l86 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



burials and refuse heaps, and to discover if possible what people 

 preceded them into this region. 



Excavations continued at Weeden Island have finally cast some 

 definite light upon the problem of culture sequence, when a mound 

 containing secondary burials and pottery of an advanced Muskho- 

 gean type was found erected over a cemetery which contained primary 

 flexed burials in graves lined with oyster shell and containing only a 

 few fragments of a crude, undecorated pottery. 



Preliminary tests were made at the large mounds near Safety 

 Harbor, which reveal a site similar to that on Weeden Island, further 

 excavation of which should add considerably to our knowledge of 

 this culture. 



The largest sand mound which the writer has yet seen was located 

 near Palma Sola, and it is hoped this coming winter to conduct ex- 

 cavations at this place. The village to which the mound belonged was 

 situated near the entrance to Tampa Bay, and was probably the largest 

 of all the Tampa Bay sites. Unfortunately the refuse heap, described 

 by old inhal^tants as having been the largest of the Florida West 

 Coast, has been almost entirely carried away. 



A good beginning has now been made in an area in which very 

 little systematic archeological work has been done. It is hoped that 

 this data, added to that which it is hoped will be accumulated during 

 the next few years, will definitely establish the line between the Calusa 

 and the Timucua, their possible relation to tribes in the north or the 

 West Indies, and to the peoples who preceded them — probably the 

 first discoverers of Florida. 



