164-032-8.
- MacMahon, Darcie A.; Marquardt, William H. (2004). The Calusa and Their Legacy: South Florida People and Their Environments. Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida. ISBN 0-8130-2773-X.
- Widmer, Randolph J. (1988). The Evolution of the Calusa: A Nonagricultural Chiefdom on the Southwest Florida Coast. Tuscaloosa, Alabama: The University of Alabama Press. p. 91. ISBN 0-8173-0358-8.
- Widmer, Randolph J. (2000). Introduction. Exploration of Ancient Key-Dweller Remains on the Gulf Coast of Florida. By ISBN 0-8130-1791-2.
Further reading
- Cushing, Frank Hamilton (1896). "Pepper-Hearst Expedition: A Preliminary Report on the Exploration of Ancient Key-dweller Remains on the Gulf Coast of Florida". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 35 (153). ISBN 9780813017914. Retrieved 17 December 2011.
- Gilliland, Marion Spjut. 1975. The material culture of Key Marco, Florida. Gainesville: University Presses of Florida
- Gilliland, Marion Spjut. 1989. Key Marco's buried treasure: archaeology and adventure in the nineteenth century. Ripley P. Bullen monographs in anthropology and history, no. 8. Gainesville, FL: University of Florida Press.
- Van Beck, John C. and Linda M. Van Beck (1965). "The Marco Midden, Marco Island, Florida". The Florida Anthropologist. 18: 1–20.
- Widmer, Randolph J. (1996). "Recent Excavations at the Key Marco Site, 8Cr48, Collier County, Florida". The Florida Anthropologist. 49: 10–25.
External links
- Marco Island Historical Museum
- Key Marco Cat entry at the Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution