Dig finds area's oldest structure

[Jason]

Dig finds area's oldest structure

By PETER GUINTA   |   More by this reporter  |  peter.guinta@staugustine.com   |   Posted: Thursday, September 25, 2008 ; Updated: 12:08 AM on Thursday, September 25, 2008

Archaeologists have uncovered the oldest house ever found in St. Johns County and found what they believe is the area's first bison tooth inside it.

St. Augustine City Archeologist Carl Halbirt said Wednesday that the dig site, off Old Quarry Road, contained a multitude of prehistoric pottery shards, animal bones and shells that he and his team identified as dating back 1,200 to 1,500 years to what archeologists call the Late Woodland Period.

"We've found artifacts older but never found a house this old," Halbirt said. "Based on all the information we have received from this site, we're getting a pretty good handle on what was there."

The structure itself had long disappeared, but the team found all the post holes that held up the roof. The walls were evidently twigs woven through the support poles that were then covered by daubing them with mud for insulation.

Some undecorated pottery shards came from plain, local, light-colored clay, Halbirt said.

But other shards seemed odd, out of place. They revealed a more advanced pottery style, nearly black with an incised lip and a three-inch band of cross-hatching.

Halbirt said this comes from the West Coast of Florida, meaning there must have been established trade routes from coast to coast.

"The house was roughly circular and about 625 square feet. That's a big house," he said. "It might have contained an extended family."

This dig is the future site of a private garage. The city requires an archaeologist to examine every property for historic artifacts before any new project is begun.

Keith Ashley, a University of North Florida archeological research coordinator, said both of these pottery types have been radio-carbon dated and come from the years 500 to 800 AD, just about the time indigenous people here learned to use the bow and arrow.

"These people lived off the land," Ashley said. "They ate fish, shellfish and turtles and lived near aquatic coastal estuaries. Sometimes they were opportunistic hunters and ate opossum, raccoon and deer, but you'll find that deer was eaten more often inland."

Halbirt and his team found a tooth he thinks may have come from a Florida bison.

"It's certainly from a cloven-hoofed herbivore. It has a flat surface for mashing vegetation. But there weren't cows or oxen back then. But there were bison in Florida up until the 1830s, when they were hunted to extinction," he said. "The morphology of the tooth is similar to that of a cow."

He'd love to have the tooth radio-carbon dated but said every sample costs $600 to date.

The Late Woodland Period saw the introduction of planting and tending crops and the collecting of seeds and nuts. Ashley said the period following was the Mississippian Period, which included the first contact with Europeans during the 1500s.

The team, which includes Halbirt, Nick McAuliffe, Helen Gradison and Janet Jordan, also discovered long rib bones that Halbirt said were too large for deer. He thinks they, too, may come from a bison.

They also found a fire pit in the rough center of the structure.

"In our time, we preserve the environment to improve our quality of life," Halbirt said. "But back then, they saw the environment as the source of life. It's a completely different mind-set from ours."

Source: http://staugustine.com/stories/092508/news_0925_027.shtml

[Jason]

There is such an amazing history.  Its a shame a garage will now cover the site.  At least it was discovered and the artifacts removed.

[BridgeTroll]

I applaud them for suspending construction for an investigation of the site.

[riverside_mail]

It's not like they had the choice. According to the piece, all new construction sites have to be archaeologically inspected before any building can take place.

[Jason]

They didn't have a choice.  IMO, the law is a good one.  It allows any historical artifacts to be recovered and still allows the property owner to develop their property.  I'd guess that is a massive archeological find was discovered, the property owner's plans could be severely postponed though.