NO. 13 ARCHEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS IN FLORIDA — FEWKES 7 



moUuscan banks and there is every reason to believe that when this 

 island was inhabited these banks were ample to furnish a food supply 

 for many people. Moreover, the shells were the material out of which 

 many of the implements were made. The magnitude of the shell heaps 

 indicates a large population. 



Mollusks were not the only food of the natives. They also ate 

 fishes, birds, and other game, and no doubt eked out a slender dietary 

 with roots and fruit. There are indications that their culture was not 

 as low as this might imply ; certainly the artifacts from Weeden Island 

 show a higher development. Then, too, there is very good ground to 

 believe that, even in the earliest stages, when pottery was crude, they 

 had elaborate canoes and wooden objects. To make these demanded 

 proficiency in wood carving, and the objects found by Gushing at 

 Marco are instructive in this line. 



There is no evidence that all the inhabitants of the villages around 

 Tampa Bay in prehistoric times were fish or corn eaters, although 

 it appears that the inhabitants of Florida north of Tampa used roots 

 for food. Apparently the people that lived south of Tampa were 

 root eaters, and, sparingly, used corn or maize. This is important, if 

 true, for in so far as food determines a culture area, southern Florida 

 would belong to the Antillean rather than to the southeastern culture 

 area of the United States. The character of food alone, however, is not 

 a good index of a culture area and it does not follow that shellfish 

 eaters belong to the same culture area, otherwise the prehistoric people 

 of Maine and those of southwestern Florida would be kindred. All 

 indications show that maize was introduced as a food from the north, 

 and the most ancient inhabitants of both coasts of southern Florida 

 may have been ignorant of corn. 



TYPES OF MOUNDS OF THE WEEDEN ISLAND VILLAGE 



The Indian mounds in Florida should be studied as clusters com- 

 posed of different kinds of mounds forming units, or in other words 

 a unit is a village that includes more than one type of mounds, each 

 for different purposes. There were mounds where food was cooked 

 and eaten, kitchen middens formed of refuse from feasts, also 

 mounds that served as foundations for habitations, one of which was 

 a temple or house of the chief, and there were burial mounds or 

 cemeteries. Each had its distinct structural type indicative in a way 

 of its function. 



Among the many mounds on Weeden Island these several types 

 are evident. Four types were differentiated in the course of the pre- 

 liminary examination. These types differ in shape, size, and struc- 



