Historical Archaeology
Historical Archaeology
The main focus of GARI recently has been on investigating the Seminole Wars in Florida. We have conducted research at places such as Fort Dade, Fort King, Camp Izard, Micanopy, and now are investigating the Battle of the Withlacoochee just to name a few. Our mission is to investigate sites such as these with minimally invasive methods. We use soil coring to narrow our search areas and then switch to small excavation units. Only then, once we have a good understanding of the nature of the site and the cultural deposits, will we open larger excavation units if needed. We prefer to excavate only as much as we need to answer our research questions and preserve the remainder of the site for future research.
We have used this method successfully to obtain both National Register of Historic Places and National Historic Landmark status for several sites. Highlighted below are a few of the more recent historical archaeological projects we have completed. See our Reports page for a full bibliography of our work.
Chinsegut Hill Archaeological and Historical Landscape Study
Chinsegut Hill Plantation is a registered United States historic site located in Hernando County, Florida. First settled during the 1840s, it was originally a small corn and sugar plantation, but by the 1850s it had expanded into one of the largest slave-based plantations in the county. After the turn of the 20th century, the property passed into the hands of the Robins family, a family of historically significant social reformers and political diplomats. The property changed hands a number of times throughout the latter half of the century, and is now managed and maintained by the non-profit group, The Friends of Chinsegut Hill (FCH).
In early 2014, the Gulf Archaeology Research Institute (GARI) was asked by the FCH to perform the first comprehensive archaeological survey of Chinsegut Hill. The resulting combined Archaeological and Historic Landscape Study produced a focused look at the historic landscape and the archaeology of the changed landscape from the prehistoric past, through the initial and subsequent historic 19th and 20th century occupation periods. It revealed a number of cultural and structural features associated with the plantation period occupation of the property, and also produced an enormous material culture base, with an inventory of over 57,000 artifacts. The range of historic ceramics, glass, metal, and faunal assemblages have the potential to offer tremendous insight into the property’s 19th century occupations. In addition to the archaeological study, GARI also provided the FCH with a temporary museum exhibit of recovered material culture, an interactive touch-screen computer program for its interpretive display, and a digital catalog of the artifact, furniture, and housewares collections currently housed at the Chinsegut Hill facility. For more information about Chinsegut Hill, please visit The Friends Of Chinsegut Hill’s website.
Excavations at Fort King
Gulf Archaeology has worked at Fort King since 1994 and have been integral in the locating, interpreting,and obtaining National Historic Landmark status for the site. Fort King was a military post in present day Ocala, Florida and was established in 1827 to serve as an Indian Agency to the Seminole Indians and provide protection to the settlers. The fort was enclosed by a stockade consisting of split logs standing 20 feet high. It contained a blockhouse at one corner, two kitchens, quarters for enlisted men and officers, and storage buildings. In 1829 Camp King (as it was initially referred to) was closed as it was too difficult to get supplies to this inland fort from the port at Tampa Bay. However, escalating hostilities with the Seminole Indians lead to General Clinch reopening the fort in 1832. Throughout the Second Seminole War, Fort King played a crucial part. Through GARI’s archaeological research parts of the fort’s stockade walls have been located and plans are currently underway to re-create part of the fort as part of an exhibit for the newly created Fort King public park. More information about this venture can be found at the park’s website.
Bayport: A Civil War Naval Engagement
The Battle of Bayport occurred on April 3, 1863 at the port of Bayport, Florida, located on the Gulf of Mexico just north of the mouth of the Weeki Wachee River. Bayport was originally founded in 1842 by Major John D. Parsons, who had been awarded the land in exchange for his military service during the Second Seminole War. The town of Bayport, however, was not truly established until 1852, when Thomas H. Parsons of Cedar Key, a nephew of John D., purchased more lands in the area and other settlers, including his uncle, began to follow suit. Early in 1853, Bayport was designated as both a Port of Delivery and Port of Entry by an act of Congress, and quickly grew into an important commercial town. In addition to receiving imports, the port was also responsible for the exportation of a number of local commodities. In 1854, Bayport was formally named as the Hernando County seat. While this status was short-lived, and the seat was ultimately moved to Brooksville in 1856, Bayport’s continued significance to the area at the time is undeniable. The town’s success and strategic geographic location solidified the development of local and regional trade networks that transported commodities from the interior to the port and vice versa, leading to massive growth in Hernando County and attracting more settlers and land developers to the area throughout the 1850s. Bayport’s significance only continued to grow into the 1860s when the Civil War began. When Florida’s more significant ports of Pensacola, Tampa, and Jacksonville, were made inaccessible by the Federal blockade in the early years of the Civil War, the smaller and lesser known ports hidden along Florida’s Gulf Coast became essential to the Confederate war effort in the exportation of cattle, cotton, salt, foodstuffs, and material support. Bayport’s commercial status, coupled with its small, shallow harbor and naturally concealed position made it an obvious choice for blockade running. This enterprise, despite the numerous attempts made by the U.S. East Gulf Blockading Squadron to quash it, would continue at Bayport until the end of the war.
Unfortunately, the town and port of Bayport no longer exist as they did during the time of the Civil War. Like so many other nineteenth century Florida communities, Bayport has faded into obscurity, and all of its original landmarks and structures have been lost over time. The specific location of the original town proper, the port, and thus the battle itself, have yet to be scientifically proven. Previous related archeological studies conducted in the area have been tenuous at best, and attempts to identify evidence of the battle (most notably in the form of shipwrecks) have been unsuccessful. It is for this precise reason that this study has chosen to cast such wide net with respect to determining the project area. The project area for the study is vast, consisting of nearly 640 acres. The reasoning for this is so that we may test a number of hypotheses regarding the location of the battle. We will not discount outright previous research in the area, but neither will we rely solely upon it. This study will develop a field strategy that takes into account prior work, but is based primarily upon in-depth historical research, natural history research, and landscape analysis. In terms of historical research, careful analysis of historic land and tax records, plat and survey maps, and local oral histories will be necessary in targeting survey coverage to identify the specific location of the historic port and battle.
However, simply identifying and recording the location of the battle will not be sufficient. The current project will compile all extant primary and secondary resources identified through literature searches in order to create an in depth historic context for the Battle of Bayport. This research will help us to define Bayport’s nature as a commercial town and port within the context of mid-nineteenth century Florida, thus enabling us to determine Bayport’s significance to the Confederate war effort and it’s response to the Union Blockade of the Confederacy’s Gulf Coast. The Battle of Bayport is significant in that it exposed the vulnerability of the Confederacy’s undermanned coastal facilities to Union blockading forces, and interrupted the ability of the Confederacy to work with its contraband partners, making the port a liability with respect to contraband shipments. In order to more fully understand Bayport’s position within this context, every effort will be made to identify archival sources in the U.S. or Great Britain containing possible historic records or personal correspondence pertaining to: public and/or military officials associated with blockade running during the Civil War; foreign or domestic shipping, or ship-building companies associated with blockade running during the Civil War; and captain or crew members of blockade running vessels during the Civil War.
In addition, specific analysis of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies, U.S. Coastal Survey Reports, and various other historical documents and maps will allow us to better understand the movements and motivations of both the blockaders and the blockade runners at and around Bayport near the time of the battle. These data along with information about tides, sea level, and weather conditions at the time of the battle will enable us to produce a concise, hour by hour account of the battle which will be essential for the military terrain analysis (KOCOA) and mapping of the site.
Historical Research
Historical Research
Aside from archaeological research, we frequently conduct archival research. Currently our grant from the American Battlefield Protection Program involves a fair bit of archival research relating to the Battles of the Withlacoochee. We will be traveling to various local, state, and national archives. We utilize a variety of documentary sources from diaries, letters, general orders, military documents such as post returns, maps, newspapers, and documents on microfilm.
If you have a project in need of archival research or assistance with your research please contact us so we can discuss how we may be of service.
Prehistoric Research
Prehistoric Research
The GARI Prehistory program division functions to provide general level to complex investigations of Florida prehistory. Over the past 20 years GARI has conducted research within the St. Johns River and coastal south Florida and within the West Central Gulf Coast of Florida and the Big Bend Region. Research focuses on the rise of complex culture within a variety of ecological contexts and seeks to integrate natural and physical sciences with archaeology. The institute utilizes natural history, sediment and geomorphological studies to inform on the nature and extent of potential surviving cultural landscapes and employ diverse methods to locate, identify, and evaluate such contexts.
Our goal is the elevation of significant sites to the National Register of Historic Places and to National Historic Landmark status. Much of the Institute’s work includes the study of highly disturbed cultural contexts perceived to have little value. To this end the Institute has focused on urban renewed lands and coastal contexts savaged by surge and natural impacts. Our research is highly informative to the study of climate change and sea level changes over time and the need to evaluate future impacted sites and properties. Our yearly re-survey of previously surveyed coastal tracts and analysis of ecological changes allows for reporting on site types and contexts that are truly threatened so that management action may schedule protection according to need. Our Drowning of Prehistory program provides a rapid midden assessment program that will provide optimum management planning for coastal cultural resources. GARI maintains the personnel and equipment necessary to conduct every level of archaeological work from general level survey to complex data recovery in dry or wet contexts through conservation of materials and their interpretation.
Drowning of Prehistory-A Monitoring Plan for the Coastal
Prehistoric Archaeological Resources from the Ozello Archipelago
to the Withlacoochee River Delta, Citrus County, Florida
The Drowning of Prehistory monitoring program is primarily concerned with the problem of survivability of the prehistoric archaeological sediment bodies within the drowning coastal marshes and the resilience of the archaeological interpretability of these anthropogenic resources. It recognizes that the archaeological system is an unstable, nonequilibrium system, with sites facing punctuated decay trajectories, whereby the effects of fast perturbations overwhelms or reinforces the prior and ongoing effects of slower disturbance mechanisms, leading to further degradation of site physiognomy and structure. Approaching the above problem requires a combination of landscape ecology, geomorphic, and archaeological spatial- or process-oriented methods to identify and assess indicators of resource condition (e.g., sea-level change, marsh mosaic landscape patterns, and forest retreat) at the scale of kilometers and seek generalizations concerning how maturing marsh and archaeological resource systems respond to a suite of fast and slow, environmental and anthropogenic stressors. It also requires extensive, small-scale studies of a range of sites in variable states and habitat settings involving geoarchaeological and ecological fieldwork and monitoring aimed at gathering modern process data in order to demonstrate how site physiognomy and structure and its associated habitat are actually being weathered and degraded. The Drowning of Prehistory monitoring program provides a means to begin fulfilling these requirements. Being able to recognize landscape- and patch-level signs of stress in the marsh system and predict what they mean in terms of archaeological resource persistence will greatly improve management and salvage archaeology action strategies.
The project area includes state-owned coastal marsh lands and outer islands in the Gulf from the Ozello archipelago to the mouth of the Withlacoochee River, Citrus County (latitude N28 50 42.0 to N29 00 03.4) (Figure 1). This approximate 18 km section of the coast includes over 180 recorded prehistoric archaeological sites and probably numerous others that haven’t yet been detected. Many of these sites were recorded by GARI fieldworkers during reconnaissance surveys across 3,600 hectares (8,900 acres) of state-owned lands in the Ozello archipelago, Salt River inter-islands, the north bank of the Crystal River, the South Withlacoochee tract, and the Withlacoochee delta coastal resource zone between 2004 and 2007 (see Literature Review of major surveys in the project area). The sites range from small, simple food processing stations to multi-family hamlets to large villages and major ceremonial centers. The zero-energy, sedimentstarved coast is currently drowning under a regime of rising sea-levels and the physical conditions of the recorded sites are rapidly deteriorating. The archaeological system – as a system of anthropogenic sediments that hold potential information about past aboriginal lifeways – has reached a critical state because archaeological practice and interpretation is not and cannot keep pace with the loss of information under the current regime. So many of the sites have already been degraded or wholly destroyed by natural and cultural stressors that local- to regional-scale archaeological signatures of past coastal cultural systems are becoming more and more fragmented, if not totally unrecognizable and interpretation is becoming severely constrained.
Environmental Research
Environmental Research
In addition to cultural research we also perform a wide variety of research in the fields of natural and physical sciences ranging from sea grass studies, mollusks, sedimentation, hydrological and climatology just to name a few.
Please check back again…. more information will be posted soon
Soil Sampling and Analysis
GARI utilizes an array of soil sampling and analytical methods to establish contextual backgrounds for both archaeological and non-archaeological projects. The scope of soil study ranges from the notation of basic baseline sedimentary data to broad geomorphologic models of anthropogenic and natural landscape transformation.
In many cases, shallow stratigraphic control is developed through the use of open faced soil probes along linear transects. This method provides a description of pedogenesis and horizonation on standard variables including color, structure, consistency, texture, and boundaries. For projects where more sedimentary data are necessary, we specialize in sample collection using vibracoring devices. GARI employs custom-built pneumatic machines to collect samples in clear polyvinyl tubes. Operated by compressed air, vibracorers are particularly useful for sampling in difficult to access areas such as marshes and rivers. The coring machines are lubricated using vegetable oil making them ecologically friendly for sampling in underwater conditions. We possess extensive experience coring in terrestrial, riparian, estuarine, and marine environments.
Back in the lab we can apply a variety of techniques to address the specific units of analysis for each project. Available tests include: organic content, carbonate percentage, porosity, grain size, roundedness, and staining. GARI can also prepare soil samples to be sent for AMS radiocarbon dating or pollen analysis. Furthermore, we are always interested in refining existing methods and applying new methods for hypothesis testing and model development.
Mollusk-Sediment-Seagrass Study
GARI received a grant from the Felburn Foundation, and has partnered with the Florida Coastal Office of the Department of Environmental Protection, to study the mollusks and sediments from seagrass habitats within the St. Martins Marsh Aquatic Preserve.
Seagrass communities are vital to the health of the estuaries and are one of the most biologically productive natural communities. Seagrass habitats and adjacent coastal marshes in the Big Bend Region of Florida support economically important commercial and recreational fishing industries and also provide critical habitat for many threatened and endangered species. Approximately seventy percent of Florida’s recreational marine fish species depend on the seagrass community at some stage of their lives. There are five different types of seagrass found within the Aquatic Preserve: manatee grass, shoal grass, star grass, turtle grass, and widgeon grass. Epiphytic algae and invertebrates adhere to the seagrass leaf blades. The seagrass and their epiphytes serve as important food sources for manatees, marine turtles, and many fish species. The seagrass communities also serve as shelter or nursery areas for many invertebrate and fish species. Depending on the species, mollusks such as gastropod snails and bivalve clams snails utilize the seagrass habits and/or their associated sediments. Some mollusk species live on the seagrass, or on top of the sediment, or they can burrow into the sediments that support the seagrass habitats.
Knowledge about the molluscan species composition from seagrass habitats and their sediments, the relationship between the various seagrass species, and growing environment, and sediments, is deficient across the vast Big Bend Region of shallow Gulf Waters. The purpose of the pilot study in the St. Martins Marsh Aquatic Preserve is to provide new information about the molluscan fauna of the seagrass habitats, benthic environment, and the sedimentology of the environments that support various seagrass communities and the mollusks that depend on them. A mollusk species list from the seagrass habitats will be a valuable tool, and the information derived from this study will be useful for the long term management of the seagrass resource and for evaluation of impacts to seagrass communities.
GARI and FCO staff have collected numerous mollusk and sediment samples from established seagrass monitoring sites in the St. Martins Marsh Aquatic Preserve. These samples are currently being processed at the GARI laboratory. Identification of the mollusks is underway and the taxonomic work has revealed that there are many species present.
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