New Dates for Florida’s Ancient, Underwater Burial Site

News May 16, 2019

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SARASOTA, FLORIDA—The Herald Tribune reports that a Native American burial ground located off Florida’s Manasota Key is about 8,000 years old, or some 1,000 years older than previously thought. Ryan Duggins of the Bureau of Archaeological Research for the Florida Department of State said the site, which was discovered in 2016, was once a shallow, freshwater burial pond that was used for about 1,000 years before it was innundated by the rising waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Surveys in 2017 revealed a six-foot-deep bed of peat containing human remains, an infilled river channel, and three infilled springs. Charred wood at the northern end of the site has been dated to between 8,949 and 8,200 years ago. For more, go to “Letter from Florida: People of the White Earth.”

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