The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-05-17
PREHISTORIC DAYS IN FLORIDA
SOME STRANGE MOUNDS INVEs-
TIGATED.
oueerest Archaeological Discovery
Ever Made in This Countrywide
mains OF Primitive Race.

7fsf J. ". Powell, director of the bu-
-.1u 0f ethnology. has just returned from
che scene Of the most remarkable archie
..ssical discovery that has been made
5- his county during the last quarter OF
a century. In Florida have been found
.a- relics of a comparatively civilized
-..s Of people, who lived there long be-
..rz the days Of Columbus. They were
+-1ermen and traders by sea. maintain
+rs a commerce with the West Indies and
yr-atan That they We're a very numer-
8.s population is proved by the noun Is
o., oyster and other shells which they
have left behind. These are by far the
LARGEST shell mounds in the world, and
,se making of them must have required
many centuries. The mystery is how the
ssopie were wiped out, for there is no
evidence that they survived so late as
The hrst coming of the whites.
Iu several respects these people were
different from any known Indians; buzz
the most notable point about them was
tleir method of living in houses over the
water and elevated on piles. The region
occupied by them was the west shore
Of Florida, southwark of Tampa, and the
outlying Islands. That part of the coast
Of the noWery peninsula is very irregu-
Jar, with numerous islands and points OF
mainland. The villages must have been
tlickly scattered, judging from the shell
heaps which to-day mark the ancient
sites. These mounds of dinner refuse LEFT
over for centuries vary in size from 200
yards 10 half a mile square and the deDth
OF the molluscan remains in places is as
much as thirty feet.
The vestiges of thousands of houses are
found on the shell heaps. They seem to
have been constructed in the simplest
fashion, on small platforms of logs up
held by piles driven into the mud Be
meath the mud were old coral reefs so
tlat the foundation was fairly secure.
The people depended for food almost Who'll
ly upon Wnat they could get from the
water, and their diet consisted mostly of
slellhsh Of various kinds. The mounds
are composed chiefly of oyster shells, but
also coptain immense quantities of mol
lusks, such as clans, mussels and seal
lops- The shells of big cOnchs are es-
pecally numerous. Indians are more near
Isl OmnivOrous than whites.
Depending on such food for subsist-
ence, these prehistoric fisher folk found
10 most convenient TO live on the shore.
Their plle-supported dwellings, kept them
out OF the wet and AFFORDED some degree
OF safety from attack. AS fast as they
ATE the oysters they dropped the shells
into the water beneath, and thus in the
course Of time the accumulation rose to
level with the platforms. Finally, the
houses came to rest upon the shell heaps
directly, and in the latter are buried
the relics Of generation after generation.
by the study of these relics, in which
Frank Cushing, the famous ethnologist,
has been engaged for some time past.
tanned respecting the customs and man
ner of life of this vanished race.
No similar dwellings on piles have been
found anywhere else on this continent. 1t
was thought that some had been discover
ed on the Delaware river near ClaymOunt,
but they turned out to be aboriginal fish
wiers. The ancient houses on stills in the
Swiss lakes resemble them pretty closely.
In connection with these, however, there
were no shell heaps, for lack of mullusks
To- eat. In the mud about the stumps of the
piles hat supported the old lake dwellings
of Switzerland have been discovered many
works Of art and other interesting things
Illustrating the state of culture enjoyed by
The people. But nothing brought to light
over there approaches in interest the OBJ
jects dug out of the shell heaps in Florida.
These objects, already obtained IN great
number, are of astonishing variety. There
are utensils of wood, carved and painted.
So perfectly are they preserved that the
painted patterns are yet clear and the
carvings sharp. To these are added pieces
of exquisite pottery, articles OF feather
work such as that for which the Mexicans
of old were famous, and ornaments of nu-
merous patterns and kinds. There are tex
tile fabrics also. All of these things are
unques tionably prehistoric. Nothing mas
been found that belonged to the white
man or that suggests contact with him.
Not a trace Of European art is discovered.
Skulls and skeletons of human beings here
are in great quantities, representing the
mortal remains of the people themselves.
One fact of remarkable interest proved
by this new discovery Is that the prehls-
toric people in question maintained con-
siderable commerce with Central America
and the West India islands. 1t has long
been suspected that the early aborigines of
the Florida peninsular and trade relations
with Yucatan, but accurate knowledge on
the subject has not been obtained until
now Undoubtedly they got from that
source fabrics, articles of feather-wOrk,
and other things. They were maritime
and commercial race, navigating the
ocean fearlessly and making voyages TO
comparatively distant lands. What sort of
boats they used cannot be ascertained,
unfortunately.
Mr.. Gushing thinks that his ''find" points
to another very important conclusion
namely, that the shell heaps represent the
origin of mound-building by American abb
Origines. The minds of primitive people
work slowly; they think that they cannot
live except as their ancestors have lived.
Accordingly, tribes migrating inland from
the coast continued to build their houses
upon mounds using earth for want of
shells. To the persistence of this habit may
be attributed the mounds which are scat
tered by thousands throughout nearly the
whole of the United States. As for the SUI
periOr civilization of the aboriginal trad
ers of Florida, Prof. w. J. MCGEE of the
bureau of ethnology, asserts that the
neighborhood of the sea is favorable to the
development of a race. Maritime people be-
come civilized earlier than those VINO
dwell inland. He believes that the civili-
Zation of the world has been developed
first along the coasts and in desert regions.
The shells in the mounds described are
eXcellenty preserved, so that they might
within a few months. This fact proves
that the oysters were not opened by break
ing the shells, but by cooking. Probably
a steaming process was resorted to by
heating stones and placing the bivalves
upon them, covering the whole with moist
seaweed. The method is followed at mod
ern clambakes, which illustrate meth
cd of cookery that was learned from the
Indians originally. The Indians had a way
Of drying oysters, which they disposed
Of in great quantities by trading In pre-
Columbian times dried oysters and other
shellfish were shipped inland, just as the
same mollusks are sent from the Atlantic
coast to cities of the interior to-day The
system of trade which existed then among
the Indians was quite wonderful. Abb
original drummers actually made their
way on foot from the Gulf of Mexico to
the headwaters of the Mississippi river.
While these discoveries have been go
ing on in Florida another distinguished
elhnologist, W. H. Holmes, has been
studying the remains of the ancient peo-
pc Of Yucatan. During the pre-Colum-
pan epoch these people stood at the
mead Of the American tribes, being on the
very threshold of civilization. Their stat
us was like that of the Greeks and Egypt
ans Immediately before the dawn of his
{ofF They employed a rude system of
historic records, had developed a pho
utJc system of writing. and made DaDer