Manasota Key Offshore
The Manasota Key Offshore (8SO7030) is an archaeological site under 21 feet (6.4 m) of water in the Gulf of Mexico near the southwest coast of Florida. The site contains remains of multiple humans who were buried in a freshwater pond 7,200 years ago. The pond, which was about 9 feet (2.7 m) above sea level at the time, was subsequently covered by the waters of the Gulf as sea levels rose. The site is about 0.25 miles (0.40 km) from the coast of Manasota Key, near Venice, Florida.
The site was found in 2016 by a fossil hunter, who reported possible human remains. Archaeologists examined the site using non-intrusive methods, including magnetometry, sub-bottom profiling and side-scan sonar. The examination of the site revealed multiple burials in clusters. The burials were in what had been a layer of peat at the bottom of a freshwater pond. Wooden stakes were found associated with the burials. The peat had helped preserve the bones and the wooden stakes. Two of the stakes found at the site yielded radiocarbon dates of 7,200 years ago, early in the Archaic period in Florida.
The burials at the Manasota Key Offshore site resemble those at the Windover Archeological Site, Little Salt Spring and other sites of the early Archaic period in Florida. The Manasota Key Offshore site is remarkable in its preservation even though it has been below sea level for close to 7,000 years.
References
- "Manasota Key Offshore". Florida Division of Historical Resources. Retrieved 4 March 2018.
- Duggins, Ryan M.; Price, Franklin H.; Price, Melissa R.; Mollema, Ivor R.; Puckett, Neil N. (2018). "Manasota Key Offshore: A Prehistoric Cemetery in the Gulf of Mexico". tDAR. Retrieved May 15, 2018.
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cultures
- Alachua
- Belle Glade
- Cades Pond
- Caloosahatchee
- Clovis
- Deptford
- Fort Walton
- Glades
- Leon-Jefferson
- Manasota
- Mount Taylor
- Norwood
- Orange period
- Paleo-Indians
- Pensacola
- Safety Harbor
- Santa Rosa-Swift Creek
- St. Johns
- Suwannee Valley
- Swift Creek
- Weeden Island
sites
- Aqui Esta Burial Mound
- Bay Pines
- Bear Lake Mounds
- Big Heart West
- Big Mound City
- Big Mound Key-Boggess Ridge
- Bird Hammock
- Blueberry
- Bowers Bluff Middens
- Bubba Midden
- Burns Lake
- Butcherpen Mound
- Cayo Pelau
- Cayson Mound and Village
- C. J. Ostl
- Crystal River
- Cutler
- Demere Key
- Devil's Den Cave
- Dismal Key
- Douglass Beach
- Fort Center
- Fort Walton Mound
- Galt Island
- Garden Patch
- Green Mound
- Halfway Creek
- Helen Blazes
- Hickory Ridge Cemetery
- Hinson Mounds
- Horr's Island
- Indian Fields
- J&J Hunt
- Josslyn Island
- Jungle Prada
- Key Marco
- Kimball Island Midden
- Lake Jackson Mounds
- Lake Pithlachocco
- Letchworth-Love Mounds
- Little Salt Spring
- Madira Bickel Mound
- Manasota Key Offshore
- Mark Pardo Shellworks
- Miami Circle
- Mill Cove
- Monroe Lake
- Mound Key
- Mount Elizabeth
- Mount Royal
- Mount Taylor
- Mullet Key
- Myakkahatchee Creek
- Naval Live Oaks Cemetery
- Nocoroco
- Ormond Mound
- Ortona Prehistoric Village
- Otis Hare
- Page-Ladson
- Persimmon Mound
- Pierce
- Pineland
- Platt Island
- Plaza
- Pompano Beach Mound
- Portavant Mound
- Porter's Bar
- Princess Mound
- River Styx
- Roberts Island
- Rock Mound
- Rookery Mound
- Ross Hammock
- Safety Harbor
- Shark River Slough
- Shell Bluff Landing
- Spruce Creek
- Third Gulf Breeze
- Thomas Creek
- Turner River
- Turtle Mound
- Twin Mounds
- Upper Tampa Bay
- Useppa Island
- Velda Mound
- Waddells Mill Pond
- Wakulla Springs
- Warm Mineral Springs
- Windover
- Yent Mound
- Yon Mound and Village
remains
- Related
- Pre-Columbian era