Hurricane Irma Uncovered Calusa Artifacts in Florida

NAPLES, FLORIDA—According to a report in the Naples Daily News, archaeologists and a team of “heritage scouts,” who are members of the Florida Public Archaeology Network, are looking for Calusa artifacts on Marco Island’s Otter Mound Preserve. The researchers have been tagging the 20 trees uprooted by Hurricane Irma last month, and then bagging and labeling the pieces of shell, fish bones, shark vertebrae, pottery, and colored glass recovered from the trees’ root balls. Austin Bell, Marco Island Historical Society curator, will clean and conserve the artifacts for the island’s museum. For more, go to “Letter From Florida: People of the White Earth.”