Coastal subsistence and platform mound feasting on Florida’s northern Gulf Coast

Abstract

Platform mounds during the Woodland period (ca. 200 BCE to 600 CE) of the American Southeast were integrative structures that included elevated stages for communal food consumption (feasting). While this pattern appears consistent across inland mound sites, food remains from contemporaneous coastal platform mounds have not been adequately studied and the activities associated with these monuments are poorly understood. To address this lacuna, we present results of zooarchaeological analysis of assemblages from a platform (Mound II) and contemporaneous domestic midden at the Garden Patch site, a civic-ceremonial center on the northern Gulf coast of peninsular Florida. One difficulty arising from the coastal context comes from the building material used to construct mounds, which often included redeposited midden originally associated with daily refuse. Our study navigates this difficulty through multiple lines of evidence showing that mound constituents include remains from special events that occurred mostly during the winter. The faunal assemblage from the platform mound is broadly similar to the midden except in the prevalence of toadfish (Opsanus sp.) and in the high diversity of migratory birds. Different proportions of these fauna in each context may reflect seasonal availability, preferences for particular taxa at feasts, or both. Ultimately, the feasts at coastal platform mounds appear to have been the maritime version of their inland counterparts, supplied with local foods at particular times of the year.