Diver Discovers Anicent Native American Burial Site off Florida Coast
A diver discovered a 7,000-year-old Native American ancestral burial site off the coast of Venice, Florida in the Gulf of Mexico.
It started in June 2016, when a diver found skeletal remains at a shallow site while looking for megalodon teeth and other fossils. It turns out that the jaw discovered that summer is part of a much larger burial site that holds great significance for archeologists. The site can be found on the continental shelf, “preserved in what appears to have been a peat-bottomed freshwater pond thousands of years ago,” according to the Florida Department of State.
Ivor Mollema, Florida Department of StateFPAN partner, Nicole Grinnan, measures the test unit's depth using a laser level and folding ruler.
A team of underwater archaeologists has been working at what’s now called the Manasota Key Offshore archaeological site since then, finding human remains, tools and pieces of textile. The team’s research revealed that thousands of years ago Florida’s indigenous population would use what was then an inland freshwater pond as a burial site for the dead. As sea levels rose, this burial pond was overtaken by the gulf.
The site is now protected under Florida law, which makes it illegal to remove any material from the area.
Read more about the Manasota Key Offshore archaeological site here.
Ivor Mollema, Florida Department of StateOne of the stakes excavted at Manasota Key Offshore revealed a notch in its length. It is nto yet known what the notch was for.
