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Science 16 February 1979:
Vol. 203. no. 4381, pp. 609 - 614
DOI: 10.1126/science.203.4381.609
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Articles

Little Salt Spring, Florida: A Unique Underwater Site

C. J. Clausen 1, A. D. Cohen 2, Cesare Emiliani 3, J. A. Holman 4, and J. J. Stipp 3

1 Director of the Little Salt Spring Research Facility, General Development Foundation, North Port, Florida 33596
2 Professor in the Department of Geology, University of South Carolina, Columbia 29208
3 Professors in the Department of Geology, University of Miami, Miami, Florida 33124
4 Professor in the Museum and Department of Geology, Michigan State University, East Lansing 48824

Little Salt Spring in southwest Florida, consisting of a shallow, water-filled basin above a deep, vertical underwater cavern, was a freshwater cenote in the peninsula's drier past. It collected and preserved perishable organic artifacts and other evidence of Paleo-Indian and Archaic Indian origin ranging in age from 12,000 to 9000 and from 6800 to 5200 years ago. An Archaic Period cemetery containing an estimated 1000 burials occupies an adjoining muck-filled slough and presently drowned portions of the basin of the spring. Artifacts and the nature of interment suggest a cultural link between the Archaic people and the much later Glades Tradition of southern Florida.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Inaugural Article: Abrupt tropical climate change: Past and present.
L. G. Thompson, E. Mosley-Thompson, H. Brecher, M. Davis, B. Leon, D. Les, P.-N. Lin, T. Mashiotta, and K. Mountain (2006)
PNAS 103, 10536-10543
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Archaeological evidence for vertical movement on the continental shelf during the Palaeolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age periods.
N. C. Flemming (1998)
Geological Society, London, Special Publications 146, 129-146
   Abstract »    PDF »
Late Wisconsin Climate of Northern Florida and the Origin of Species-Rich Deciduous Forest.
W. A. Watts, W. A. WATTS, and M. STUIVER (1980)
Science 210, 325-327
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