First Floridians and Last Mastodons: The Page-Ladson Site in the Aucilla River (Topics in Geobiology, 26)

This book reveals the remarkable wealth of prehistoric evidence recovered during twenty years delving into an ancient sinkhole in the remote swamps of north Florida. The authors describe the new methods of precise underwater excavations by which they survived hurricanes and worked in dark water. The deepest strata produced powerful evidence of the first Floridians, some 14,000 years ago, butchering tusks from American Mastodon in order to manufacture at least nine kinds of ivory tools. They also utilized at least a dozen other large terrestrial species of the late Ice Ages. Clever studies of stable isotopes tell that the Mastodons migrated north out of Florida into glacial terrain during the winter and spring. They also show which of the megafauna were browsers and which grazers. Digesta of the Mastodon display their rich summer diet and also contain steroids and epithelial cells. Pollen studies and sediments trace the environmental history of the region through eight millenia beginning more than 14,000 years ago. This book presents the multidisciplinary results of an extensive underwater excavation in north Florida which yields the most complete results of interactions between early Paleoindians and late Pleisene megafauna, especially Mammut americanum (American Mastodon), in a rich environmental context in eastern North America. It provides fundamental insights into two urgent issues: "The Peopling of the Americas"; and "The Extinction of the Megafauna". The authors describe and illustrate their unique methods of precise underwater excavations. They show how these techniques allowed them to collect a diversity of zoological, botanical and cultural material with outstanding organic preservation. This wealth of prehistoric evidence was recovered during twenty years of delving into an ancient sinkhole in the bottom of the Aucilla River. The nearly continuous sequence of fine-grained sediments, with an abundance of carbon dates, place the climatic and environmental history of this area in a global context of late glacial climatic cycles. The deepest strata produce clear evidence that the first Floridians lived and hunted here some 14,000 years ago, indicating that this southeastern culture preceded classic Clovis culture in western North America. Clever studies of stable isotopes tell that the Mastodons migrated north out of Florida into glacial terrain during the winter and spring and their digesta, which also contain steroids and epithelial cells, display a rich summer diet. The last section of the book provides a wealth of new evidence from the early Holocene about the flora and climate and how early Archaic people subsisted after the megafauna became extinct. An excellent color photo section expresses the unique setting and adventure of this project, extensively supported by National Geographic Society. "A monument of interdisciplinary scientific analysis and reporting, and absolutely essential reading for anyone interested in the early human settlement of the Americas." David G. Anderson, Department of Anthropology, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA. "An excellent array of interdisciplinary studies conducted at an important site offering new and exciting clues on the origins of the First Americans" Dr. Stanford, Department of Archeology, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA Over the last 20 years the Aucilla River Prehistory Project has been one of the most f- cinating stories unfolding in Florida. This project, uncovering the remains of plants and animals from the end of the last Ice Age and the beginning of Florida’s human oc- pation, is answering questions important to the entire western hemisphere. Questions such as when did people first arrive in the Americas? Were these newcomer scavengers or skillful hunters? Could they have contributed to the extinction of the great Ice Age beasts – animals such as elephants – that were creatures native to Florida for the pre- ous million or so years? And how did these first Florida people survive 12,000 years ago at a time when sea level was so low that this peninsula was double its present size, sprawling hugely into the warm waters of the Caribbean? Much of Florida at that time was almost desert. Fresh water – for both man and beast – was hard to find. The lower reaches of today’s Aucilla River are spellbinding. Under canopies of oak and cypress, the tea-colored water moves slowly toward the Gulf of Mexico, sometimes sinking out of sight into ancient drowned caves and then welling up again a few feet or a few miles downstream. Along the river bottom, the remains of long extinct animals and Florida’s earliest people lie entombed in orderly layers of peat, sand, and clay.

This book presents the multidisciplinary results of an extensive underwater excavation in north Florida. This yielded the most complete results of interactions between early Paleoindians and late Pleisene megafauna, in a rich environmental context in eastern North America. The data provides fundamental insights into "the Peopling of the Americas" and "The Extinction of the Megafauna". An excellent color photo section expresses the uniqueness of this project.

Presents the multidisciplinary results of underwater excavation in north Florida which yields the results of interactions between early Paleoindians and late Pleistocene megafauna. This book provides fundamental insights into two urgent issues: "The Peopling of the Americas"; and "The Extinction of the Megafauna."