1. Archaeological Research on Food and
Community at Weedon Island, FL
Olajumoke Jegede, Jessica Foster, Kevin Weimer, Christina Perry Sampson
Abstract
The Weedon Island site in St. Petersburg, Florida is one of the
few places with an abundance of archeological information about
early Safety Harbor period communities. There is generally a lack
of knowledge about community practices, including the
organization of subsistence activities, during this time period.
This study of excavated material from the Weedon Island site will
provide more information about these practices. Specifically, the
project's goal is to determine how the already established systems
may have been altered by the introduction of other practices from
other communities. In addition, this study is questioning how
these new practices may have changed the surrounding social and
political outlook. An abundance of shell and bone was recovered
after conducting a magnetic survey and excavations at multiple
areas at the Weedon site. Artifacts, bones, and mollusk shells
were excavated, processed and brought to the study’s lab. There,
the shells and bones were sorted by species (e.g. lightning whelk,
crown conch, etc.), counted, weighed, and bagged for curation.
Because this study is an ongoing, the results are preliminary. The
results presented here demonstrate variation in the food remains
deposited around the site and show how multiple factors
contributed to the formation of the site's shell middens.
Introduction
This research aims to assess the subsistence practices of the people
inhabiting the Weedon Island site in Petersburg, Florida on Tampa
Bay during the Safety Harbor period. This time period dates
between A.D. 1000-1300. During this time period, the region was
undergoing a lot of change which could have led to new community
organization, new relations with other groups of people outside the
area to trade with, and new mounds being built. Since the site is
surrounded by water, the community that inhabited the area used a
lot of aquatic resources, which we can look at now to help develop
patterns leading to conclusions about the site. We are assessing how
the community at the time was organized and what their daily life
was like.
Materials and Methods
Samples of shell midden were collected during excavation at the
Weedon Island Site in Florida in 2014-2015. Excavations were
conducted by trowel in stratigraphic levels of up to 10cm, within
excavation units that ranged from 1x1m to 2x2m of area. All
excavated material was screened through 1/8” mesh in the field, to
remove soils and sediments from the samples. Midden materials
as well as larger artifacts were brought back to the lab.
The larger artifacts and bone were placed in separate bags to be
brushed and washed. The other bags were sorted individually
based on location. Smaller shell, bone, clay, etc. were normally in
these bags. Shells were sorted by shell type: unidentified large
gastropods, unidentified small gastropods, oysters,etc. Bone,
seeds, and other non-shell items were separated from the shell in
their own categories. The materials were then bagged and weighed
and the numbers were put on an excel spreadsheet for later data
analysis.
Research Questions
Did people eat and deposit different types of food at different areas of the site?
What factors contributed to the formation of shell midden deposits at the site?
Discussion
• Safety Harbor people at Weedon Island ate and deposited
different proportions of their main food resources at different
areas of the site.
• Patterns across the site may be due to the way the community
was set up or to changes over time.
• Because the majority of the areas had the highest quantity of
Eastern oyster and only specific areas on the site differed
from this pattern, it may be that this was caused by seasonal
availability or harvesting in different areas.
• Proportions of bone varied possibly due to an event where an
abundance of terrestrial foods/fish was preferred.
• Midden formation at the site was influenced by multiple
factors, including human behavior and the environment.
• Patterns in iron concretion vs. bone and barnacles vs. oyster
are examples of how midden formations could be influenced
by factors other than the behavior of past people.
• Iron concretion and barnacles quantities may have been
affected by local geology and ecology respectively. For
example for iron, by the meat content of deposits. For
barnacles, by the water temperature or salinity.
Conclusion
The lab work and analysis of the data is still being conducted.
Right now, it is evident the proportions of different food resources
varied around the site. Future research including radiocarbon
dating, seasonality analysis, and the analysis of artifacts will offer
more information for interpretation of the site. One of the major
questions remaining is determining if deposits are contemporaneous
with each other or were created over a longer period of time.
References
Mitchem, Jeffrey M. 2012 Safety Harbor: Mississippian Influence in the Circum-
Tampa Bay Region. In Late Prehistoric Florida: Archaeology at the Edge of the
Mississippian World, edited by Keith Ashley and Nancy Marie White, pp. 172-185.
University Press of Florida, Gainesville.
Weisman, Brent R., Jonathon Dean, Matthew O'Brien, and Lori Collins. 2005
Comprehensive Cultural Resource Survey of the Weedon Island Preserve, Pinellas
County, Florida. Report on file with University of South Florida.
MNI is the minimum number of individual shellfish of a given
species. Since both right and left halves of oysters were
counted, the MNI is half the total number of oyster valves since
each oyster is composed of a left and right side. The proportions
of the most common large, edible shellfish remains vary across
the site. The Eastern Oyster is the species most common among
the different areas. In these areas the MNI is generally greatest
of the Eastern Oyster. Site area 4, 5, and Block D and Unit T of
site area 3 seem to have followed a different pattern. In those
areas the Lightning Whelk is the most prominent species,
especially in site are 4 where the MNI of Lightning Whelk is far
higher than any other species in any other site.
Results
Barnacle weight is influenced more by the quantity of oyster than by the
total quantity of shell. In the graphs of data of Barnacle weight vs total
shell weight and barnacle weight vs oyster weight, the R-squared value
is only 0.1775 between barnacle weight vs total shell weight but is
0.3511 between barnacle weight vs oyster weight. This means that
barnacle weight and oyster weight have a stronger positive correlation
relative to total shell weight. Though this correlation between barnacle
weight and oyster weight is stronger than barnacle weight vs total shell
weight, neither total shell weight nor oyster weight have a very strong
correlation with barnacle weight.
The R2 value is very low (0.0033)
which indicates a low correlation
between the bone and iron by
weight. There must be other
factors that better explain the
variation in iron concretion weight
of deposits.
The ratio of bone to shell by site area is the highest in Area 1 (0.2) and
Area 5 (0.34). Areas 2,3, and 4 have ratios that are a lot lower (more than
double) than Areas 1 and 5. By Unit/Block, the bone to shell ratios are
the highest in Unit D (0.15) and Unit V (0.34). The rest of the
Units/Blocks have ratios that are significantly lower than Unit D and
Unit V, with an average around 0.02.
For Units A-H, Unit R, and Block D North, the
sum of the oyster weight was larger than the sum
of all of the large gastropod weight. This was
more common in Area 1 than the rest of the
Areas. For Unit I, Unit T, Block C, and Unit V
the sum of all the large gastropods weight was
larger than the sum of the oysters.
Ccrested oyster only appear in Unit A, C, I,
R, Block D North, and T. When crested
oyster did appear there were relatively low
amounts compared to eastern oyster MNI.
Edible Large Shellfish Distribution
Ratio of Bone to Shell by Excavation Unit
Eastern Oyster and Crested Oyster MNI Oyster vs Gastropod Shell Weight
Ratio of Iron Concretion
to Bone
Barnacle Weight vs Shell and Oyster Weight
Map showing the location of Weedon Island, FL
Excavation areas at Weedon Island