Date of Award

2021

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Andrews, Anthony

Area of Concentration

Anthropology

Abstract

During a monitoring-salvage project (1994-2012) of an eroding shell midden on the southwest shore of Snake Island, Sarasota County, numerous Pinellas plain and sand-tempered plain ceramics, sea turtle bones (880 – 1015 CE), and hammers (Types A, C, D, & F) were discovered together in situ. Others had recently been removed from primary context, scattered along the shoreline. Nearly 300 shell specimens were discovered during the salvage work, with many exhibiting human-made modifications. Columella tools, made from the central column spine of whelks and conchs, were distributed along the entire shoreline, with upland shovel tests dating them to the earlier Archaic period. In 2019, a collaborative New College of Florida and Sarasota County Historical Resources project was initiated to analyze the gastropod and columella tools, designed to address artifact variability, breakage patterns, the tool reduction sequence, and potential hafting methods. This paper will discuss the findings of that analysis, as well as an overall discussion of the assemblage. It will also explore northern Gulf research into shell tools, that, in turn, led to more early Archaic connections having been made to other sites (from Texas to Charlotte Harbor) which will be discussed briefly here and more fully in a later publication.

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