Late Prehistoric Florida: Archaeology at the Edge of the Mississippian World

2. Southwest Florida during the Mississippi Period

2 Southwest Florida during the Mississippi Period William H. Marquardt and Karen J. Walker This book focuses on the Mississippi period, ca. A.D. 1000 to 1500. In the archaeology of the southeastern United States, “Mississippian” generally means chiefdom-level societies that “practiced a maize-based agriculture, constructed (generally) platform mounds for elite residences and various corporate and public functions, and shared, to a considerable extent, a common suite of artifact types and styles, particularly in the realm of pottery (usually shell-tempered) and certain symbolic or prestige related artifacts” (Welch and Butler 2006: 2). Often implicit is an assumption that Mississippian chiefdoms represent the most complex cultural developments in the aboriginal southeastern United States. In southwest Florida, their contemporaries had no maize agriculture, constructed no platform mounds, and made a rather undistinguished pottery . Even so, Spaniards who encountered the historic Calusa in the sixteenth century observed a stratified society divided into nobles and commoners , with hereditary leadership, tributary patronage-clientage that extended throughout south Florida, ritual and military specialists, farranging trade, an accomplished and expressive artistic tradition, complex religious beliefs and ritual practices, and effective subsistence practices that supported thousands of people and allowed a sedentary residence pattern (Fontaneda 1973; Hann 1991; Solís de Merás 1964). Furthermore, for nearly two centuries after contact, the Calusa maintained their identity and beliefs, effectively repulsing European attempts to conquer and convert them to Christianity, while many southeastern United States chiefdoms were in cultural ruin within a few decades (Hann 1991). The Calusa heartland was in the coastal region encompassing Charlotte Harbor, Pine Island Sound, San Carlos Bay, and Estero Bay (figure 2.1). This ◀◆◆◆▶ Figure 2.1. The Charlotte Harbor–Pine Island Sound–San Carlos Bay estuarine system. Numbers indicate sites discussed in text: (1) Mark Pardo; (2) Pineland Site Complex; (3) Indian Field; (4) Useppa Island; (5) Josslyn Island; (6) Buck Key; (7) Galt Island; (8) Mound Key. Drawing by William Marquardt. Southwest Florida during the Mississippi Period · 31 estuarine region is fed by fresh water from the Myakka, Peace, and Caloosahatchee rivers and from lesser streams in the Estero Bay area. Centrally located within this complex estuarine system is Pine Island Sound, a broad, flat, shallow, grassy inshore body of water fringed by mangroves and protected by barrier islands. Because the large, linear landform of Pine Island acts as a barrier to freshwater streams emptying into Pine Island Sound, the latter’s waters are more marine than are the estuaries of Charlotte Harbor and San Carlos Bay. The region is subtropical, characterized by warm winters, in contrast to the temperate greater southeastern United States. For this reason, here marine/estuarine fish and shellfish are available year-round and, at least in protohistoric and historic times, in great quantities. We now know that this productivity fluctuated through the past several millennia but was generally high during the tenth through sixteenth centuries, surely a factor underlying the emergence of the Calusa as a complex society. In this chapter, we focus on southwest Florida and first sketch the environmental background against which cultural changes took place during the Mississippi period. We then discuss environmental and cultural changes during that period. Finally, because interregional connections, large-scale communal construction projects, and hierarchical social structure are all generally associated with Mississippian chiefdoms, we examine these topics in terms of southwest Florida and consider the evidence for influence on the area by Mississippian peoples. Environmental Change in the Caloosahatchee Region during the Mississippi Period To date, there is still an absence of highly resolved climate records from Florida. However, this void is no longer a barrier to our considering the role of climate in the state’s cultural trajectory, even for the recent two millennia. This is because the many new climate studies of the past 20 years, concerning both modern and past climates, indicate that broad-scale regions are characterized by widespread atmospheric-oceanic teleconnections . Paleoclimatic records from within these regions indicate that change can occur relatively rapidly and synchronously in both low and high latitudes . The collective result of all this new research has been recognized as a paradigm shift in the field of paleoclimatology (NRC 2002: 1), characterized by the acceptance that climate can and does change rapidly and that it has done so at scales relevant to past ecosystems and human societies, 32 · William H. Marquardt and Karen J. Walker sometimes as rapidly as within a decade. Additionally...