The excavation is part of a class offered by FGCU in conjunction with the Florida Natural History Museum's Randell Research Center and the University of Florida. If Guarisco continues on her path, she'll get her hands dirty a lot. Guarisco is one of 15 students spending part of their summer vacation at the Calusa site. The class is offered by Florida Gulf Coast University, in conjunction with the Florida Natural History Museum's Randell Research Center and the University of Florida. Students get nine credit hours for spending their days searching for remnants of some of the earliest Southwest Floridians.
Popular finds are shells used for food and tools or broken bits of pottery.
When the mixture dries, it becomes chert and is not native to Pine Island. Corbett Torrence, a professor at FGCU, is leading the course with Theresa Schober. Torrence said the village stretched about 16 football fields long and was about six football fields wide. The village is believed to have been inhabited between A.D. 600 and 800. Torrence said modern people tend to discount early societies as simple and primitive.