Middens And Mounds

Middens And Mounds. . , Prehistoric Garbage Piles , The Native Americans that lived here for thousands of years are known only from the middens and mounds they left behind. Imagine if there were no big trucks to haul your garbage away. What if you simply tossed your trash into the backyard? Over time, you would create what archaeologists call a midden. What would your midden be made of? The Marineland Midden, first described in 1885, was 15 feet high. It contained layers of shell, broken pottery, and “bones of fish and fowl, of turtle, alligator and deer.”, Today, the ancient shell heaps are mostly gone. Many were destroyed when the shell was mined for roadfill., Respecting The Dead , Mounds of sand and shell were used for burials. Native Floridians began to build mounds to bury their dead about 1500 years ago. The Benton Mound in Flagler County contained the remains of 7 to 9 people. Their ages were between 4 and 30. A young child was buried in a deep central pit, then covered with sand. Archaeologists studying the mound discovered a quartz crystal, a shell dipper, and a pot. They also found pieces of at least 15 pots scattered within the mound., In January 1998, Independent Florida Seminole Bobby Billie reburied the remains of a Native American. The bones had been accidentally unearthed in a parking lot area. This spot was once the site of a prehistoric burial mound., Archaeological sites are protected by federal and state laws. In Florida, Chapter 872, Florida Statutes, protects human burials on public and private property. Help protect unmarked human burial sites by reporting them to the State Archaeologist at 850-487-2299.