 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
Ancient Indians' creations unearthed
By JAMES THORNER, Times Staff Writer WESLEY CHAPEL -- In parts of ancient Florida, fossilized coral, used for spearheads to hunt game, was an indispensable commodity, sort of like crude oil is today. Archaeologists suspect that Wesley Chapel, where suburban development continues to unearth American Indian artifacts, was a steady producer of the coral in the ancient world. Silicified coral is created when ocean animals' cells are replaced over the eons by silica from clay. The result is a smooth flint-like stone, which, once heat-treated, is good for flaking into tools. Recent archaeological finds in central Pasco County point to the region's economic importance among hunter-gatherers 3,000 to 7,000 years ago. Two years ago, on the Egg Hole site at the Cannon Ranch south of State Road 52, scientists found coral fragments at what they believe was a 3,000-year-old campground. More of the worked fossilized coral turned up as engineers probed the terrain along the proposed route for the West Zephyrhills Bypass in Wesley Chapel. Near the eastern edge of Cypress Swamp, work at Westwood Estates, a proposed 89-home development in Quail Hollow, yielded coral tools below the topsoil. Sam Upchurch, a former University of South Florida geology professor who specializes in stone used by ancient Indians, said coral quarries proliferated near Boyette Road north of State Road 54. In some places, boulders of the stuff dot the ground. "They're finding this coral left and right as development goes forward," Upchurch said. "It's very obvious the Indians worked that site very heavily." Archaeologists with Janus Research in St. Petersburg worked the Westwood Estates site last year. Sifting the soil across 250 feet, they found scattered coral fragments, likely the remains of a workshop dating to between 5,000 and 1,200 B.C. Many of the spear points are what archaeologists call "preforms": recognizable as tools but not yet fine-tuned to completion. After the developer agreed not to build a home on the dig site, Janus didn't venture beyond an initial investigation. But John Whitaker, an archaeologist on the project, suspects the site was a stop for ancient peoples on trips between the coast and the interior. "They would camp in these areas, sometimes one night, sometimes for weeks," Whitaker said. On a peninsula where workable stone could be scarce, particularly south of what today is Sarasota, the Wesley Chapel material might have traveled widely. Proving that is another question: Upchurch said coral rock from Wesley Chapel is chemically interchangeble with the stuff found in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties. Pasco has more than its share of archaic Indian sites. More than 100 are recorded in the county. The area's rolling hills and plentiful water-filled sinkholes seem to have attracted ancient people. Upchurch said the latest theory is that as Florida Indians grew more territorial in the centuries before Christ, coral rock became more valuable. Before that time, small bands could wander the state in search of flint, a rock that cleaves more easily into tools. Boxed into their own territory, people were forced to mine locally available rock, leading them to exploit coral for the first time. -- James Thorner covers growth and development in Pasco County. He can be reached at (813) 909-4613, or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 4613. His e-mail address is
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
From the Times Letters |
