Guest opinion: Gradual Accumulation or Punctuated Events?
As an archaeologist, one privilege of working at the Mound House is the opportunity to incorporate original archaeological research into the design of interpretive exhibits and public programs. In 2002, with support from state grant funding, the Town of Fort Myers Beach embarked on a course to learn and understand the shell mound on Connecticut Street by hiring professional archaeologists to coordinate a public excavation. With over 116 volunteers from Fort Myers Beach and surrounding communities, the project affirmed that the Mound House contained significant prehistoric deposits. The shell mound represents a large Calusa village focused on the resources in Estero Bay.
Even in 2002 the Town envisioned the creation of a public exhibit space within the shell mound where a large in-ground swimming pool was slowly deteriorating. Excavations adjacent to the pool produced intriguing results and suggested that a project of this magnitude was possible. Supported by additional funding, the pool was removed in 2005 and an enormous hand-excavation commenced. The analysis of the cultural material recovered from almost one year of archaeological excavation is now coming to completion and has significantly enhanced our appreciation for the nature of mound construction.
Shell mounds, by virtue of the food refuse used to build them, are often misinterpreted by the general public as garbage heaps and opinions of archaeologists vary widely. Archaeological research at the Mound House and other sites in Estero Bay strongly support the idea that shell mounds are intentionally constructed features that symbolized the ability of a chief to organize labor and resources. Calusa public works projects! It is well known the Calusa were a powerful society with status differences between groups of people and like a penthouse apartment; you can imagine whose house would sit at the top.
In order to test the hypothesis of intentional mound building, samples of visually distinct layers in the mound were collected and sent for analysis to our project zooarchaeologist (a person who analyzes animal bones and shell from archeological sites). Mound building layers are distinctive from discarded food refuse in that the remains of individual meals are jumbled together, artifacts from different time periods are found together and in some cases, such as Mound House, the building layers are older or date further back in time than the material directly underneath them. This indicates that the shell deposits have been relocated.
Some mound deposits also appear to represent feasts. Imagine the American feast of Thanksgiving. Typically, a whole turkey is cooked and served as a family gathers together. If we were to excavate in garbage cans across America the next day, there would be a turkey layer! This layer would include all the bones of the animal. How often do so many households cook a whole bird on the same day? The same pattern is apparent in the Calusa mounds with feasts of fighting conch and surf clam.
So when the zooarchaeological analysis was complete with the identification of 100 percent of the animal bone and shell fish over two millimeters (less than 1/10 inch) in size, the feasting and mound building deposits were quantifiably distinct from each other and from daily food refuse. This preliminary study supports shell mounds as much more than just simply the placement of shells here and there as the Calusa lived and worked on the land. There is a significant degree of human agency or intent embedded in the construction of mounds. Like skyscrapers in our 21st century world, shell mounds are the built landscape of the Calusa.
This commentary is extracted from a research paper presented at the Society for American Archaeology conference in Atlanta, Georgia April 23, 2009 by Theresa Schober, Tanya Peres and Corbett Torrence.