VERY IMPORTANT!!!!!!!!!!
THIS LECTURE WILL NOT BE THE SECOND THURSDAY, FEB. 14TH, BUT WILL INSTEAD BE HELD ON FEB. 13TH AT 7PM.
Join us on February 13th at 7pm for the CFAS lecture series. The meeting will be held at Leu Gardens and is free and open to the public. Any questions, please contact Kevin Gidusko at 321-948-3994 or kagidusko@hotmail.com.
Times They Are A-Changin’
Human-Landscape Interaction on the Gulf Coast of Florida
Paulette S. McFadden
The northern Gulf Coast of Florida is a dynamic landscape that has changed significantly since the end of the Last Glacial Maximum. Even so, humans have lived along this coastline for millennia, navigating sometimes rapid and significant shifts in resource availability and coastal morphology. Research in the Horseshoe Beach area of the northern Gulf Coast seeks to reconstruct a detailed environmental record of change at the scale of human experience, with attention toward eventful change, such as high-energy storms, periods of rapid sea-level rise, and oyster reef system collapse. Eventful change likely challenged existing cultural customs, and may have necessitated actions designed to incorporate new conditions into cultural practices. This presentation outlines the program of proposed geoarchaeological research in the Horseshoe Beach area and presents preliminary results of test unit excavations at Bird Island (8DI52), shovel testing at Garden Patch (8DI4), and sediment core collection from Horseshoe Cove.
Paulette S. McFadden
Professional Biography
Paulette received her Master’s from East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina, where her research included a geoarchaeological study of a stratified relict dune site in the coastal plain of North Carolina. That study resulted in the creation of a chronology of the formation and occupation of the ancient landform, contributing to a better understanding of how occupants of the coastal plain region of North Carolina adapted to changing conditions in the early Holocene environment. Paulette entered the doctoral program at the University of Florida in 2009, and was elevated to doctoral candidacy in 2012. Her concentration remains archaeology of the pre-Columbian southeastern United States, with a specialization in geoarchaeology. Her current research applies an interdisciplinary approach to the study of pre-Columbian populations along the northern Gulf Coast of Florida, where humans have navigated significant environmental shifts since the end of the last Ice Age. Her emphasis is on reconstructing past sea-level changes and human-environment interactions.
The June CFAS meeting will feature a presentation by Dr. Rachel Wentz, director of the Florida Public Archaeology Network East Central Region. In 1982, a backhoe operator working at what would become the new Windover Farms housing development in Titusville, Florida, uncovered a human skull. The bones of several other individuals soon emerged from the peat bog. It would be determined that the human remains uncovered at Windover were between 7,000 and 8,000 years old, making them 3,200 years older than King Tutankhamen and 2,000 years older than the Great Pyramids of Egypt. This was just the beginning of an archaeological adventure that continues today. We will have two books authored by Dr. Wentz for sale at meeting: “Life and Death at Windover” and “Chasing Bones”.